From May 2021

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This month perhaps marked the return of klimarealität (you heard it here first folks) after a brief flirtation among the climascenti (sorry) ... a brief flirtation with positivity.

We were regaled with news about the increasing nudity of the world’s whitest places, uncertainty about the stability of Antarctica’s über-glaciers, sweat-inducing stories from Greenland’s hitherto impregnable ice cap, and of course, more unwelcome reminders of the slow death of the montane glaciers.

News off the sea was not heartwarming either. We were troubled to hear that it’s raining harder, the Asian monsoon is changing in threatening ways, Indian Ocean cyclones are worsening, and cyclones of the midlatitudes will bring more intense rainfall. Then right on cue come the first tranche of the monsters, with young Andres           (off Mexico) brazenly making history               as “the earliest East Pacific tropical                        storm on record”.

But! Your                             favourite International Agency you’d forgotten existed (the Energy one) brightened us all by announcing the End of the World (or the beginning of the next one depending on whether you’re a dinosaur or a human). Fossil fuels, they declared, must go. Like, not just take a back seat or be a bit discreet, but GO!