Quick Take — The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is at its highest point in 800,000 years

according to UN research that found that 2024 was likely the hottest year on record and the first to exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels… The record temperatures led to an intensification of storms and weather disasters, with at least 151 ‘unprecedented’ extreme weather events in 2024. “Millions of people are increasingly suffering the consequences” of climate change in the form of heat waves, floods, droughts, storms and rising seas, said Stefan Rahmstorf, head of the research department at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. “We can only stop the warming trend by getting off fossil fuels, and we have to do it fast,” he said.“Ignoring reality, denying the laws of physics and silencing scientists can only lead to damage, and ordinary people will pay the price.”

Quick Take — The steep rise in the cost of morning coffee is causing discontent in Brazil

Coffee prices have risen globally due to extreme weather related to climate change, but the nearly 40 per cent increase in Latin America’s largest economy last year has become symbolic of a broader discontent with food and drink inflation that has weighed on Lula Inacio Da Silva’s approval rates… According to an industry association, the average Brazilian drank 2.2 per cent less coffee in the year to October…The cost of a basket of basic groceries rose 14.2 per cent last year, including a 25 per cent increase in the price of beef cuts, the Brazilian supermarket association said…Meanwhile, struggling Brazilians are switching to cheaper coffee blends. Source

Bird flu: global spread of virus fuels fears of human contamination

In Italy, where we had prosciuttopoli, a scandal that broke out in 2019 and was never seriously tackled, absolutely nothing is happening, despite the fact that swine plague licks the borders of Langhirano (Parma), it is surprising that this is happening given that Ettore Prandini, president of Coldiretti, is a farmer. And in the USA there has been the first death of a human being