The year is 2100. By ditching fossil fuels, shifting to plant-based diets and restoring vibrant ecosystems over much of Earth’s surface, the world has stopped global warming at 1.5°C. Future generations breathe air cleaner than at any time since the industrial revolution. High-speed trains connect major cities and buildings ripple with photoelectric skins generating clean solar energy.

This is one vision of the future. The other, described in a new book by Professor of Earth System Science at UCL, Mark Maslin, synthesises the latest science to imagine a world where we instead do nothing to address climate change. As global temperatures reach 4°C at the end of the 21st century, coral reefs dissolve, mega-cyclones rage, crops wither and new diseases proliferate. The choice may be clear, but which outcome will the world arrive at? It depends on what actions the international community takes today and in the coming years.

In the latest episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, three experts discuss Cuba’s effort to develop its own COVID-19 vaccine, and how it may affect the course of the pandemic. And after a fantastic piece of academic sleuthing over lockdown, MA Katritzky writes about her exciting find of a lost set of William Hogarth paintings in a house in Wiltshire.

Results from 'Super Thursday' will be flowing in today and tomorrow. Stay tuned for analysis on that key by-election in Hartlepool, the mayoral race in London and, of course, the all-important vote in Scotland.

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