WHERE we STAND

the images of climate change seem straight out of a Hollywood sci-fi: raging bushfires that eat a football field per second; floods that flush away whole towns; skies so heavy with pollution that children wear masks to step outside. Except that it’s all true. How did we get here? Via progress, ironically. For every marvel industrialised life has given us – the ability to mass-produce clothing; to fly to India in a day; to get shampoo mailed to our house in 24 hours — it has exacted a cruel price. The world is now one degree warmer than it was pre-industrialisation. That may sound incremental, but the results are potentially catastrophic. Sea levels are rising, the temperature and acidity of the oceans are increasing and our ability to grow life-sustaining crops such as wheat, rice and corn is compromised. Globally, we are on track to raise the temperature at least two more degrees by the end of this century, and that’s only the best-case scenario.

If these