Every day, we are bombarded with messages about a world in crisis. Alongside the ongoing reminders of wars, economic recessions and social unrest is news about natural disasters and extreme weather – be that prolonged droughts, freak heatwaves and wildfires or devastating floods and landslides.
It’s possible that our growing awareness of climate issues may arise from the overreporting of negative news in a media-fuelled and hyperglobalised world. But what’s happening to our environment also appears unprecedented. Global sea levels rose two-and-a-half times faster between 2006 and 2016 than they did throughout nearly the whole 20th century, and climate-related disasters have tripled over the past three decades.
