What's happening?

This year began with an ice stormA storm of freezing rain that leaves a coating of ice. that swept across the central USA and killed ten people. April unleashed heat waves that drove temperatures in southern Asia up to almost 44 degrees. For the next two months wildfires raged in Canada, and the smoke turned the sky across North America orange.

From storms in August which displacedForced to leave their homes millions to torrentialFalling rapidly and in huge quantities. rains causing flooding in September, every month this year has brought a new climate disaster event. Some people think that 2023 will go down in history as the year humanity woke up to the dangers of climate change.

These climate extremities are worrying enough on their own. But perhaps the most shocking climate disaster of the year was not even visible.

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In July, two scientists warned that the Gulf StreamA warm and swift Atlantic Ocean current that follows the eastern coastline of the US and Canada before crossing the Atlantic Ocean towards Europe. It keeps the climate of Western Europe much warmer than it would otherwise be. is slowing down and might collapse as soon as 2025. That could make temperatures there drop by 10-15 degrees.

But there is another reason why the historians of 2123 may see the year 2023 as a tipping point. Last month it was revealed that the UAEThe United Arab Emirates is a country in the Middle East, and the location of Dubai. , hosts of this year's COP28The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (known as the Conference of the Parties). global climate summit, planned to use the event to make oil deals with 15 countries.

So, some think, 2023 to future historians will be the year in which political leaders buried their heads deeper and deeper in the sand.

Yes! A lot of the effects of climate change that we have seen so far are irreversible, and even if they were reversible, it is clear that nobody is interested in changing things.

No! We can still keep heating below the catastrophic 2C figure if we quickly reduce our carbon emissions. That is the most important part.