> Just intuitively it doesn't make sense that relatively small changes suddenly produce such disparate outcomes when they haven't to date.
Average temperature by itself is a very misleading measure, because it does not tell you anything about how much energy is being added to the system. Different substances need different amounts of energy added to raise their temperature by 1 degree, a concept called heat capacity. The amount of energy currently being added (and not radiated back into space) to the planet is staggering, and far in excess of the ability of the oceans to absorb it: https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/enso/role-ocean-...
I do not know why popular science reporting rarely mentions this.
Average temperature by itself is a very misleading measure, because it does not tell you anything about how much energy is being added to the system. Different substances need different amounts of energy added to raise their temperature by 1 degree, a concept called heat capacity. The amount of energy currently being added (and not radiated back into space) to the planet is staggering, and far in excess of the ability of the oceans to absorb it: https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/enso/role-ocean-...
I do not know why popular science reporting rarely mentions this.