German scientists are warning that global warming is accelerating, that the planet could heat by as much as 3 C over pre-industrial levels by 2050 — just 24 years from now — and that we could exceed 5 C of warming by the century’s end.
This should be top headline news. It should alarm us all. It should spur politicians to urgent action.
There’s a single figure that encapsulates our climate predicament: the amount of carbon dioxide in the sky. It is surging into treacherous new territory and the size of the surge is even more disturbing: it soared by a record amount in 2024.
It takes a lot to make Simon Donner lose his cool. The co-chair of the feds’ advisory group on climate policy has a daily practice of swimming in the Pacific and braves the frigid water all winter long. But he couldn’t bear the blather about “decarbonized oil” spilling from the first ministers’ meeting this week.
