It’s not a great time for climate watchers. Last week we read that the increase in greenhouse gas will be 2.7% for 2018, compared with 1.6% for 2017, and no increase the three years before that. The particles in these emissions, such as CO2, are minuscule, and yet the combined weight of this year’s emissions adds up to more than 100,000 times the weight of Empire State Building. The models indicate that, at this rate of increase, some rather dire consequences that were expected for the decade beginning in 2040 will now arrive in the 2030s. That’s 12 years away.