such as the soaring temperatures in north america's heat dome injune and july this year smashing previous records. the comparison to preindustrial levels a couple of hundred years ago is also important because nearly all man—made global warming has been caused by our use of fossil fuels, coal, oil and gas which have powered the industrial age. the transition to renewable energy is well under way but it will be really hard to meet the 1.5 degree target. many experts think it may already be too late to do so. the increase in global temperatures has now reached about 1.1 or 1.2 degrees above preindustrial level. so if current trends continued, it is likely we would pass 1.5 degrees sometime in the 2030s, and even after taking account of most of the recent national pledges to cut carbon emissions further, the un reckons we could be heading for 2.7 degrees of warming by the end of the century with catastrophic consequences. that is why there is now such a concerted push for action. the difference between 1.5 and 2 degrees may not sound like much but the intergovernmental panel on climate change have said 1.5 instead of 2 degrees would mean among other things 10,000,000 fewer