By Alena Aranda
Everybody is highly aware how climate change is slowly becoming an irreversible damage to our world, but did you know that there’s a clock counting down the minutes we can take action before the damage actually becomes irreversible? This is called the Climate Clock. It was introduced in September of 2020 by a group of scientists and climate activists. The most popular one is located in Union Square in New York City. This is only one of five climate clocks placed globally. According to the Climate Clock movement website, as of January 16th, 2025, we only have 4 years and 186 days to act before we run out of time and our carbon budget will likely be depleted.
Carbon budget is a way of measuring the amount of carbon we can potentially burn while creating a safer climate. The goal these activists are creating is to spread the urgent word of needing to save our planet around the world. By showing a physical timer, governments, organizations and society are more on top of helping our climate stay at an average of 1.5ºC. On their website they explain that there are multiple things you can do to help complete the mission of keeping our water and land clean and protected before the damage becomes too widespread. So if you are interested in finding ways you can help at home, go to https://climateclock.world/.
Not only can climate change affect our surroundings, but it also has major effects on the human body. The human body cannot take extreme, rapid weather changes, which helps break the barrier of animal diseases, allowing them to be transmitted to humans. This process is called zoonosis.
This clock is giving us an example of how long we have to save our atmospheric conditions, and such a countdown is scaring people to stop burning fossil fuels. If the earth comes down to a moment where it is over the agreed upon 1.5°C we have lost our carbon budget and it affects everyone. It is time to stop the clock, and the way we do that is to stop our emissions.
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