–5°C, when the world was in an Ice Age

Inspiration/Source: Podcast Maker, interview with Maud Caillaux

Back in the Ice Age, the world was just 5°C colder than it was in 1990.

When I first heard that, I was floored.
In Europe, the average global temperature was only 5°C lower than in 1990… yet there were kilometres of ice across the continent (up to 3,000 meters]!!) .
A massive ice sheet stretching from Ireland all the way to eastern Russia (6,600,000 km²~).

We often hear

“A 2.5°C rise could be dramatic.”

I’d heard it too. But I never really fully grasped what that meant.

In my head, +2.5°C just meant warmer summers: 28–30°C instead of 26–28°C.
Not so bad, right?

But the reality is nothing like that.

If –5°C was enough to plunge us into an Ice Age, imagine what +2.5°C could do to the world we live in now.

P.S. Today’s headlines might already give you an hint: record temperatures, raging wildfires, floods and melting glaciers destryoing villages.

P.P.S. According to the World Meteorological Organization WMO , global average temperatures are expected to remain near record-high levels for the next five years (2025-2029), with an 86% chance of at least one year exceeding the 1.5°C pre-industrial warming threshold.