To worry that the planet is heating faster than we have been led to expect and whether we can cope?

Same people no doubt who don’t believe in ‘experts’ or scientists ( many of who have zero vested interests) - it was the same with the Brexit ‘we hold all the cards ‘ brigade -nope, we didn’t -the BBC allowed Patrick Midford masses of airtime as head the only senior economist they could find who backed it and they work very much on ‘balanced arguments’ and even he said at the time it would screw a lot if business up and would be a very long time to bear dividends. With climate, it’s pretty obvious there’s an issue, when they are getting 30 degrees pretty regularly in Stockholm and Copenhagen in the summer when the norm was more like 21 at best!! And yet you have Americans who seemingly bang on the AC Willy nilly at 20 degrees, their gvt are making little effort ( at moment) to move away from oil and gas dependence and populations taking the mickey and moaning about any actions taken to try and slow down the issue ( not just UK by the way)

I’m with you OP, but to get yourself off the anxious ledge, have a look here at all the positive climate news:

www.dailyclimate.org/

On the positive side, it's not too late to make changes, but it needs to be internationally coordinated, and the small minded people who think it's not their problem need to actually do their part.

If we (as in society) had accepted that the climate can change way back when, and put 1% of the effort that has been expended on arguing over why into mitigating the effects, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

But we didn't. Despite the fact that every month archaeologists uncover evidence that human settlement has been directly affected by climate change - driving some of the greatest migrations in both prehistory and history.

Global warming is all about extremes sadly.
More heatwaves, more rain, more hurricanes, more flooding and on and on. I think we're screwed, it's too far gone for one generation (ours) to bring it back

Science should be and is constantly questioned, but not by assuming it's all wrong and starting again. The pace of checking and discovery has accelerated with time.

The IPCC reports are pretty comprehensive (and surprisingly readable, at least the synthesis reports and the Summary for Policymakers).
www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar6/

Musk is desperate to get his name in the history books and has more money than he knows what to do with. He doesn’t care about humanity or climate change. Nothing to do with him being ‘knowledgeable’.

It's not the heat we will need to worry about as much as the lack of food when we can't grow or import it.

And the immanent cataclysm that has been predicted since the 80's is happening. So there is that.

Who would have thought in the 80s that 40 years later the UK would be talking about air conditioners becoming the norm ?

And there is no magic tech to keep cool, because physics.

Unfortunately the people who benefit the most from actively destroying the planet can afford to live in air conditioned cocoons

Yes and no! Why is Musk so interested in Mars (which would be horrific to live on)? Even Steven Hawking was saying humans need to colonise other planets. The really knowledgable ones don't even plan on a future on earth.

(Actually i have written that and I sound like a loon...but everything I wrote is true!)

Bit of a paradox there. As demand for AC surges, this worsens global warming. AC uses massive amounts of electricity and expels waste heat into the atmosphere.

Because some actually happened and the other is a prediction? And even if the prediction of warming turns out to be correct, pinning it on human activity is a bit of a stretch considering the climate has fluctuated massively throughout Earth's history.

The Earth is a closed system. The Carbon Dioxide was always there and always will be. There has been many times in history that CO2 levels were much high than today but life prevailed.

Don't forget that when they claim 'highest temperatures since records began' means basically the last 200 years. That's nothing in meteorological terms.

Also, don't forget that science once said that the Earth was flat, the Earth was at the centre of the universe, disease was caused by bad smells and that atoms were the smallest thing possible.

Science has to be questioned constantly. Nothing is certain.

I think people are disillusioned.

You want me to wash my yoghurt pot while China, US and India are pumping out that amount of pollution?

A bit like asking people to empty some water out with thimbles while the titanic goes down.

'Every little bit helps' is a damn lie. And the fact is that the major polluters will do nothing unless forced, and nobody has the political will to do that.

Honestly you need to chill out. What is the point of living a life full of worry and stress and misery and panic over things you can’t control?

That is no life at all.

The problem is, people can not/ will not see and accept it.

Of course not, we have bloody comfortable lives. No-one wants to go back to the 90s life, let alone 70s, 50s, 1800s....

We are addicted to energy and oil. We are short-term creatures. I never thought i would feel the effects of climate change in my life time. It will only ger worse. To really scare myself, I have started reading about "Collapse". Fascinating.

The collapse of the AMOC keeps me awake at night.

2025 was the hottest year on record.

1976 is a real problem as people can't seem to get past that.

The planet will be fine, humans not so much.

This heat is humid and not like the dry heat abroad. I can enjoy holidays at higher temperatures but I can’t stand our hot sticky weather heat waves.

I am scared that things are worse than even experts, in their carefully hedged or caveated statements and predictions, cause us to believe.

As a pp said, scientists have been warning about this for decades so it hasn’t been hedged or caveated.

I also recall experts having 2050 as an estimated timeframe for significant changes. Sadly that’s only 24 years away now.

Look up Zeke Hausfather on Bluesky. He is a very good climate scientist and an amazing communicator.

Also Katharine Hayhoe.
We need to lobby and vote.
Eat less meat and dairy. Less!
China is reacting fast to climate change. We need to do the same.