This is it - climate change is really beginning to bite

Earths atmosphere is an artificial creation of life. So far unique in the universe to the best of our knowledge/

It would be the end of this country if temperatures were as consistently hot here as they get in parts of mainland Europe and the US. They have the issue right on their doorstep.

Climate change is obvious a real disaster happening right now, but jesus the amount of whinging in this country when it gets slightly hot. It's pathetic.

I am really worried. My flat is unbearably hot. This is climate change for sure.

(Before you ask me what I am doing about it, I don't eat meat, and I don't have a car)

Too late ? What sort of talk is that. Our species didn't get where it is today by saying "It's too late" about everything.

However until the narrative shifts (no sign of that in the past half century) then the effects of the climate changing will continue to have a negative impact on human existence. And in case the really thick haven't yet got the message, nobody cares about humans. Not even humans. If anyones plan is to wait for a god or two to fix things, I have some bridges for sale.

Well life will carry on (just without us) until we reach a similar atmosphere to the one on Mars... or that's where we are headed anyway!

I am saying it's too late. We probably haven't yet reached the point of no return but it is so perilously close that we won't be able to turn things around in time to avert the danger.

Individual actions have always been a piss in the ocean. For as long as our economy, and the global economy, are based on perpetual growth, we are fucked. If you want people to stop flying then target the airline industry to stop producing aircraft and scheduling flights. If you want to stop people from driving SUVs then target the car manufacturers to stop producing them. If you want to stop people buying roses from Kenya then target the government to ban their import. Even then, this is tinkering around the edges. The changes we actually need to make are so drastic, on such a short time scale, that no country is going there voluntarily.

Even if we somehow managed to avert the worst of climate change by pulling together as a planet and finding different ways of fueling the destruction, we still need things like soil, biodiversity, healthy rivers, oceans, forests, grasslands, wetlands ... climate change is not the only environmental crisis we are facing. For as long as the destruction continues we're still fucked. And it will continue because it has been a continuous process since the neolithic. We have not lived sustainably since we invented agriculture, adopted a settled lifestyle and began to accumulate wealth.

Maybe all is not lost and one day humans will live sustainably on this planet again but there will be far, far fewer of us and I can see no way of getting there that is not thoroughly dystopian.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. Are you saying that reducing emissions of CO2 and methane won't make a difference to the increase in temperatures?

I'm not trying to 'win over' selfish and uneducated people. They won't be won over, they need to be stopped from what they are doing. Selfish people are going to be pissed off because they don't care about the rest of us. They want to continue doing what they are used to doing. And if I 'make myself cross' then that would be a small price to pay for restricting emissions and giving future generations a better future.

We berate selfish people all the time. They get pissed off. They are forced to change and society benefits.

We are currently experiencing the not uncommon feature of the Azores High, along with other countries in its path.

Nothing unusual about it. Its been around since Adam was a boy.

Maybe actually check your history. Seriously. We were born coming out of a mini ice Age, but even at that, all the uncompromised data shows no particular change in global temperatures since the forties.

It's true though. Globally, the people who will be most affected by climate change are those who did least to cause it.

Completely agree, at least in developed countries anyway.

This has got to be the worst justification for not working and contributing to society I’ve ever heard.

Yet even now there are white people who want more babies ....

I really really wouldn't worry. Nature will take care of it. She always does.

She already is.

If this goes down, even naturally and slowly through reducing birth rate we have more of a chance. It's odd that people fight against that and want policies to increase birth rate.

There’s around 7 billion more people on the planet than in 1890. That is the main issue behind a great many problems facing us today.

^ been doing most of that for decades. I’ve always done what I can, while being poor and so not having much control over energy supplies (beyond picking one - I still remember my joy when I actually got that option from a landlord and went for a green option before they were compulsory).

It is the well off who can afford SUVs and foreign holidays who have done the most damage and are continuing to do so despite having the most power over choices. Sort yourselves out! And be told!

There’s around 7 billion more people on the planet than in 1890. That is the main issue behind a great many problems facing us today.

Pessimism is such a danger because people who don't realise their own power think it's pointless to change.

But there is so much that can be done - to pull out of the worst of the crisis, in time, and to help those who need help to adapt.

We can absolutely pull together and do this. I really believe in our collective power to make things better.

Pessimism is such a danger because people who don't realise their own power think it's pointless to change.

But there is so much that can be done - to pull out of the worst of the crisis, in time, and to help those who need help to adapt.

We can absolutely pull together and do this. I really believe in our collective power to make things better.