The July 2022 heatwave is happening when average world temperatures have risen by just over 1C from their pre-industrial levels.

We are living in the hottest period in 125,000 years, according to the UN's climate science body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

We know what is behind this - greenhouse gas emissions caused by our burning of fossil fuels like coal and gas. Concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere are at the highest level for two million years and rising, according to the IPCC.

If all the promises governments made at the UN COP26 climate conference in Glasgow last year are actually implemented then we're looking at temperatures rising by 2.4C by the end of the century.

But the bad news is that emissions of CO2 continue to increase. Without big cuts by 2030 we could see temperatures go even higher. Perhaps as much as 4C by the end of the century, scientists predict.

Human Government, through its laws, and its enforcement of them, is both a major cause of and a potential solution to the Extinction of Species. Human Government needs to change its laws, and enforce them. We can save species in the short term by creating and enlargening Nature Reserves and Protected areas and legislating against killing any species within those protected aeras, and enforcing that legislation absolutely. After all Extinction is Forever! 

This is only a short term "solution", as it does not address Human Overpopulation, Human Overdevelopment and Human Pollution - the major causes of decline and loss and extinction of species and habitat.  Only Humans together can make the necessary laws to preserve Nature - which is what must be done to ensure our own survival as well as the survival of our Human Civilization.

Humanity depends on Nature - on habitat for food availablity, pollution control, water purification, and agriculture; on other species for food availability, pollution control and pollination; on the atmospheric and oceanic currents for temperature control and freshwater generation and distribution; on atmosphic layers to protect us from cosmic radiation; and much, much more.

We could never afford to do what Nature does for us - we don't have the capacity or ability, and it would cost us thousands or millions times more than the total wealth of the planet - if we could.

Furthermore, human engineering, rather than replacing Nature, only causes more pollution, which makes the situation worse.

The world is spending half a trillion dollars on fossil fuel subsidies every year, according to a new report. The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) says rich countries are spending seven times more supporting coal, oil and gas than they are on helping poorer nations fight climate change. Fuel subsidies to US farmers amounted to $1bn in 2011 says the ODI. Some countries including Egypt, Morocco and Pakistan, have subsidies bigger than the national fiscal deficit. The new report calls on the G20 to phase out the payments by 2020. While there is no globally agreed definition of what a fossil fuel subsidy actually is, the report draws on a range of sources from the International Monetary Fund to the International Energy Agency. It details the range of financial help given to oil, coal and gas producers and consumers from national governments and through international development. What emerges is a complicated web of different types of payments in different countries. In the United States, for example, the government in 2011 gave a $1bn fuel tax exemption to farmers, $1bn for the strategic petroleum reserve and $0.5bn for oil, coal and gas research and development. Germany gave financial assistance totalling 1.9bn euro to the hard coal sector in the same year. And the UK gave tax concessions worth £280m in 2011 for oil and gas production. Pakistan is a country with the second highest number of children out of school in the world. It has some of the worst nutrition, maternal mortality and child health indicators.

Current methods of measuring the full material cost of imported goods are highly inaccurate say researchers. In a new study, they found that three times as many raw materials are used to process and export traded goods than are used in their manufacture. Richer countries who believe they have succeeded in developing sustainably are mistaken say the authors. The research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Many developed nations believe they are on a path to sustainable development, as their economic growth has risen over the past 20 years but the level of raw materials they are consuming has declined. But this new study indicates that these countries are not including the use of raw materials that never leave their country of origin. Heavy footprints The researchers used a new model that looked at metal ores, biomass, fossil fuels and construction materials to produce what they say is a more comprehensive picture of the "material footprint" of 186 countries over a 20 year period. In 2008, around 70bn tonnes of raw materials were extracted worldwide but just 10bn tonnes were physically traded. Over 40% were used to enable the processing and export of these materials. "By relying on current indicators, governments are not able to see the true extent of resource consumption," said Dr Tommy Wiedmann from the University of New South Wales.