As the planet reels from unprecedented
heatwaves, floods, wildfires and droughts, you may be feeling a rising
sense of unease or even panic.
My own “Oh Shit!” moment
came in early 2009, two years after I began writing on the science and
geopolitics of climate change for Agence France-Presse. I had reported
on scores of peer-reviewed studies, talked to scientists, attended UN
climate summits, and interviewed Pacific islanders whose tiny nations
were sinking beneath the waves. But the knee-buckling realisation that
unchecked global warming would upend civilisation had not yet hit me in
the gut and left me gasping for air.
That sucker-punch came at a conference in
Oxford where a wide range of experts were asked to imagine a planet that
had warmed four degrees Celsius. The tableau that emerged was a waking
nightmare. It left me feeling as if I were in possession of terrifying
knowledge that others somehow failed to see.
Watching the world burn: As the planet reels from unprecedented
heatwaves, floods, wildfires and droughts, you may be feeling a rising
sense of unease or even panic. My own “Oh Shit!” moment
came in early 2009, two years after I began writing on the science and
geopolitics of climate change for Agence France-Presse. I had reported
on scores of peer-reviewed studies, talked to scientists, attended UN
climate summits, and interviewed Pacific islanders whose tiny nations
were sinking beneath the waves. But the knee-buckling realisation that
unchecked global warming would upend civilisation had not yet hit me in
the gut and left me gasping for air. That sucker-punch came at a conference in
Oxford where a wide range of experts were asked to imagine a planet that
had warmed four degrees Celsius. The tableau that emerged was a waking
nightmare. It left me feeling as if I were in possession of terrifying
knowledge that others somehow failed to see.Read More