“It’s Urgent,” Climate Scientist Says: We Can Limit Global Warming by Two Degrees

By Mirai Abe | November 17, 2025

Local paleoclimate scientist Mathias Vuille speaking at a Five Rivers Environmental Education Center about climate change. 

Photo Credit: Mirai Abe | The ASP

Despite efforts to limit global warming to below one and a half degrees Celsius since the Paris Agreement in 2015, the world failed to reach the goal. However, slowing down the temperature increase to below two degrees is still possible, a local paleoclimate scientist said.

“It won’t be easy, but it’s possible,” said University at Albany Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences Professor Mathias Vuille, at a talk last at Five Rivers Environmental Education Center last month about the impacts of climate change.

According to Vuille, economists say society would have to reduce fossil fuel gas emissions more than five percent every year to stay below a 2-degree increase in temperature, which creates a dilemma between industrial profits and environmental protection.

“It is very urgent, and the longer we wait with reducing our emissions, the harder it will be to achieve any specific warming limits,” said Vuille, speaking to about 30 residents attending his presentation, his second this year.  

The previous visit was as a keynote speaker for the membership meeting of Friends of Five Rivers.

During his talk this October, Vuille incorporated several historical data points into the presentation. For example, during the 20th century, the peak for the bloom of cherry blossoms was 10 to 15 days earlier than in the previous 500 years.

Vuille also presented animations visualizing climate change. In one, the amount of greenhouse gases in New York City in 2010 were pictured as green balls. The audience gasped in shock when the balls took over the city. By the end of the animation, the balls had buried it.  

Warmer temperatures, Vuille said, will create “winners” and “losers” among species, as botanists are already observing in the Alps, Rocky Mountains and the Andes. Plants that cannot move any higher in altitude to escape warmer weather will become extinct at least locally, while winners will survive by adapting to the warmer temperature or moving  northward slowly to secure their surface area.

“We need to care for our environment so that future generations, our kids and grandkids, can enjoy the same beauty and have access to the same resources, natural resources that we did,” said Vuille.