An end of year resolution: phase out fossil fuels

As we approach the close of 2023, a hard, unforgiving year, consider this: the world, as we know it, is about to end. Life on Earth may not survive into the 22nd century; humanity has no more than 30 years. The window of opportunity to prevent both those extinction events is less than eight years, says doctor and climate activist Hugh Montgomery (youtube.com/watch?v=i2a-6KCAuKs).1However, hope is important (doi:10.1136/bmj.o2411), and it exists in individual action as well as in government, corporate, industrial, and institutional commitments and strategies that deliver zero carbon emissions (www.nationalgrideso.com/future-energy/our-progress-towards-net-zero/net-zero-explained/what-net-zero-and-zero-carbon).23 Net zero is already not enough. Time is short and we must act, argues Montgomery.In a similar vein, UN secretary general António Guterres believes that we have moved out of the era of global warming and into the “era of global boiling” (www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jul/27/scientists-july-world-hottest-month-record-climate-temperatures).4 We can still limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, he thinks, “but only…
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