A United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report last Sunday warned of “severe, pervasive and irreversible” effects of global warming.
Global warming has already made some plants and animals extinct. It has caused rising seas and threatened food and water supplies.
Even if emissions of greenhouse gases were halted today these processes would likely continue for centuries.
The report argues that governments must eliminate fossil fuel use by 2100 and make immediate reductions.
In careful scientific language it draws attention to the failure of capitalism. It urges “transformations in economic, social, technological, and political decisions and actions”.
Scientific doubt over the need to take action over climate change has been vanishing for years.
But the capitalists and politicians seem incapable of changing course.