Time is running out on the New York climate clock

Along New York City’s East 14th Street looms the foreboding Climate Clock, an art installation with the mission of catalyzing environmental change. Standing four stories tall over Union Square, this spectacle features a massive digital clock ticking down to environmental catastrophe. The screen, which spans 80 feet wide and counts downward by seconds in orange-tinted letters, is impossible to miss and often baffles unknowing onlookers. But those who know its purpose understand that it truly is “the most important number in the world.”

When the clock strikes zero, humanity will have reached the point of irreversible global climate devastation. At this time, it will be impossible to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures, inciting irrepressible heat waves, extreme storms, melting ice, and destroying ecosystems across the world.

The Climate Clock draws on projections from the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) in Berlin, Germany, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Based on these estimates, the atmosphere can absorb no more than 400 gigatons (Gt) of carbon dioxide (CO₂) without reaching a state of disaster. Using the assumed annual rate of CO₂ output of 42.2 Gt per year, the MCC calculated a shockingly close “doomsday” of 7 years and 102 days from the clock’s start on September 19, 2020.

“When the clock strikes zero, humanity will have reached the point of irreversible global climate devastation.”

Unlike a typical timer, the countdown on the Climate Clock is not set. As CO₂ outputs increase, the clock jumps ahead, and the time is shortened. Alternatively, if CO₂ output were to decrease, the time could increase, a scenario that the creators of the Climate Clock, and all those concerned with environmental reconciliation, ardently hope for.

The New York Climate Clock is not the first of its kind. Instead, this exhibit is inspired by a large culmination of separate informational displays and art installations. Efforts began with Deutsche Bank’s 2009 Carbon Counter billboard in New York and includes Friday for Future’s Berlin Carbon Clock, an LED sculpture installed on the city’s historic 260-foot-tall steel Gasometer.

In September 2019, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg called for the most ambitious carbon clock yet. The Metronome, at the time a famous functioning digital clock, became the target. The original artists Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel gave their enthusiastic approval but the mayor and building owner still had to be convinced. Months later, after tireless negotiations and programming outdated software, the Climate Clock was born. A movement was inspired. Suddenly, hundreds of synchronized portable climate clocks began to appear in cities around the world.

Beyond its physical representation in Union Square, the Climate Clock is now an educational source and a social justice initiative. The Climate Clock website outlines nine “lifelines” – initiatives aimed at slowing the clock. Drawing on research from global labs, the initiatives focus on campaigning for renewable energy, gender parity, and indigenous land sovereignty among other objectives.

As of early October 2024, the time remaining is under 4 years and 300 days. With the quantifiable date of catastrophe staring us in the face in the form of a massive digital clock, how can we continue to ignore our current trajectory? A warming increase of 1.5℃ would have disastrous consequences. Reducing CO₂ emissions is the only way to ease the catastrophe and add time to the clock.