This current year, 2022, is characterized globally
by a series of extreme weather events, and,
based on the information I have acquired,
no facts available indicate any deviations from
that trend.

Extreme drought, heat waves, torriental rains
and heavy storms etc do not as such, seen over
time, deviate from natural variations in the
climate. It is:

-the increase in frequency,

-the, on average, increasing intensity,

-an these two combined with a rise in global
occurrence,

which leads to the sole resonable explanation
that it is due to the global increase in temperature
of just over one percent, seen since the mid
18th Century; in turn due to emissions
of greenhouse gases for the last 200 years;
emissions that since the mid 20th Century have
developed exponentially.

In the 21st Century global heating and its
consequential effects on the climate have
accelerated. The awareness of the existential
threat they pose, can now be said to move in
almost parity with the increasingly unstable
climate.

The magnitude of this year's climate-related
catastrophes might still become something of
a focal point, which provides perspective both
forwards and backwards in time; those who
deny global warming and its consequences
should reasonably become fewer in the
coming years.

For us who are already familiar with the
seriousness of the present situation, this
Annus horrible will hopefully result in a
deepened insight that we are all in the balance.

The only way to slow down global warming is
to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to the
outmost extent possible; even then, the negative
effects will prevail for hundreds of years,
maybe longer.

I see myself as a realistic optimist; a year like
this one, characterized by climate related
catastrophes, will set the mental agenda
required to manage the transition to fossil-
free production of energy; as well as the
adjustments necessary to cope with a long
period of more frequent extreme weather.