Hot Stuff!

One of the reasons why I am not optimistic about our chances of turning around rampant climate change, is encapsulated in the temperature figures for 2020 (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/08/climate-crisis-experts-2020-joint-hottest-year-ever-recorded). In spite of world-wide lockdowns for most of that time (there was a 7% reduction in fossil fuel burning), it proved to be the joint hottest year on record. The record is shared with 2016 but that year had an El Nino event that always boosts temperatures. 2020 had wildfires in the Arctic (as well as in Australia and the US). In that year, there were also almost 30 tropical storms in the Atlantic. The average temperature in 2020 was actually 1.25 degrees Centigrade above pre-industrial levels (when humans started their mass use of coal, oil and gas to drive or factories and our vehicles). This is dangerously close to the guessimated 'safe' target (before things get really bad?) of 1.5 degrees Centigrade. If a major change forced on our behaviour (the pandemic put lots of industrial processes on hold and disrupted much of air travel), resulted in average world temperatures continuing to climb, we are really up against it!