The renowned US scientist’s new book examines 4bn years of climate history to conclude we are in a ‘fragile moment’ but there is still time to act
“We haven’t yet exceeded the bounds of viable human civilisation, but we’re getting close,” says Prof Michael Mann. “If we keep going [with carbon emissions], then all bets are off.”around the world, has delivered a “fragile moment”, says the eminent climate scientist and communicator in his latest book, titled Our Fragile Moment. Taming the climate crisis still remains possible, but faces huge political obstacles, he says.
Prof Michael Mann points to ‘stabilising mechanisms’ in the Earth’s climate – but also examples of when it ‘spun out of control’.“But there are examples where the Earth system did just the opposite, where it spun out of control, and did so because of life itself,” Mann says. The great oxidation event 2.7bn years ago saw primitive bacteria start producing oxygen which led to the destruction of the potent greenhouse gas methane in the atmosphere.
Mann says he had noticed how climate history was being weaponised by doomers. “This idea that these past mass extinction events translate to ensured mass extinction today because of, for example, runaway methane-driven warming [as permafrost thaws] isn’t true – the science doesn’t support that.”Our climate fate hangs in the balance, Mann says: “There’s fairly compelling evidence from the past, combined with the information from climate models, that if we can keep warming below 1.
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