Only 1 degree huh? And that's not significant? Actually it's closer to 1.5 degrees!
Global average temperatures over the last 10,000 years has not varied by more than 1.8 degrees- so we've seen much more variation over the last 100 years than the last 10k.
Bare in mind if you don't think a degree makes a difference... the global mean temperature was only 5degrees farenheit lower that it is now during the last ice-age where the entire North Eastern US was 3000ft below ice.
The thing is that the temperatures measured are not 1 degree everywhere- places that are already hot get even hotter. Many places in the world have gone up 6 or 7F over the last century. A degree change can make huge changes to weather patterns... the increase has already seen more hurricanes- although ironically as temperatures go even higher we'll start to see fewer again.
If estimates are to be believed- we're likely to be trippling that raise in temperature over the next century as the built up effect accelerates... most estimates so far in tracking this have actually been TOOOO conservative and temperatures have gone up quick than expected.
Most estimates also don't take into account the effects of us preventing global dimming that has been a major factor in preventing global warmnig getting out of hand.
A 2 or 3 degree increase over the next century as predicted would mean for those of us in the US- we can say good bye to being a food exporter- we'll have to start importing our grains from Canada in the future. "Tropical" diseases such as malaria will be a factor in the US.
So that "oh-so insignificant degree or two" is actually a fairly big deal.
