Member-only story
Fiddling While Earth Burns
In The Face Of Imminent Climate Catastrophe, We Are All The Emperor Nero.
Some big news today was that a weather station on the Italian island of Sicily has recorded a temperature of 48.8C — the highest temperature EVER recorded in Europe! This is yet more evidence (if any were needed) that we are caught up in a global climate emergency and that we need to make an urgent and concerted effort to change our ways as a species if we are to avert complete catastrophic disaster. But like the Emperor Nero, who famously fiddled while Rome burned, we seem intent on standing by and watching it happen.
Imminent Climate Catastrophe
This news came just 3 days after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report confirmed that the current climate crisis is unequivocally caused by human activity. The report also stated that it is already too late to avert a global rise in temperature of 1.5C (the ‘Danger Limit’ agreed in the Paris climate deal) and that, furthermore, there is only a very short window of opportunity — if we act right now — to avert ‘apocalyptic’ temperature rises of 4 or even 5 degrees C.
Meanwhile, the world appears to be on fire… This year has seen major wildfires around the world, including Turkey, Italy, Algeria, Canada and the USA. As I…
