Run of the mill

Last night I watched a complete bomb of a film entitled ‘Geostorm’ which was about a global climate change control geoengineering system which was hacked or infiltrated to malfunction in order to give some megalomaniac world power. The film was complete blarney and really I should find better things to do with my time. But the film’s premise was sound. If some genius could devise a geoengineering solution for climate change and e.g. ’control the weather’ why might that not be weaponised? When I said the film’s premise was sound, that’s not quite correct. Whilst there are some serious voices suggesting climate geoengineering is technically possible, there is not, at present at least, the slightest possibility of a political consensus about how to achieve it—so it will remain science fiction.
 
Never mind. Here’s a run of the mill story from the past week:
 
‘ Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere increased to a record high in 2023, even as  countries promise to lower their emissions, the World Meteorological Organization reported Monday.
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The WMO, an agency of the United Nations, said in its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin that in 2004, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 377.1 parts per million (ppm), but in 2023, it was 420.0 ppm, an increase of 42.9 ppm, or 11.4%, in just 20 years. Large vegetation fires combined with high levels of human and industrial fossil fuel emission activities in 2023 may have contributed to increasing carbon dioxide emissions, it said. “Another year. Another record,” said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo. “We are clearly off track to meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to well below 2 °C and aiming for 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.” (Washington Examiner, 28/10/24)