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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Bill McGuire

Whether you’re a climate ‘doomer’ or ‘appeaser’, it’s best to prepare for the worst

A firefighting helicopter pours water on a forest fire in Bejis, Castellon, Spain on 17 August 2022
A firefighting helicopter pours water on a forest fire in Bejis, Castellon, Spain on 17 August 2022. Photograph: Domenech Castello/EPA

Our world is on course for a climate cataclysm. Or is it? Not long ago, the global heating battle lines were clear: you either believed it was happening, and that it resulted from the colossal volumes of carbon spewed out by human activities, or you didn’t. As the year on year breakdown of our once stable climate has become more apparent, however, denial has become increasingly irrelevant, and new battle lines are being drawn.

While widespread blistering heat, drought and wildfires have kept climate change in the public eye, they have also heightened tensions between those I call climate appeasers, who seek to minimise how bad climate breakdown will ultimately be, and others, disparagingly branded doomers (or doomists), who are honestly concerned that it may be catastrophic, perhaps even posing an existential threat to civilisation and possibly humankind itself.

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