We need action, not acquiescence

April 14, 2026

In the late 1980’s, faced with clear scientific prediction of the environmental risks of accumulating carbon pollution, major oil companies embarked on their sustained campaign of denial and misinformation. This campaign has brought us to the brink of irreversible environmental disaster.

David Spratt reports that the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change recommends that we prepare to adapt to 3-4oC of global heating by 2100; Australia’s Climate Adaptation Plan cites 2-3oC. In accepting unliveable frameworks they are surrendering in the battle against those who profit from fossil fuels; but surrender won’t bring safety.

The world is on a warming trajectory. Experts have identified temperature waypoints along that trajectory at which various stages of environmental degradation can be expected, but that trajectory has no endpoint. Talk of ‘adapting’ to three degrees of warming will, without effective challenge to those who bring about our growing carbon pollution, surely be succeeded by ‘adaptation’ to four degrees of warming, then five. The speed of change is accelerating; we can expect these waypoints to pass with increasing frequency.

The longer governments fail to stop the growing pollution, the bigger the problem will become. Taxing export gas must be a worthwhile first step.