Understanding the urgency of climate change (1)
Bill McGuire provides a gloomy assessment of progress since the Paris Climate Conference 10 years ago. He suggests that our failure to keep temperatures from rising by more than 1.5掳C over pre-industrial levels is largely because this was treated as a target, not a limit (21 February, p 16).
This seems right to me, but I would add that the notion of net zero has also been misused in a way that hasn’t helped. As atmospheric carbon levels increase for every year that it takes us to reach net zero, it clearly matters how long it takes us to get there, but politicians often fail to grasp this. Net zero needs to be understood not as a point at which everything is fine, but the point at which further warming shouldn’t occur 鈥� which isn’t fine if we are already roasting by that stage.
Understanding the urgency of climate change (2)
Bill McGuire makes an excellent suggestion regarding a pictorial “Earth Thermometer” in a similar vein to the Doomsday Clock. The danger is that, like the Doomsday Clock, we would hear about it only once or twice a year and become so used to it being very close to midnight that no one takes any notice. (21 February, p 16).
How about making it mandatory to show both the Earth Thermometer and the Doomsday Clock at the top of the screen on every TV or internet news bulletin, or in current event/political discussion shows?
Tricks to strengthen your 'determination muscle'
On the article “Your brain may determine how long you run for”, every runner knows that they are developing their brain just as much as exercising their body. At least 50 per cent of becoming a runner consists of retraining those brain circuits that tell you to stay in bed on a chilly morning rather than put on your trainers and get outside or to take the shortcut home rather than the extra distance you had planned. All sorts of strategies and tricks are necessary to strengthen this “determination muscle” (21 February, p 12).
Getting a handle on how you handle
Thanks to Michael Marshall for his fascinating account of the evolution of human hands. It was a curious experience reading about the development of our precision grip while being aware of using this grip to hold the magazine and turn its pages (21 February, p 32).
Financial benefits in the most unlikely of places
It is difficult not to get excited about the idea that faecal transplants may hold the key to a new age of healthy living. But maintaining healthy gut flora will inevitably require a commitment to a healthy diet and exercise (7 February, p 9).
In practice, the more likely outcome, given the scarcity of preferred donors as outlined by Alice Klein, is that transplants will be available at different price points and wealthy people will opt for a daily dose rather than a stretch of the legs. Indeed, if the findings continue in such a positive vein, we may see extraordinary prices for poo and financial benefits in the most unlikely of places.
Why it's important to be hopeful, not optimistic
Reading Fred Pearce’s piece “On the bright side” reminded me how indebted I am to 快猫短视频 for reviewing Christine Webb’s book The Arrogant Ape last year, in which she highlights the dangers of anthropocentrism. I have read it twice and sent copies to several friends, which is a measure of how vital I believe her thesis to be (14 February, p 19).
In the book, Webb says she is neither pessimistic nor optimistic about the future, just hopeful 鈥� which I think is a more realistic attitude than the one expressed by Pearce. While he lists five reasons to be cheerful about the future, I fear his optimism is misplaced. Hopefulness enables a positive outlook, which can lead to useful engagement, but optimism runs the risk of creating complacency, potentially resulting in no action.
AI is helping us catch up with science fiction
You reported on the Dutch air force using AI to read pilots’ brain waves to toughen training. Older readers might remember the 1982 film Firefox, starring Clint Eastwood as US pilot Mitchell Gant, who steals a Russian experimental fighter jet that can be controlled by the pilot’s brain via a “thought control” helmet. In the final scene of the film, Gant confronts his Russian adversary, who is flying a similarly thought-controlled plane, only to learn that to use the technology, he has to “think” in Russian. Fortunately, he can! A case of AI helping us catch up with science fiction, perhaps (14 February, p 17).
Some answers are a long time coming
Last year’s article “The dark energy illusion” promised a new concept of time, while this year’s article “The illusion of time” promised a convincing update. However, what we are actually getting is a strange mix of time being thought of as a dimension, time flowing and time being an illusion (31 January, p 28).
The dimensions we are used to are fixed and don’t move 鈥� rather, things move along them. Why should the dimension of time be different, apart from the fact that we, and everything else, seem able to move in only one direction, towards the future? We have ever more accurate clocks that mark time in regular, ever tinier gradations. But there is nothing to show that time is moving.
Motion is measured by a change of position over time. Where is the foundation for measuring the motion of time? Is the past still there, in its own part of the time dimension? Or does the past get wiped out as we travel forwards towards the future? There are lots of questions, but the answers seem a long time coming.
A thought to make you stroke your chin
An interesting article on the evolution of our chin. However, surely it misses the obvious: our chins could have evolved in parallel with our ability to think, as they play a crucial role in thinking and cogitation. I think, therefore I am (21 February, p 7).