Suppose I presented you with a newspaper front page for today, April 1st, which had the following headlines.

"Thousands of Nuclear Warheads Primed and Ready."

"The Sixth Mass Extinction Accelerating."

"Climate Change to Wreak Havoc on Cities"

"Worse Pandemics than Covid Predicted"

I am pretty sure that you would think it was an April Fool's joke. But the sad truth is that each of these headlines and their accompanying stories would be grounded in fact. People can try to deny facts or come up with outlandish conspiracy theories to deflect them, but the facts and their pesky consequences will still be there.

And that's no joke. I wish it were otherwise.