Somewhat predictably, there's been a repost to the recent overt pessimism expressed by most climate scientists. Christiana Figueres (Head of the UN Climate Change Convention, 2010-2016) alternatively advocates 'stubborn optimism'. In one sense, she is clearly right. Simply giving up can only have one possible outcome (
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/09/climate-scientists-despair-stubborn-optimism-paris-2015-climate). So, what are Figueres' grounds for optimism? It's actually pretty 'thin gruel' (i.e. there's little to sustain belief). She says she hadn't been optimistic about getting folk to sign up to the 2015 Paris Convention. She was pleasantly surprised, when it happened. One must note, however, that it's far easier for countries to sign a piece of paper, than to make meaningful,
sustained changes to the ways in which they operate. Politicians, elected later, often feel they are not constrained by the 'pledges' of their predecessors. Figueres is also much encouraged by the growing use of solar power, to produce electricity. That's also happening. There's no sign, however, of any downturn in the release of 'greenhouse gas' emissions. Coal, oil and gas continue to be increasingly extracted and burned. Short-termism also appears to be making a global political comeback. Politicians can (and will) always play the 'standard of living/jobs' card. Wars still happen on a regular basis. Although it was awful, the lockdowns of the Covid19 pandemic, did illustrate that society could still function in a very different way. There was actually a decline in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and, in parts of the world, air pollution was much improved. Climate change, however, now seems to be 'baked in'. Its, seemingly, already 'signed the death warrants' of sections of humanity and many other species. We don't (fortunately?) know precisely who and where, yet. One thing we do know, is it's not going to be a fair process. Protecting humans from themselves seems to be the ultimate stygian task.
The UK government continue their quest to turn England's rivers back into sewers. They first facilitated the privatised water companies...
Garden plants in France, The Netherlands, The UK and Sikkim (NE India).
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Bill McGuire (Emeritus Professor of Geophysical and Climate Hazards, University College of London0 says that climate change is 'no laughing matter' (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/10/climate-crisis-is-no-laughing-matter-radio-4-today-programme). He also points out to Climate change scientists, intent on 'keeping their heads down' that there's 'no grant awarding bodies on a dead planet'.
There's an interesting account of what various increases in mean global temperatures (above Pre-Industrial levels) would broadly look like (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/11/brutal-heatwaves-submerged-cities-what-3c-world-would-look-like). A 3C world would feature, at best, 'brutal heatwaves and submerged cities'.
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