In hot water

Wildfires spread across Canada. Floods deluge Italy. Droughts cause havoc in France and Spain. And it all takes place in the same week.

This may be only the start. Extreme weather events are due to become even more frequent and severe due to climate changeLong-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Human action is a major cause of climate change., experts predict. Have we missed our chance to help the planet?

Less than a decade ago, 196 countries signed the Paris agreementAn agreement signed by 196 countries to try to limit global warming.. They agreed to "pursue efforts" to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C. But this week, a report published by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has found that there is now a 66% chance that the Earth will exceed 1.5C above pre-industrial levels between now and 2027. 

The WMO report found that the Earth's average temperature has already increased by 1.1C since pre-industrial levels, and that the rate of warming is accelerating. 

This is a worrying sign. Warming of 1.5C is widely considered to be a threshold beyond which the impacts of climate change will become more severe and perhaps irreversible.

But is too much pessimismAlways expecting the worst. actually unhelpful? Some psychologists believe that scaring people into taking action is not always the best way to get them to do something. Instead, it causes anxiety - and that anxiety can sometimes lead to inaction.

Many scientists say there is still lots we can do. Technologies to reduce greenhouse gasGases in the Earth's atmosphere that trap heat, contributing to global warming. Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and water vapour are all greenhouse gases. emissions such as green energy and carbon captureTechnology which captures carbon dioxide from the air and transports it to storage sites underwater, preventing it from warming the atmosphere. are getting better. Others point out that we can focus on individual actions such as travelling less or eating less meat. 

The Italian politician Antonio Gramsci famously said that we should have "pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will". He was expressing the idea that it is important to be realistic about the challenges that we face, but that we should never give up hope.

Yes: The world has already warmed by about 1C since the Industrial RevolutionA period of sudden, rapid industrialisation that transforms a country from an agricultural to an industrial economy., and is on track to warm by an additional 1.5C. This warming is already having a significant impact on the planet.

No: It is still possible to limit global warming to 1.5C over the long term. New technologies are being developed all the time which are making this more likely. This would require a rapid and dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, but it is not impossible.

Or... Whether or not we have missed our chance to stop global warming depends on our actions in the next few years. If we take bold action to reduce emissions, then we can still avoid the worst impacts of climate change.