"It appears we're entering a perfect storm of sorts -- environmental meltdown coupled with economic and political chaos."

That's an apt analogy - and a plausible scenario - feels like watching a planetary car crash unfold in slow motion

The so called '2 degree warming' is looking like a dramatic underestimation of where this might be heading. The current January heatwave is coming on the back of the hottest Dec on record in Australia - which broke the previous record by 1.5 C. That's not 1.5C above the average, which is already a lot, but 1.5 above the previous hottest ever!

Even while I was in Taiwan the last several summers were consistently 2 degrees or more above average - the temps we're experiencing now are 8 degrees or more above ave! I'm wondering now if 8 degrees might be the new 2 degrees.