Day after day Yang’s tweets have logged extremes, including new April temperature highs across at least 12 provinces, as well as blizzards and huge sandstorms.

In Zhejiang province, the previous April record was beaten by 1.6 degrees Celsius, when the mercury hit 38.2 degrees, and Hangzhou reached 35 degrees in April for the first time ever.

The above records may all have been broken again by the time you read this.

On March 27, Bloomberg ran an article with the headline, “Record Heat Waves Push India Closer to Limit of Human Survival” and a couple of weeks later, the American state of Florida was hit by what many are calling a “rain bomb”. Twenty six inches (66cm) of rain fell on Fort Lauderdale in 24 hours, absolutely smashing the previous record of 14.59 inches.

A rare killer tornado struck in Myanmar on April 21.

The planet could well see more chaotic weather this summer, especially if the forecast El Nino weather event – which tends to nudge up temperatures – returns this year.

As the effects of ever more carbon dioxide in the air accumulate, our climate will become ever more unstable and calls for urgent measures – such as a reduction in overseas travel – will grow. And from a “saving civilisation” point of view, such measures are long overdue.

Dr Wolfgang Georg Arlt and Gary Bowerman, authors of the 88 Practical Ways to Prepare for the New Wave of Chinese Visitors handbook, predict that, “The next 25 years might be the last era of tourism before the climate catastrophe ends most international travel.”

Frustratingly, protecting the planet enough to ensure a decent lifestyle for most, perhaps including a bit of recreational travel, wouldn’t be impossible, if the political will were there.

We cannot go back to the 1970s and force oil companies to heed the disaster-predicting reports they commissioned and kept secret, but global leaders could look for inspiration to the few existing examples of good environmental stewardship – whether they were created by accident or design.

A couple of viable alternatives to business as (destructively) usual have been outlined in recent opinion articles.

“Tourists are now the country’s second-biggest source of revenue: government figures show that 65 per cent of them list eco-tourism as a principal reason for visiting,” writes Monbiot. “They come to see toucans, green macaws, howler monkeys, jaguars, caimans, poison dart frogs and other resurgent natural wonders.”

Ultimately, says Monbiot, any significant improvements need political will.

“When governments are committed, decisive and consistent, things happen. When they are beholden to lobby groups, cronyism and corruption, and delegate responsibility to an abstraction called ‘the market’, they spend decades flapping their hands while chaos reigns.”

In Asia, Tokyo – or at least some of the more attractive parts – has benefited from quirks of history as well as the refusal of authorities to subsidise motorists, as is common elsewhere. As a result, the Japanese capital has the lowest rate of car use among the world’s rich cities, and is all the more pleasant for it.

“It might surprise you to hear that cycling is actually more popular than driving in Tokyo – it accounts for 17 per cent of journeys, though the Japanese do not make as much of a big deal out of it as the Dutch do,” writes Daniel Knowles, in the book Carmageddon: How Cars Make Life Worse and What to Do About It. “But walking and public transport dwarf both sorts of vehicles.”

An extract (“How Tokyo Became an Anti-Car Paradise”) of the book published by Heatmap – a new media company focused on the climate and energy transition – makes clear that although factors such as historically narrow streets have played their part, the Japanese have never pandered to motorists, despite a thriving automobile industry.

“In fact, owning a car in Tokyo is rather difficult,” writes Knowles.

As well as the obvious costs – thorough vehicle inspections, taxes and relatively expensive fuel – “you cannot simply go and buy a car in the way that you might in most countries. To be allowed to purchase a car, you have to be able to prove that you have somewhere to park it. Without [a shako shomeisho, or ‘garage certificate’], you cannot buy a car.”

There is very little street parking in Tokyo (imagine!), making the city that much more pleasant to walk around.

“In Japan, unlike in almost the entire rest of the rich world, the post-war era saw the construction of enormous amounts of rail infrastructure,” writes Knowles. And rail travel is as popular within Tokyo city limits as it is without.

“It is worth paying attention to Tokyo precisely because it shows that vast numbers of cars are not necessary to daily life,” writes Knowles. “It is possible for enormous cities to work rather well without being overloaded by traffic congestion.”

Final Nok Air flight between Bangkok and Mae Hong Son departs

Speaking of planes no longer flying…

As Asian air links continue to be restored post-Covid – the Bangkok Airways service from Hong Kong to Koh Samui will begin again on July 1, for example – BK Magazine reports that the final Nok Air flight between Bangkok and Mae Hong Son has already departed.

The reason given for the end of the Bangkok flight is that Nok Air is swapping its 80-seater Bombardier Q400 aircraft for Boeing 787-800 jets with 189 seats, “and while the Mae Hong Son Ministry of Commerce has commented that such craft can land at Mae Hong Son Airport, the increased number of [seats] on the aircraft mean the route would be unviable”, reports BC Magazine.

Talk about a Nok back!