There's no 'deadline' to save the world. Everything we do now has to pass the climate test | Damian Carrington

The climate crisis can't be averted, it's here. And with human suffering now a reality, governments can no longer stand idly by

You may have read that there are just eight, or 10, or 12 years to save the world from the climate crisis. There are not. It is already here, gaining strength every day as carbon emissions pour into the atmosphere. It is a slow-motion disaster. Action to avert the worst should have started last week, last year, last decade.

This is not a message of despair, though, but one of measured hope. The gap between the action we could take to reduce global heating and the action we are actually taking can be measured by a brutally simple metric: human suffering. That means every action that closes that gap, however small, is meaningful.