We’re going back to basics. In a new series of explainer articles, we’ll return to some of the key ideas and issues underlying our work to reduce the art sector’s environmental impact. This week, we’re going back to the very beginning: what is climate change?

‘Climate change’ refers to long-term changes to the world’s weather patterns and global temperatures.

Since the Earth formed 4.5 billion years ago, its climate has experienced natural shifts and changes. These have been caused by natural influences, like volcanic eruptions and changes in the Earth’s orbit.

But, since the 1800s, the Earth’s temperature has increased at a significantly faster rate. This time, human activities are driving this rapid change.

Research over the past forty years has shown that the current rapid rate of warming is caused by human activities, particularly the burning of fossil fuels: coal, oil, and gas.

Fossil fuels are burned to generate the energy that powers our modern societies. Energy is used to heat our homes, fuel our transport systems, manufacture products and materials, and power our electronic devices.

When fossil fuels burn, they release greenhouse gases: mainly carbon dioxide (CO2), but also other gases including methane and nitrous oxide. We use the term ‘carbon dioxide equivalent’ (CO2e) to refer to the single metric that includes all other greenhouse gases.

Greenhouse gases act like a ‘blanket’ over the Earth’s surface. They absorb heat radiation, trapping it in the atmosphere and keeping the Earth warmer than it would be otherwise.

The Earth can naturally remove CO2 from its atmosphere. Forests and oceans, for example, act as natural ‘carbon sinks’ that absorb and store carbon dioxide. The problem is, as we burn more and more fossil fuels, humans are releasing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than the Earth’s natural carbon cycle can remove.

This means that carbon dioxide levels are now higher than at any other time in human history.

We can measure how much CO2 in the atmosphere has increased by using a measure called parts per million (ppm). When humans started burning fossil fuels at an industrial level in the late 1800s, atmospheric CO2 was 280ppm or less. In 2022, global average carbon dioxide reached a new record high of 417ppm.

These record CO2 levels translate to record temperatures. The average temperature of the Earth’s surface is now approximately 1.1 degrees Celsius hotter than it was at the beginning of the industrial age.

As levels of CO2 increase, the planet is getting hotter, faster. The past seven years have all been the warmest years on record. July 2023 is on track to be the hottest month ever recorded.

1.1 degrees Celsius may not seem like a huge increase, but hotter temperatures destabilise the world’s ecosystems. Everything on Earth is connected, and changes in one area cause knock-on effects that impact everything else.

Higher temperatures means there’s more energy in the climate system, which means more extreme storms, droughts, floods, and other extreme weather events.

The warming climate means that certain events are both more likely to happen and to be more extreme when they do. These include:

·  Extreme weather events like storms, heatwaves, droughts, floods, and wildfires

·  Marine heatwaves

·  Ocean acidification

·  Melting ice caps and rising sea levels

·  Species extinction

·  Biodiversity loss

·  Changes in crop yields and increased food insecurity

·  Water scarcity

These events can lead to economic damage, societal unrest, and increased deaths. Everyone is affected, but some people and communities are more vulnerable than others.

The warmer the world gets, the worse the effects become.

If we continue to burn fossil fuels and emit CO2 at current levels, we could reach 4 degrees Celsius of warming by the end of the century. We don’t yet know the full impact of such an increase, but we do know that this would fundamentally reshape life on Earth.

Every degree of warming has a huge effect on the Earth’s systems, and the more we can reduce the temperature increase, the more we can limit the impacts.

All of this is why the international community has set climate targets that aim to limit the global temperature increase as much as possible.

Since the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015, climate scientists and experts are advocating for keeping the temperature rise below 1.5 degrees. This is because every fraction of a degree counts: the impact of 2 degrees Celsius of warming would be significantly more severe than 1.5 degrees.

To keep to this target, the world needs to reduce its emissions by 50% by 2030, from a 2019 baseline.

In practice, this means we all need to cut our CO2 emissions, fast. This means shifting energy systems away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy. It also means reducing how much energy we consume.

What does this mean for the visual arts?

The art world’s emissions are disproportionately high, given the size of the sector. Together we need to address the sector’s biggest impacts, including energy use, travel, and freight. GCC’s Decarbonisation Action Plan provides guidance on how to get started, while our Best Practice Guidelines and Effective Actions provide examples of concrete actions you can take to begin reducing emissions.

The world is heating rapidly, and we need to act now to limit the damage. That’s why GCC and the international visual arts community are working together to decarbonise.