Greta Thunberg on the climate delusion: ‘We’ve been greenwashed out of our senses. It’s time to stand our ground’

Governments may say they're doing all they can to halt the climate crisis. Don't fall for it - then we might still have time to turn things around

Stop setting things on fire': nine great ideas to save the planet

Maybe it is the name that is the problem. Climate change. It doesn't sound that bad. The word change" resonates quite pleasantly in our restless world. No matter how fortunate we are, there is always room for the appealing possibility of improvement. Then there is the climate" part. Again, it does not sound so bad. If you live in many of the high-emitting nations of the global north, the idea of a changing climate" could well be interpreted as the very opposite of scary and dangerous. A changing world. A warming planet. What's not to like?

Perhaps that is partly why so many people still think of climate change as a slow, linear and even rather harmless process. But the climate is not just changing. It is destabilising. It is breaking down. The delicately balanced natural patterns and cycles that are a vital part of the systems that sustain life on Earth are being disrupted, and the consequences could be catastrophic. Because there are negative tipping points, points of no return. And we do not know exactly when we might cross them. What we do know, however, is that they are getting awfully close, even the really big ones. Transformation often starts slowly, but then it begins to accelerate.