Bushfires, heatwaves and early deaths: the climate is changing before our eyes
In an exclusive extract from his new book, Atmosphere of Hope, Tim Flannery argues that recent events in Australia and around the world show how global warming is much more than a debate about scientific projections Globe Centred On Asia And Oceania, True Colour Satellite Image Photograph: Planet Observer/Getty Images/Universal Images Group W hen I wrote The Weather Makers, I laid out the state of climate science as it was understood in 2005. The book received much acclaim, but it was also criticised by climate-change sceptics as extremist and alarmist. Since the book was published, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has completed two major summaries, in the form of its fourth and fifth assessment reports, and thousands of scientific publications have added to our understanding of how Earth’s climate system responds to carbon pollution. As a result, many details of climate science have been clarified. Not only are the scientific projections of major trend...