The end of the world is really nigh, this time

August 14, 2026

Julian Cribb’s latest contribution paints a picture Hogarth or Goya would be proud of. Over the last ten years, the heedless race to embrace AI and build data centres, the sociopathic actions of world leaders, and the outright greed of the corporate world have caused preventable greenhouse emissions to dramatically overshoot predictions. There has been no indication that elected leaders, certainly in this country, have any inclination to accept and act on the pre-dystopian situation with which we’re faced.

One aspect of the future Julian omitted is the oxygen levels in the air we breathe. Oxygen is produced by the photosynthesis of plants: half from aquatic green algae, half from terrestrial greenery. Both are being destroyed by runaway human emissions. Fires and oceanic toxicity are destroying the global oxygen factories on an industrial scale.

Properly functioning human life depends on oxygen levels above 19.5%. They currently sit at 20.9%. In environmental terms, that’s not a lot of freeboard. Among the dysfunctional effects on humans of oxygen levels below 19.5% are impaired thinking, reduced attention spans and faulty judgment. Any further impairment of humanity’s ability to think its way out of this mess would surely sign its death warrant.