This is what happens when the developed world spends 150 years rejecting the most advanced scientific theory for fear that if the working class gets hold of it they'll have a revolution.

The theory being dialectical materialism. It's unsurprising that China, one of the five states explicitly led by DiaMat, have been acting as fast as possible to wean off fossils.

The speed at which things are changing – and this year's changes won't be the last – makes perfect sense to dialectical materialists. The transformation of quantity into quality is built into this worldview. What's hard to predict is when a quantitative change will become a transformative leap in quality. The fact of the leap is not in question, however.

Meanwhile, in most of the rest of the world, most participants in the debate are still operating under the illusion that change is linear. For people who think that things will just get a bit worse every year, what's a little distracting war in the grand scheme of things, and what does it matter if a pandemic is left to run free?

Life is cheap and there will always be a little more time in the schedule – to get 'back to normal' – before we tackle emissions properly, think the decision-makers. Except it's precious and there is no spare time. Unless westerners get their act together and challenge imperialism, we better hope that dedollarisation leads to demilitarisation so people can concentrate on healing the world. Otherwise, we'll be looking back at this year's weather with the starry eyes of nostalgia.