THE FATEOf The WORLD
Forthcoming From
Professor Bill McGuire
The Guardian, 26th January 2025
It is a stark message, said Bill McGuire, emeritus professor of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London. “In light of the projections in Planetary Solvency, it is pretty clear that hope is now a luxury we can no longer afford, and the truth is we are in deep, deep excrement that is getting deeper by the day.
“It is a simple fact that there is now an extraordinary disconnect between government and business actions and the reality of the colossal impacts of climate breakdown of society and economy.”
The recent claim by UK chancellor Rachel Reeves, that economic growth is more important than fighting to achieve net zero, provides an example, added McGuire, who is the author of the forthcoming book The Fate of Our World: How Our Future is Written in the Past.
An equally gloomy picture is painted by Lancet Countdown, a global collaboration of more than 300 researchers and health professionals whose report on health and climate change in 2024 found that climatic extremes were already claiming lives on a massive scale.
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THE FATEOf The WORLD
Forthcoming From
Professor Bill McGuire
The i Paper, 18th February 2025
Bill McGuire, a professor of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London (UCL), believes that Arctic temperatures could soon be our new reality. “At the moment, global heating is – as you would expect – making the UK hotter not colder, and there is no sign of any falling temperature trend,” he says.
But this warmth is thanks to the presence of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a system of currents over the Atlantic. “It includes the Gulf Stream, and is crucial to the climate of the UK, as it transports prodigious amounts of heat from the tropics to our part of the world,” explains McGuire.
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Almost half of climate scientists polled in a recent survey think the world will heat up by at least 3°C by 2100. “This would be quite possibly civilisation-busting,” he adds, soberly.
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But, in spite of this, McGuire remains unconvinced that this will be managed with the urgency it requires. “European governments really need to be planning for a future that could well be much colder,” he says. “At the moment, as far as I know, there are no plans whatsoever in place.”