It is a year since a “new pneumonia” was causing concern in Wuhan: the virus that would come to dominate our lives and make the world finally sit up and […]

We already know that rising levels of carbon dioxide from global warming are bad for the planet. They are ruining the climate, causing floods raising sea levels, and making fertile areas uninhabitable. But are they already starting to kill us individually?

Before global warming, the average level of CO₂ in the atmosphere fluctuated around 280 ppm (parts per million). Now it hovers around 410 ppm; by the end of the century it could be around 670 ppm or even higher.

The human body can sustain low levels of CO₂ in the atmosphere we’ve adapted to it. High levels are normally only a problem for people like building workers, astronauts and captains of nuclear submarines. Research shows that there is no question that the sorts of levels these people can meet will do you serious harm, but most of the work is concentrated around very high CO₂ concentrations at thousands of ppm, with very short exposure times, both for obvious reasons.

But as CO₂ levels rise, what happens to all of us as we breathe in steadily rising levels day in day out, without a break? Especially in places like offices, where it tends to become more concentrated. Read more

Fiona Harvey tells us how far we’ve come.
It’s all too easy for campaigners on a big issue to tire, and start to despair. You must know what we mean. You spend years leafleting, going to meetings, arguing with the most obdurate people you’ve ever met, ringing up radio phone-ins….and all the while juggling work, family, shopping and even finding a bit of me time. Then along comes Donald Trump and pulls the US out of the Paris Climate Accord. But don’t give up-really.
Fiona Harvey, environment correspondent for The Guardian can tell you why. Her article in the Guardian is a heartening summary of big wins for the good guys. Remember the Ozone Hole? It’s shrinking. Acid Rain? With certain exceptions, it’s no longer falling. And Lead in petrol? You’d have to be well into your forties even to remember that now. Actually we think that was one of the worst ever, and we will be coming back to it quite soon.

But for now gentle reader, sit down, and award yourself a well- earned cup of tea and a couple of biscuits (it’s afternoon as we write this). This is no time for complacency, as the after-dinner speakers say. The battle over climate change is far from won. Read Fiona’s piece here, and think what people in the past achieved. We stand on the shoulders of giants.

This Environmental Protection Network report (22nd April 2020) about Trump’s environment record – real life impacts on Public Health and the Environment April 22, 2020 also makes an interesting read. Read more