The hottest January ever recorded in human history has passed, with barely a nod from governments worldwide and international media. For a full year, the Earth has now exceeded the +1.5 degrees danger level set by the Paris Agreement in 2015. And 2024 may be hotter still, US scientists are warning. Wildfires rage unchecked over Continue reading »
climate
How germs made history. Greenhouse gas emissions keep rising but USA and Europe are still the major causes of global warming. Measles and malaria banish Muhammad and Mao Move over Alexander, Attila, Genghis Khan, Hannibal, George Washington, Napoleon and all your attention-grabbing mates. We’re rolling out the red carpet for Yersinia pestis, Variola major, Continue reading »
100 Fossil Fuel CEOs directly and knowingly threaten all life on Earth. As a medical oncologist and palliative care physician I feel a strange resonance with the modern killing fields of petromachy (the oils wars), where the true enemies, behind the mephitic black liquid, are the demonically evil, amoral, virulent, cunning, banal, and totally self-obsessed Continue reading »
“… but they can be sure that they won’t be recorded for their crimes in history — because there won’t be any history” (Noam Chomsky, 2023, in a letter to the author) Extreme planetary heating, the failure of effective mitigation and the rise of denial around the world combine to lead to a seventh mass Continue reading »
Australia’s parrots are increasingly threatened. Coal, gas, wind and solar supply the world’s surging demand for electricity. Methane emissions must be reduced rapidly. Parrots in peril In 2010, the Action Plan for Australian Birds identified twelve parrots as Endangered or Critically Endangered. In 2013, Australia’s favourite birdwatcher, Sean Dooley, and Samantha Vine reviewed the state Continue reading »
The heat and extreme climate records of 2023 shocked scientists. So where are we heading? Given current trends, the world will zoom past 2°C of warming and the Paris climate goal of limiting warming to 1.5-2°C. This is the second article in a two-part series. Read the first part here. Climate model scenarios similar to Continue reading »
You’re either a climate realist or you’re a climate sceptic. You’re either pro COVID vaccines or you’re a vaccine sceptic. You either voted ‘no’ in the recent ‘indigenous voice to parliament’ or ‘yes’. On too many issues, the labels that Australians are using are confrontational. Australians are being led to see just two camps and Continue reading »
For climate change, 2023 was an “unprecedented” year, “absolutely gobsmackingly bananas” and “scary” and “frightening”. And that was what climate scientists said! The UN Secretary General called it the year in which humanity crossed into a new climate era — an age of “global boiling”. Climate disruption shocked climate scientists in 2023. “Surprising. Astounding. Staggering. Continue reading »
The science is in. The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service has overnight confirmed that 2023 was the earth’s warmest year on record: 0.16°C warmer than the previous record year (2016); 0.6°C warmer than the 1991-2020 average; 1.48°C warmer than the pre-industrial period. The report from Copernicus notes that each month from June to December Continue reading »
We have all heard that 2023 was the warmest year ever for the world, by some margin. We have heard things like this before. What, on the face of it, was worthy of huge headlines got a mention but not a great amount of attention. The IPCC and many competent authorities tell us acting resolutely Continue reading »