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Here's the climate target the world really needs (1)

We all know the aim to “pursue efforts” to keep global warming to 1.5°C is a lost cause. Your article asks whether the new target should be 1.7°C, 2°C or even stay at 1.5°C, but with a new meaning. None is the right target. It should be 1°C(26 July, p 8).

To set a higher target is to accept that the current state of the world’s climate and the changes now baked in are tolerable. They aren’t. A 1°C target, however, would restore a lot of the damage already done and make extreme weather less likely.

That should be our long-term target. But we also need to limit the temperature rise as we exceed 1.5°C and fall back to 1°C. That limit, surely less than 2°C, needs to be set to minimise the risk of passing a tipping point, and we must be willing to use extraordinary methods, such as geoengineering, to keep below it.

Here's the climate target the world really needs (2)

The majority of climatologists have, since at least the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, been well aware of climate change – that it is real, happening now and mainly a consequence of human activity. Nations, political leaders, businesses and many individuals have widely ignored the warnings. Why does anybody think this will change? It won’t, or at least not until devastating impacts hit large areas of the planet, which isn’t going to happen for some years yet. Realistically, 1.5°C of warming isn’t going to be averted – nor is 1.7°C, nor 2°C. We will be lucky to limit global warming to 2.5°C.

Here's the climate target the world really needs (3)

For governments to officially accept that 1.5°C is no longer achievable and that a higher limit must be set would almost certainly have negative consequences. Any excuse to relax decarbonisation efforts or to continue business as usual will result in greater climate catastrophes and is unacceptable.

Some music really hits the wrong note (1)

Stefan Koelsch highlights benefits that music can deliver, but we shouldn’t ignore its downsides. We don’t all have the same tastes. A genre that one person enjoys will infuriate another. Consider, for example, the thumping bass coming from a car in a traffic queue. Loud canned music has driven me out of shops. Some film soundtracks mask dialogue(26 July, p 21).

Some music really hits the wrong note (2)

Music in general is soothing and puts me into a better state of mind. However, two types drive me nuts: the Muzak in shops, or the radio stations they play, which are usually so loud that it is impossible to think about what you are there for; and the music played over the phone while on hold. The sooner they get rid of these the better!

No need for a bounce to get another big bang?

The big bounce theory has never held any attraction for me. Our universe is expanding as a result of the big bang, and as the fragments of it get further dispersed, the gravitational force acting on them falls. Rather more attractive is a belief that these fragments will all find their way into an infinite space populated by fragments of an infinite number of other universes. Given time, these fragments from many different universes will accumulate to such a degree that they become part of another big bang(26 July, p 10).

Neanderthal funerals indicate complex brain (1)

I was fascinated by the possible funerary practices in hominins previously not considered sophisticated enough for such behaviours. The question as to whether Neanderthals developed their practices or learned them from us is interesting and probably impossible to answer. Either way, it doesn’t detract from the fact that they would need sophisticated cognitive abilities just to choose to engage in such seemingly unproductive rituals(26 July, p 38).

Neanderthal funerals indicate complex brain (2)

This piece leaves me wondering what the motivations may be behind ancient funerary practices. They may well reflect belief in, and ritual worship of, some sort of god or gods, and a belief in, or at any rate a desire for, life beyond death.

The barefoot answer to navigating tick country

I have walked in tick-infested areas for years. My solution may sound counterintuitive, but it seems to work. I wear a short-sleeved shirt and shorts and go barefoot when possible. With no creases and folds to hide in, I can spot ticks immediately and remove them before they become attached(21 June, p 36).

We may have free will, but we have ceded power

Howie Firth, proposing we have free will, asks why “we” fail to better sustain the life of our planet. Even if most people desire a better future, the fate of the planet is controlled by politicians and corporations over which we have almost no control. They have a vested interest in maximising control and profit. We, the people, don’t have the power that Firth mentions(Letters, 12 July).

And now for one-sided isometrics in bed

Further to Clive Bashford’s letter about doing isometric exercises in bed – I do that, too, but concentrate on my left side as, during the day, I do a fair amount of physical work using my right side(Letters, 6 July).

The magic of a really reliable pressure cooker

On your contents page, you promoted a book-related article with the phrase “The Prestige is still magic”. My mind’s eye conjured the image of the Prestige pressure cooker I bought back in 1970. It is kind of old tech, but it still works; it must be magic(26 July, p 28).

For the record

Libor Å mejkal is now at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden, Germany. Anna Hellenes and Atasi Chakraborty are in Jairo Sinova’s group at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany (19 July, p 36). A corrected graphic is also online at shorturl.at/CrH3N.