Climate Questions: Why do small degrees of warming matter?

By SETH BORENSTEIN and DANA BELTAJI
Associated Press

Nations around the world are trying to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, with the world already having warmed at least 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) since then. These small degrees and fractions of a degree represent a global average of warming, which obscures the extremes happening in some parts of the world that they also represent. As the planet warms, scientists say that climate-related catastrophes will get more and more frequent. Already, the world has seen devastating heat waves, floods and storms exacerbated by climate change.