AFP UK

The forthcoming COP26 summit — which could determine the viability of the Paris Agreement — will “not be easy” but an outcome matching the urgency of the crisis is an “absolute necessity”, the UN’s climate chief said Wednesday.

As the world faces stronger and more frequent droughts, wildfires, flooding and storm surges made worse as the planet warms, the COP26 summit in Glasgow is being billed by organisers as a key milestone for keeping the Paris goals within reach.

“The point is decisions need to be taken now, that is why Glasgow is so important,” UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa told AFP 

Struck to international fanfare in 2015, the accord commits nations to limit global temperature rises to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above those before the onset of the Industrial Revolution. 

It also saw countries promise to stick to a safer warming cap of 1.5C through sweeping emissions cuts. 

Yet, 6 years on, atmospheric levels of planet-warming CO2 have risen steadily and are now at their highest concentrations in roughly three million years. 

The latest round of country-by-country emission-cutting pledges — baked into the Paris deal’s “rachet” mechanism of ever-increasing ambition — put Earth on course to warm a “catastrophic” 2.7C this century.

COP26, delayed a year due to the pandemic, will provide another chance for states to agree key outstanding elements of the Paris rulebook, or how the aspirational goals outlined in the deal function in practice.

Espinosa acknowledged to AFP that the two-week negotiations, which begin in Glasgow on October 31, “will not be easy”.

Speaking on the sidelines of a UN-backed gathering of some 400 youth climate activists in Milan, she said: “I think that at this moment in time it’s an absolute necessity that we come out of the conference and present to the world a message of hope, a message of clarity on where we are going”. 

– ‘Finance builds trust’ –

The laundry list for delegates in Glasgow will be daunting. 

Nations will be asked again to redouble their emissions reductions plans to get them better in line with 1.5C, as well as to finalise the Paris rulebook and resolve the repeatedly deferred dispute over carbon markets. 

Poorer nations already dealing with extreme weather supercharged by climate change have repeatedly called on wealthier nations — largely responsible for the emissions that drive global heating — to make good on a decade-old promise to provide $100 billion annually to help out. 

“The elements are clear: finance, ambition and mitigation, adaptation and resilience, the Paris Agreement rule book,” said Espinosa. 

“The difficulty is that many of them are interlinked, so if one is resolved, others can be resolved.”

But in the two years since the last UN climate summit took place in person, scant progress has been made despite several rounds of online discussions. 

“Because of the fact we haven’t been able to meet in person until now, we have basically not yet started the negotiations of the documents,” said Espinosa.

The Mexican diplomat said that a concrete agreement on the yearly $100 billion promised way back in 2009 would help galvanise talks in Glasgow.

“It would build trust and also give us the means to make progress on some other issues,” she said. 

The UN says that to keep the 1.5C Paris goal in play, emissions must fall more than 7 percent every year this decade. 

Although the pandemic did see carbon pollution fall by roughly that amount in 2020, governments are once again ploughing funds into fossil fuel projects to power their economic recoveries. 

This means emissions are all but certain to rebound to pre-pandemic levels this year — a far cry from a 1.5-C compliant pathway.

“This decade is the decisive decade,” said Espinosa. 

French experts on Wednesday said they had measured Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in western Europe, at almost a metre lower than its previous official height.

Geographical experts said that after an expedition in mid-September the mighty mountain in the heart of the French Alps was 4,807.81 metres (15,773.65 feet) high, lower than their last published estimate of 4,808.72 metres (15,776.64 feet) in 2017.

“Now it’s up to climatologists, glaciologists and other scientists to look at all the data collected and put forward all the theories to explain this phenomenon,” they told a press conference in the town of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, at the foot of Mont Blanc.

As alarm grows worldwide over the melting of glaciers, the official height of Mont Blanc has been on a downward slide for over a decade. The highest reading was 4,810.90 metres (15,783.79 feet) in 2007.

The mountain has been losing an average of 13 centimetres in height annually since 2001, the geographical experts said.

The objective of regular measurements is to create a model of the ice sheet and to feed a precise data bank which will be made available to all experts.

The readings vary from year to year as the summit is covered with a layer of permanent snow which functions like a huge snowdrift and varies with high winds and precipitation.

“Since the dawn of time, the altitude of Mont Blanc has varied continuously,” the experts said, noting that the “rocky” part of the summit culminates at 4,792 metres.

The measurement expedition is carried out every two years, but the experts revealed Wednesday they did not publish the “exceptionally low” figure in 2019 of 4,806.03 metres.

