Visit Plane Earth 2125

How might our world have transformed under the strain of climate change 100 years from now?

-  SCOTT DUTFIELD

A century ago, our planet was a much cooler place - around one degree Celsius cooler, to be exact. However, since the start of the Industrial Revolution in the late-18th century, Earth has been getting much hotter. The invention of fossil fuel-guzzling machines, such as internal combustion engines and steam trains, has propelled the planet into a new technological era, but has also set it on a trajectory of self-destruction. As a byproduct of early industrialisation, the atmosphere has been saturated by a global outpouring of toxic pollutants called greenhouse gases.

One of the most damaging greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide, which acts like an atmospheric blanket, wrapping Earth in its cosy embrace. In 2023, the global output for carbon dioxide was 37.4 gigatonnes, growing 1.1 per cent from the previous year. However, when the insulating carbon dioxide blanket gets too thick, many of Earth's natural processes fall out of balance, leading to extreme weather events like raging wildfires and rising sea levels - just two of the many ways climate change alters the world.

And global warming can be a vicious cycle: as a result of global temperatures rising, the world's ice and snow are melting. Since the 1900s, the rate of decline of global ice has risen by 57 per cent. This has a direct effect on our planet's ability to deflect the heat of the Sun's rays, known as the albedo effect. Light-coloured surfaces on our planet, such as snow and ice, reflect solar radiation, while dark colours absorb it, along with its heat. The less ice and snow available to reflect solar radiation, the more heat that's absorbed, which leads to further warming.