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Apr. 9th, 2025

The Mess is an exclusive column for one5c's top readers. By opening, clicking, and reading more than anyone else, you've unlocked an exclusive window into the not-quite-figure-out-able issues that occupy our editors’ brains.

People love to quote Shakespeare—that dude was SUPER good with words. How many times have you rolled up at the club and heard some drunk guy shouting, Hell is empty and all the devils are here! What, never? Uh, let’s try another...

How about: What’s in a name? You’ve heard that one, right?! I feel like any time I’m with friends or family and we encounter a cool-but-questionably labeled movie, restaurant, or small child, there’s a chance someone will shrug off the misalignment with that ol’ zinger from Romeo and Juliet. I’ve been tempted to invoke it myself, particularly when someone asks why I decided to call this publication one5c.

One point five is my ride-or-die.

Short answer: It’s a reference to 1.5 degrees C, the global warming tipping point. For the longer version, we have to travel a decade back in time, to Olde France of the pre-TikTok era...

...cue wavy dream sequence transition visuals...

In 2015, representatives from 196 nations gathered in Paris to figure out how to halt human-caused climate change. They came up with the creatively named Paris Agreement, which laid out plans to decarbonize the world. Central to the proposal was a goal: limit global temperature rise to no more than 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) above pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

The delegates chose 1.5 degrees because, in 2015, the goal was within reach—and of life-or-death importance. If we warm past that point, the Earth will undergo catastrophic and irreversible changes like rapidly rising sea levels and ecosystem collapse. Beyond 1.5 C, 14% of the world’s population is likely to experience dangerous heat events every five years. And yet, even 10 years ago, scientists considered it ambitious.

I understood it was a stretch in 2021, when I started and named this thing. I’m an optimist.

Though 1.5 degrees is technically still achievable, the goal has been, to quote U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, “on life support.” And, in fact, in 2024 we blew past that average temperature for the first time. Yeah, there was an El Niño event, which will always bump the mercury up a bit, but it’s still a strong indication that we’re going to miss the mark.

So why don’t I change the name of this newsletter to TwoC or SlightlyWarmer or something more realistic?

Even if there weren’t boring business reasons like brand recognition and intellectual property, I’m still here for one5c. Do you go to a party hoping to have a mediocre time? Do you play sports aiming to tie? 1.5 degrees has always been an ambitious target, and in that regard, I’ve always thought of it less as a temperature metric than as a measure of faith in humankind. This publication is about the amazing things we can do when we work together, and I think about that every time I type out our lovable little made-up word. As I said in the very first one5c email, “humans have all the skills we need to mend what we’ve broken.”

Corinne talks a lot about being “perfectly imperfect”—that is, doing what we can to make as much of a difference as possible. That’s one5c’s real goal, and scientists are consistent that “every fraction of a degree matters” and will save lives. 1.5 is better than 1.6; but 1.6 is better than 1.7…or 1.8, or 1.9.

So what’s in a name? Ambition. Hope. A reminder that, even if we can’t leave our kids the exact world we grew up in, we can leave them with the best world possible. Another thing I said in that first email, and keep repeating over and over (and over, sorry) is this: You are going to save the world. Nearly four years later, I still believe that.

Take care of yourselves—and the rest of us, too.

—Joe

Have something you want us to get into in a future edition of The Mess? Drop us a line at editors@one5c.com.

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