One reason why climate change doesnt energise politicians and the public is because we describe heating in terms of temperature. Saying the world has warmed by 1.2 degrees seems like a nice pleasant weekend. Here are some other ways to describe it... (1)
We pump 1,337 tonnes of CO2 into our thin and fragile atmosphere every second... (2)
How much energy was required to heat the world by 1.2 degrees. In terms of 'Hiroshima bomb equivalents' how many bomb loads of energy have been added? Sixty, 600, 6 million or 6 billion? (3)
The answer is 6.2 billion Hiroshima bomb equivalents, measured between 1955 and 2021, or 384 terrajoules. That is more than two bomb equivalents per second. (4)
We are heading rapidly towards the 1.5 degree threshold, beyond which the world's scientists writing in the IPCC Report believe tipping points could disastrously accelerate heating leading to "an unliveable future" for our children. (5)
We cannot simply adapt to this level of heating. Every person in every region can see what is happening. We have known for 30 years that we must stop burning fossil fuels. Yet our G7 politicians, meeting today, keep kicking the can of difficult decisions down the road. (6)
Biden opens a new Willow pipeline, Sunak flies short hops around the UK in a private plane or helicopter and plans new oil exploration, Germany and Australia open new coal mines, China and India expand coal production and use, financial markets pooh pooh renewable investment. (7)
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres pleads with leaders from the sidelines, but no one listens. Governments still subsidise fossil fuels and fail to invest properly in renewables. (8)
The COP process of meetings doesn't work. Incredibly, they have never actually discussed emissions. In 2023 the meeting president will be chair of the UAE national oil company. And fossil fuel lobbyists will be the largest contingent. (9)
The late James Lovelock said not long before he died at 102. (10)
But there are many options for political action immediately to slash fossil fuel use + decarbonise. We need G7 leaders to act collectively + boldly. And the male world of financial institutions to recognize inaction will destroy the global economy sooner than they think. (11)
All of these actions are doable with bold, collective action now. Please lobby your political leaders. (12) @LancetCountdown
Whitty's excuse about upscaling testing is wrong. He should have set up an advisory group to get this moving from day one. The excuses about lack of infrastructure compared with S Korea is a retrospective excuse and misleading. (1) THREAD
S Korea and the UK developed a test on the same day in January. S Korea had managed to get up to 6-18,000 tests per day during February 2020...see below. (2)
We can see from Adam Kucharski's figure that their R fell below 1 by early March and they stopped the epidemic in two hotspot areas. They have since had five times fewer deaths and no lockdowns. We are not talking about 'mass testing'. (3)
On the Today programme this morning Sir John Bell echoed the official story that in the first six months of the pandemic we faced a new virus with little evidence to guide us. Nothing could be further from the truth. THREAD (1)
We can’t compare death rates between countries say statisticians. Sir Patrick Vallance wrote to the Inquiry that “a 'zero Covid' strategy could have been pursued, but required a national lockdown and border closures by the end of February.. (2)
to be continued indefinitely.” These statements are wrong. As early as January 28 2020 the UK Scientific Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) unanimously decided on a pandemic strategy based on the wrong virus, influenza, simply to limit the spread. (3)
How does poor family purchasing power in 1734 compare with Universal credit in 2023?
Jacob Vanderlint in Money Answer’s All Things in 1734 gave a budget for a laborer, wife+4 children in London of 16shillings per week to cover meat, bread,milk, salt, sugar, butter, cheese and beer (to avoid perils of water), coal, soap, candles, thread and rent for two rooms.
We might add on another two shillings for crisis expenses, transport, clothes and medicines. In 1750 £1 was equivalent to £284 purchasing power in 2023. That’s £256 per week or £1109 per month for the family costs in 2023 prices
Banks are nervous. They are rushing to borrow cash. The FTs Robert Armstrong has looked at three sources of cash lending to banks (or big depositors) in recent days in the US (1)
First, the Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLB) considered the 'lender of last resort ' for small banks. (2)
Second, the Federal Discount (whatever that is) (3)
Lets look at some facts on migration in and out of the UK. First government figures. (1)
Since 2004 net migration into the UK was around 220,000 per year into a population of nearly 70 million or 0.3% per year. The pandemic pushed that rate right down and there has been a rebound since restrictions were lifted. (2) commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-brief….
Of non-EU nationals arriving in the year ending June 2022, study was the most common reason (277,000) followed by ‘other’ reasons (276,000 people), which includes arrivals under humanitarian schemes, and family migrants. 151,000 non-EU nationals came primarily for work. (3)