CNN columnist John D. Sutter has been slated to cover global warming for the rest of the year, according to an editor's note on CNN.com.

His focus will be on "a tiny number" -- two degrees -- and he says, "It may be the most important number you've never heard of."

Sutter explains why that number is so significant:

If we humans warm the world more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), we greatly up the odds of climate catastrophes. Think super droughts, rising seas, mass extinctions and acidifying oceans. We don't want to cross that mark.

That mark, Sutter says, isn't a definitive number -- "we don't know the world will fall into crisis at exactly two degrees" -- but simply a range that is "certainly dangerous." Sutter adds, "Two degrees, then, is our most educated estimate."

As he covers global warming, Sutter is looking to the public to drive the story by submitting questions for him to investigate. As he states, "Editors shouldn't get all the control. You, the audience, have a vital say, too."

Based on a Facebook chat conducted on Friday, CNN began a poll to determine which element of the story Sutter will cover first. With five topics ranging from melting ice, rising seas, mega droughts, and dead crops, "bye-bye animals" is currently the winning topic to uncover which species will die first after the Earth experiences its two-degree Celsius increase.

Sutter's findings will begin in May:

I think of this kind of like non-fiction improv: You throw out the prompts, and I'll go out there looking for the most interesting and informative story. It's an experiment, to be sure. And it scares the hell out of me. But climate change is a topic so big -- so critical to the future of our planet and humanity species -- that we've gotta be in this together.