WHY do I sound like a prophet of doom and catastrophe when I write about the consequences of global warming? It's now nearing 1.5 degrees Celsius. In fact, the global mean surface air temperature was 1.54 C above the pre-industrial average from January to September this year. World leaders and scientists set 1.5 C as the dangerous red line at the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP) in Paris in 2015 — a figure adopted by 196 countries.

Scientists say 2024 is now on track to be the hottest year in the history of the planet, and the consequences of this are dire and dangerous for all living creatures.