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Image by Patrick Hendry.

Climate warnings

With the exception of fossil fuel beneficiaries, most of the leaders of the world are taking climate change, if not seriously, at least under advisement. They observe the effects of higher temperatures, increasing destructive forest fires, rising sea water levels, thunderstorms, and more difficulties in raising food and catching fish.

The UN Panel on Climate Change informed the world leaders in 2018 that things are going from bad to worse. Some weather and climate extremes mirror temperatures in the range of 1.5Celsius above the pre-industrial age temperature (1850-1900).

In its State of the Global Climate 2020 report, the World Meteorological Organization was more dismal in its conclusions, though the study itself is a model of science: building on the investigations of previous scientific studies, examining the evidence carefully, and asking other scientists to evaluate the reliability of the findings. The State of the Global Climate 2020 reflects good science.

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Evaggelos Vallianatos, Ph.D., studied history and biology at the University of Illinois; earned his Ph.D. in Greek and European history at the University of Wisconsin; did postdoctoral studies in the history of science at Harvard. He worked on Capitol Hill and the US EPA; taught at several universities and authored several books, including The Antikythera Mechanism: The Story Behind the Genius of the Greek Computer and its Demise. He is the author of Earth on Fire: Brewing Plagues and Climate Chaos in Our Backyards, forthcoming by World Scientific, Spring 2025.