New Yorkers looked confused as they passed the Metronome at Union Square, which was recently replaced with a new countdown clock.
The public wondered what the big numbers meant on the city’s most prominent art project, but two artists, Gan Golan and Andrew Boyd, knew the answer.
It was a symbol for the remaining time people and policymakers have to act before the effects of global warming become irreversible.
On September 20 at 3:20 p.m., the 62-foot-wide, 15-digit electronic clock displayed the message, “The Earth has a deadline,” followed by the numbers, 7:103:15:40:07. The numbers indicated the years, days, hours, minutes and seconds until the Earth reaches its carbon budget if current emissions rates are maintained.
A carbon budget is the amount of CO2 that can still be released into the atmosphere while keeping the global average temperature increase below the 1.5 °C threshold based on preindustrial levels.
On the website, climateclock.world, the artists explain the Climate Clock numbers and track how much of the world’s energy is supplied from renewable sources. The world as a whole must work to get all of its energy from renewable sources before the countdown hits 0.
The countdown is based on calculations by the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) in Berlin.
According to the MCC, the atmosphere can only absorb 420 gigatonnes (Gt) of CO2 in order to stay below the 1.5 °C threshold. Year-end 2017 statistics reveal that we emit around 42 Gt of CO2 every year, which means that we will reach 420 Gt in about nine years from 2017 or about seven years from now. We will reach the 2 °C threshold or 1170 Gt in about 26 years from now.
However, the Climate Clock is based on static CO2 emissions since 2017, but data proves that emissions are still on the rise. This means that the countdown is not a precise measurement.
Many other factors can affect the time left to reach the 1.5 °C threshold, such as climate sensitivity, global warming, and an increase of greenhouse gases.
Due to such factors, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report explains that the carbon budget is the amount of CO2 emissions for which there is a 67 percent chance of reaching the 1.5 °C threshold.
People who live in countries at lower latitudes are at a disadvantage. In fact, the temperature is currently two to three times higher in the Arctic, and a fifth of the global population currently lives in an area that has warmed up more than 1.5 °C in at least one season.
What does this mean for our environment? It means that there will be long-lasting or irreversible effects on the Earth, including the loss of some ecosystems, extreme temperatures, heavy precipitation, droughts in some regions, the loss of coastal resources, reduced food availability, and rising sea levels.
However, the introduction of mitigation investments, government policy, new climate-driven technological innovations, education, community events, and behavior change can help slow down the Climate Clock. If we reach a new green planet, it could even stop the countdown.
In order to reach a new green planet, there must be drastic and immediate changes to the transport, industry and building sector. We can create renewable fuel perhaps with the use of renewables, nuclear, carbon capture and storage (CCS) with bioenergy, and CCS with fossil fuels. The land sector can also use food waste reduction, soil sequestration, livestock and manure management, reduced deforestation, afforestation and reforestation, and responsible sourcing. These are only a few suggestions that could have an impact.
The Climate Clock was displayed at One Union Square South during Climate Week, which ends on September 27. The clock could possibly be displayed by the National Debt Clock near Bryant Park in Manhattan for the long term.