This reading needed to be taken with “a pinch of salt” and the decision was taken at the time to wait for the 2021 measure “for more scientific explanations,” they said.

This year’s outing benefited from exceptional weather conditions, making it the most accurate reading yet, they added, while warning against rushing to interpretation.

“We should not draw hasty conclusions about measurements which have been carried out only since 2001 with this kind of precision,” said Denis Borel, one of the experts. 

Children’s textbooks, utensils, clothing and crops: all lost to rising floodwaters that have forced tens of thousands of people in South Sudan to leave their wrecked homes as overflowing rivers deluge farmland and swallow up livestock.

Barely 16 kilometres (10 miles) from the capital Juba, the devastation is apparent, with locals surrounded by water as they try to feed their children and find a safe place to sleep.

“The water is too much,” a visibly distressed Sabina Nene told AFP.  

“The rain came and drenched us (overnight),” the 30-year-old widow said, as she attempted to dry maize (corn) to prepare porridge for her four children.

Like thousands of other farmers stranded by the downpour in the suburb of Kworjik, she now uses flood water for all her family’s basic needs, including for drinking and cooking.

Too exhausted to worry about the health risks, other concerns weigh on her mind.

“We want tents, this is the first thing. We want mosquito nets because the mosquitoes are too many and disturb us,” she said.

“And we want food.”

Kworjik official James Subek Pitia told AFP that at least 9,000 locals were affected by the floods there. That is a fraction of the 426,000 people reeling from the disaster across the world’s youngest country, according to the UN’s emergency response agency.

Emergency workers have used canoes and boats to reach cut-off populations, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a briefing note last week, warning that more heavy rains and flooding were expected in the coming months.

– Fleeing families –

Some families fled Kworjik for Juba, local resident Albert Alsayo Laku told AFP, while others have taken shelter in churches and in a handful of tall under-construction buildings that managed to withstand the deluge.

But the majority stayed back or set up makeshift camps along a highway connecting Kworjik with Juba, grabbing what few possessions they could from the ruins of their flimsy thatched huts.

“We want the government to come to our rescue and relocate us from this place,” said Laku, who has 11 children.

The disaster, which has also damaged health facilities and schools, came a year after record floods affected some 700,000 people in the East African nation.

Around 100,000 of those displaced last year have still not returned home, according to OCHA.

In some parts of the country, conflict has complicated efforts to help those in need, with UN teams struggling to get aid to some 25,000 people in Warrap, a northwestern state plagued by ethnic violence.

Funding shortages threaten to exacerbate the misery. 

OCHA last month warned of limited supplies and a cash shortfall, saying that it had received only 54 percent of the $1.7 billion required to pay for programmes in South Sudan.

The UN’s World Food Programme said earlier this month that it has suspended food aid to over 100,000 displaced people in the country, warning of further reductions unless it receives more cash.

Four out of five of South Sudan’s 11 million people live in “absolute poverty”, according to the World Bank in 2018, while more than 60 percent of its population suffers from severe hunger from the combined effects of conflict, drought and floods.

The forthcoming COP26 summit — which could determine the viability of the Paris Agreement — will “not be easy” but an outcome matching the urgency of the crisis is an “absolute necessity”, the UN’s climate chief said Wednesday.

As the world faces stronger and more frequent droughts, wildfires, flooding and storm surges made worse as the planet warms, the COP26 summit in Glasgow is being billed by organisers as a key milestone for keeping the Paris goals within reach.

“The point is decisions need to be taken now, that is why Glasgow is so important,” UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa told AFP 

Struck to international fanfare in 2015, the accord commits nations to limit global temperature rises to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above those before the onset of the Industrial Revolution. 

It also saw countries promise to stick to a safer warming cap of 1.5C through sweeping emissions cuts. 

Yet, 6 years on, atmospheric levels of planet-warming CO2 have risen steadily and are now at their highest concentrations in roughly three million years. 

The latest round of country-by-country emission-cutting pledges — baked into the Paris deal’s “rachet” mechanism of ever-increasing ambition — put Earth on course to warm a “catastrophic” 2.7C this century.

COP26, delayed a year due to the pandemic, will provide another chance for states to agree key outstanding elements of the Paris rulebook, or how the aspirational goals outlined in the deal function in practice.

Espinosa acknowledged to AFP that the two-week negotiations, which begin in Glasgow on October 31, “will not be easy”.

