We have passed the point of no return and can expect a future in which lethal heatwaves and temperatures in excess of 50C (120F) are common in the tropics where summers at temperate latitudes will invariably be baking hot, and where our oceans are destined to become warm and acidic. The crucial point, he argues, is that there is now no chance of us avoiding a perilous, all-pervasive climate breakdown. Now we are going to pay the price for our complacency in the form of storms, floods, droughts, and heatwaves that will easily surpass current extremes.
The Guardian says the book makes it abundantly clear that we mortals have ignored explicit warnings that rising carbon emissions are dangerously heating the Earth. In his latest book, Hothouse Earth: The Climate Crisis and the Importance of Carbon Neutrality, he makes no effort to sugar coat things. But William McGuire, professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London, is not so reluctant. We hear rumblings on the internet that climate scientists are reluctant to share their private concerns with the general public for fear of causing widespread panic. Just another day on the late great planet Earth. Massive droughts making access to fresh water impossible for hundreds of millions.
Flash flooding in…well, just about anywhere you can think of. 1000-year-old Sequoias being burned like matchsticks in California. What does a climate catastrophe look like? Day time temperatures of 140C or more in India.