Doomed to Failure with or without U.S.

• Position: PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT

The Paris Climate Agreement of 2016, which saw 195 nations come together in the shared aim of ameliorating climate change, set forth an ambitious goal of limiting global temperature rise to less than 2[degrees]C. Since then, many have wondered, is that even scientifically possible? The odds are not looking good, and that was true even before Pres. Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the compact.

Research by Dick Startz, professor in the Department of Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, along with colleagues from the University of Washington, Seattle, suggests it is unfeasible for the world to meet the global temperature goals adopted in the agreement, and nearly unfathomable that the collective nations will exceed expectations.

The researchers used a combination of statistical, scientific, and economic data to paint a clear picture of the climate scenarios most likely by the year 2100. That picture is bleak, as their paper posits a 95% chance that global temperatures will rise by more than 2[degrees], and a less than one percent chance they will not exceed 1.5[degrees].

The team looked at statistical data from 1960-2010 and found that temperatures over the next 80 years likely will increase from 2[degrees] to 4.9[degrees], with a projected median of 3.2[degrees]. There is a 90%...