Of train-boasts, plane-shame and electric automobiles

IDENTIFYING SHIFTS in the Earth’s climate requires decades of data, not just the observations of 2019 or any other single year. Climate change moves slowly, which is part of its calamitous power. Huge fires in California and Australia are probably worsened by the phenomenon—but no blaze can unequivocally be pinned on it, a fact seized on by those who would rather avoid the subject. Yet in the growing strength and coherence of climate protests, something did change discernibly in 2019.