Back in 2019, more than 11,000 scientists declared a global climate emergency . They established a comprehensive set of vital signs that i...
Back in 2019, more than 11,000 scientists declared a global climate emergency. They established a comprehensive set of vital signs that impact or reflect the planet’s health, such as forest loss, fossil fuel subsidies, glacier thickness, ocean acidity and surface temperature.
In a new paper published on July 27, we show how these vital signs have changed since the original publication, including through the Covid-19 pandemic. In general, while we have seen lots of positive talk and commitments from some governments, our vital signs are mostly not trending in the right direction.
So, let us look at how things have progressed since 2019, from the growing number of livestock to the meagre influence of the pandemic.
Some good news
No, thankfully. Fossil fuel divestment and fossil fuel subsidies have improved in record-setting ways, potentially signalling an economic shift to a renewable energy future.
However, most of the other vital signs reflect the consequences of the so far unrelenting “business as usual” approach to climate change policy worldwide.
Especially troubling is the unprecedented surge in climate-related disasters since 2019. This includes devastating flash floods in the South Kalimantan province of Indonesia, record heatwaves in the southwestern United States, extraordinary storms in India and, of course, the 2019-2020 megafires in Australia.
In addition, three main greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide – set records...
