Metronome’s Digital Clock in Manhattan’s Union Square Is Now a Climate Crisis Countdown, Here’s What Can Happen if We Don’t Act Now!

Over the years, people living in Manhattan have always noticed the massive astronomical digital clock that tells time for passers-by in Union Square, New York City, US. And by now, you are also aware that climate change is real. We must act sooner, before we are doomed. In case you don’t, the Metronome is here to remind you of its climate crisis countdown. Yes, the public art project that was constructed in 1999, typically counts the hours, minutes and seconds in a day. But recently, artists and climate activists, Gan Golan and Andrew Boyd repurposed Metronome to address this more significant and immediate issue. The Metronome's digital clock in Manhattan’s Union Square has been turned into a climate crisis countdown, and it will remain on display, reportedly till September 27, 2020. In this article, we bring you the motive behind the climate crisis countdown and what can happen, if we do not act now. After Doomsday Glacier, Active Methane Leak Found in Antarctica's Sea Bed, Sparks Major Concern For Climate Crisis. 

The Climate Clock unveiled by artists Gan Golan, and Andrew Boyd warned that there were seven years, nearly 100 days, and a few hours, minutes and seconds left until Earth’s carbon budget is depleted, based on current emission rates. A total depletion would thrust the world into further turmoil. The display, plastered onto the side of a glass building for Climate Week, shows two numbers—the first displayed in red, is what the creators refer as a ‘deadline.’ The clock counts down how long it will take for the world to burn through its carbon budget if swift action is not taken to keep warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius. The clock’s second figure, displayed in green, is labelled as a ‘lifeline,’ and it tracks the percentage of the available energy being supplied from renewable sources.

Here's the Pic of Metronome’s Digital Clock in Manhattan

What Can Happen if We Don’t Act Now?

Before COVID-10 crashed into our world, the governments had this one major crisis to tackle, the climate crisis. In many places around the world, the air is hot, heavy, and depending on the day, clogged with particulate pollution. Your eyes are often watered, cough never seems to disappear, and you feel that you can no longer simply walk out your front door to breathe some fresh air. Because, there is hardly any! Before we begin our day, we check our phone to see what the air quality will be. Our world is getting hotter, an irreversible development now utterly beyond our control. We have already seen passed tipping points, like the great melting of Arctic Sea ice. Again, the forests are either logged or consumed by wildfires.

In 2015, by signing up to the Paris Agreement on climate change, nearly every country pledged to keep global temperatures, ‘well below’ 2C above, pre-industrial levels and to ‘pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5C.” As per climate activists, and creators Gan Golan and Andrew Boyd, we only have a few years left at our current rate of emissions before we blow the 1.5C carbon budget. We only have a few years before the planet’s carbon budget is depleted, depending on the current emission rate. If the Earth’s carbon budget is depleted, it would thrust the world into further turmoil and suffering through more flooding, more wildfires, worsening famine and extensive human displacement.

The New York climate clock will be on display until September 27, 2020. Although the artists say it may one day become a permanent fixture of the Manhattan landscape, they are now working cities around the world to install their own versions, as a reminder.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 23, 2020 02:16 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).