Press Release -21st March 2026 - Climate change is accelerating beyond safe thresholds

Press Release 21 March 2026

Climate change is accelerating beyond safe thresholds  

Geologist Dr Chris Burgess gave a fascinating explanation of climate change and several ways it can be mitigated to the Llandudno Rotary club.

His presentation entitled “On thin ice” revealed that while the Earth has a long history of natural climate instability, current human activity is driving atmospheric changes at an unprecedented pace. He highlighted that the planet is currently pushing past "safe" environmental thresholds, and it requires immediate global intervention.

As of January 27, 2026, atmospheric CO2 reached 428.50 ppm, a significant increase from the previous year and well beyond the recommended "safe" level of 350 ppm.

The problem was recognised over a century ago. He quoted from the March 1912 issue of Popular Mechanics: "The furnaces of the world are now burning about 2,000,000,000 tons of coal a year. When this is burned, uniting with oxygen, it adds about 7,000,000,000 tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere yearly. This tends to make the air a much more effective blanket for the earth and raises its temperature."

He suggested the following critical steps we could take to mitigate these effects:

·       a transition to renewable and nuclear energy,

·       reducing dependence on fossil fuels,

·       implementing carbon capture and storage in depleted oil and gas fields,

·       and a major overhaul of agriculture – meat production releases a lot of methane which is also a greenhouse gas.

However, he was pessimistic about whether these steps would be taken, due to the high costs involved, the need for a "major overhaul of our way of life," and, most crucially, the lack of political will. No political party or government is planning decades ahead – they are simply concerned about the next election. As he said: “what’s the point of always pursuing economic growth in a world of finite resources.”

As an example of one cost, we may need to meet locally within the next hundred years, rising sea levels will mean the water table rises to the point where it comes up from the ground into buildings on the flat area of Llandudno. That would mean having to invest in expensive systems to remove the water or abandon parts of the town.

One of the biggest contributions to climate change in the past has been volcanic activity, which pumps large amounts of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere. However, Chris said that volcanic activity is quiet now, compared to previous events in the distant past.

During the last 500 million years most of the time earth has had high temperatures, high sea levels, and high concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. More recently plants and microscopic plankton removed large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere when these plants eventually became coal, oil and natural gas. Fewer greenhouse gases meant the earth cooled so that icecaps could form at the poles. That’s the climate we’ve become used to.

In the last two centuries we’ve dug up many of those reserves and used them as cheap energy, releasing excessive amounts of Carbon Dioxide. It’s the equivalent of having high volcanic activity around the globe, but the release of greenhouse gases is all happening in a much quicker time frame, decades instead of millions of years.

Notes to editors

Dr Chris Burgess has a doctorate in geology. He says his children call him a ‘useless doctor’ because he’s not a medical practitioner.

His passion for geology began as a teenager, and it has taken him around the world. He’s lived and worked in the Middle East and Singapore, done research in Antarctica, and lived and lectured in a New Zealand University. He lives and works in North Wales. It was In Antarctica in the 1970s that he first became aware of climate change.

For more information about Rotary Club of Llandudno and how to get involved, please visit www.llandudnorotary.org.The Club of Llandudno is part of Rotary International, the world’s largest service organisation, with 1.4 million members in 46,000 clubs worldwide. The local club, founded in 1927, also runs a “Friends of Rotary” scheme for people who want to stay connected without formal membership.

We are also on Facebook and Twitter or X. Search for Llandudno Rotary Facebook and Llandudno Rotary Twitter.

The photo shows Dr Chris Burgess during his presentation

Contact Mark Thomson, Tel: - 07812 379351, e-mail mark.thomson56@outlook.com.

We value being able to keep in touch with you and keep you informed about Llandudno Rotary. However, if you no longer wish to receive these updates, simply reply saying "Unsubscribe".