Well, wherever we live, we can no longer be in any doubt we live in the post-climate-change world. This was the year that truly brought the planetary scale crisis home. Temperature records began tumbling globally in spring, around the time that Canada began to burn and burn in every province, culminating in the worst wildfire season on record by some margin. Fires blazed across every continent, wherever tinder dry vegetation struggled in hot parched lands, including in Greece and in Hawaii, where an entire town was reduced to ash. Global wildfires this year generated around 2100 megatons of carbon emissions to add to the problem.
Some 12,000 people died as a result of climate disasters this year, although the true figure is much higher, because climate change is a threat multiplier that exacerbates so many other killers, including conflict, hunger and disease. The four horsemen of the Anthropocene — heat, fire, floods and drought — killed many and ruined so many more. Violent storms caused billions of dollars of damage, destroyed businesses, disrupted transport, made refugees of holidaymakers, and pushed food prices beyond affordability for many.
These are the issues at the heart of my book Nomad Century, issues which will only intensify over the coming decades. I don’t shy away from the scale of the challenges, but this is a pragmatic book of solutions, and there has never been a better time to engage with them (except last year, or even last decade, or last millennium…). I’ve spent most of this year to that end: taking the discussion to different places and people.
Looking back on my 2023 highlights: NomadCentury came out in paperback. It was Highly Commended in the Wainwright Prize for nature writing 2023, shortlisted for the Zócalo Book Prize and the Christopher Moore Prize For Human Rights books. I am extremely grateful for the many invitations I received from around the world to discuss the issues in my book, which took me to conferences, lecture halls, festivals and bookshops, to speak to people including politicians, industry leaders, activists and children.
I was honoured and thrilled to deliver the opening author speech at the Frankfurt Book Fair, and to talk at literary festivals including at Hay, Cheltenham, Mantova, Oxford, Cambridge, Borris, Soneva, Wealden, Kite, Adelaide, Amsterdam, Brussels and more.
I contributed chapters to books and wrote articles, including this one, and this one, and this one. And I made a variety of programmes, including for BBC Radio 4, including to mark the 70th anniversary of the discovery of DNA’s structure, and this thought experiment: Imagine yourself in 2030, the year in which Britain achieved its goal to protect 30 per cent of its land and sea for nature. What does it look like and how did we manage it? And this asking: Can we prevent natural disasters? And this which asked: What would the world be like if energy became superabundant and very cheap? And I was privileged to speak to a wealth of brilliant individuals, asking questions on your behalf, including the very sadly missed Saleemul Huq.
I was honoured to be given the 2024 EGU Angela Croome Award for excellence in Earth, space and planetary science journalism.
And this year my book Nomad Century came out in multiple languages thanks to the wonderful work of translators and my brilliant publishers including in Italy, Germany, Korea, Japan, with more on the way….
I am so so grateful to all the journalists that have interviewed me for their publications and shows, organisers that have invited me to speak, bookshops that have supported my book and readers that have engaged with the issues. This century will be a huge upheaval but we still have many choices. Thanks for the kindness you’ve brought. The world is reeling from so many human-made disasters, bad leaders and with bleak prognosis – but we also hold solutions and among us are so many heroes.
Wishing you a happy healthy 2024!
Wandering Gaia 