Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Graham Readfearn

If I was feeling hopeless about the climate, what of the scientists? So I asked them

A firefighter walks towards a wildfire in California.
A firefighter walks towards a wildfire in California. Heatwaves, floods and fires have intensified around the world. So what do the climate scientists who knew what was coming decades ago think? Photograph: David Swanson/AFP/Getty Images

The longer you work on the climate change beat as a journalist, the less surprised you are when the very bad things scientists warned would happen, start to happen. Given we’re pumping carbon dioxide at record levels into the atmosphere, where it hangs around for a century or more, there’s a relentless inevitability to the whole thing.

It’s not so much that “shit happens” but that “physics happens”.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.