If you had any doubt that the central theme of the UK general election campaign should be preventing climate breakdown, three reports published within three days ought to convince you.
At the start of the week came the World Meteorological Organisation’s report for 2018 and the latest major climate report from the UN Environment Programme. They confirm that carbon emissions have risen by an average of 1.5% a year for the past decade and are 50% higher than they were at the start of the industrial revolution. They need to fall by 7.6% a year for the next decade just to keep global heating below the 1.5°C ceiling that might, just, avoid disastrous consequences. Given global attitudes, there is little prospect of even getting anywhere near that rate of reduction.
Then, third, on Wednesday came a startling article about climate ‘tipping points’ from a group of leading climate specialists. Tipping points are where positive feedback kicks in, accelerating global heating still more. For instance, water absorbs more heat from the sun than ice does. As Arctic sea ice melts, it uncovers more and more open sea, which absorbs more solar radiation – which in turn leads to faster melting of the remaining ice. “Half of the tipping points identified a decade ago are now active,” the scientists say.