Speaking on the sidelines of a UN-backed gathering of some 400 youth climate activists in Milan, she said: “I think that at this moment in time it’s an absolute necessity that we come out of the conference and present to the world a message of hope, a message of clarity on where we are going”. 

– ‘Finance builds trust’ –

The laundry list for delegates in Glasgow will be daunting. 

Nations will be asked again to redouble their emissions reductions plans to get them better in line with 1.5C, as well as to finalise the Paris rulebook and resolve the repeatedly deferred dispute over carbon markets. 

Poorer nations already dealing with extreme weather supercharged by climate change have repeatedly called on wealthier nations — largely responsible for the emissions that drive global heating — to make good on a decade-old promise to provide $100 billion annually to help out. 

“The elements are clear: finance, ambition and mitigation, adaptation and resilience, the Paris Agreement rule book,” said Espinosa. 

“The difficulty is that many of them are interlinked, so if one is resolved, others can be resolved.”

But in the two years since the last UN climate summit took place in person, scant progress has been made despite several rounds of online discussions. 

“Because of the fact we haven’t been able to meet in person until now, we have basically not yet started the negotiations of the documents,” said Espinosa.

The Mexican diplomat said that a concrete agreement on the yearly $100 billion promised way back in 2009 would help galvanise talks in Glasgow.

“It would build trust and also give us the means to make progress on some other issues,” she said. 

The UN says that to keep the 1.5C Paris goal in play, emissions must fall more than 7 percent every year this decade. 

Although the pandemic did see carbon pollution fall by roughly that amount in 2020, governments are once again ploughing funds into fossil fuel projects to power their economic recoveries. 

This means emissions are all but certain to rebound to pre-pandemic levels this year — a far cry from a 1.5-C compliant pathway.

“This decade is the decisive decade,” said Espinosa. 

Toxic gases produced by lava entering the sea from an erupting volcano in the Canary Islands present only a “low” risk to the local population, an official said Wednesday. 

The Cumbre Vieja volcano, which straddles a southern ridge in La Palma, an island with 85,000 inhabitants, erupted on September 19.

It has spewed out rivers of lava that have slowly crept towards the sea, entering the water on Tuesday night just after 11:00 pm local time (2200 GMT).

Experts had warned that the entry of the white-hot magma into the sea was likely to release clouds of acidic gas into the air, which could irritate the skin, eyes and respiratory tracts, possibly causing breathing difficulties. 

But windy conditions overnight blew the gas towards the sea, reducing the risk, said Rubén Fernández, head of the Canary Island’s Pevolca volcanic emergency committee. 

“We have a strong wind in the area which is blowing the cloud of gases towards the sea, so the risk for the local population is much lower” than initially feared, he told Spain’s public radio. 

Images on public television showed a glowing stream of lava pouring into the sea, churning up huge clouds of vapour and gas. 

Some 300 residents of the town of Tazacorte and the area where the lava was expected to enter the sea were ordered to stay at home early Monday, as a precautionary measure to avoid harm from the emissions. 

“Right now we have no indication that makes us think there is any danger for those who are confined in their homes, nor for the emergency teams which are observing a safety distance,” Fernández said. 

The islands’ government had set up a 3.5-kilometre (2-mile) no-go zone on land and a two nautical mile perimeter at sea to keep people safe. 

A state of natural disaster has been declared on the island, where the molten rock has so far scorched its way across more than 268 hectares (662 acres) of land and destroyed 656 buildings, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Earth Observation Programme.

The government on Tuesday released 10.5 million euros ($12.3 million) in aid for victims of the eruption, notably for housing for those whose homes were engulfed in lava.

The eruption has forced the evacuation of more than 6,000 people from their homes, but has not killed or injured anyone.

Lava from an erupting volcano in the Canary Islands has reached the ocean, volcanologists said, raising fears of toxic gases being released as the magma hits the seawater.

The Spanish archipelago had earlier declared an exclusion zone of two nautical miles around the location the lava was expected to enter the Atlantic and asked residents to stay at home.

“The lava flow has reached the sea at Playa Nueva,” the Canary Islands Volcanic Institute (Involcan) said on Twitter Tuesday night.

The Cumbre Vieja volcano, which straddles a southern ridge in La Palma, an island with 85,000 inhabitants, erupted on September 19, spewing out rivers of lava that have slowly crept towards the sea.

Dramatic television images showed a stream of glowing lava cascading off a cliff into the water, creating a large cloud of smoke.

The lava flow had already generated an impressive deposit more than 50 metres (164 feet) high, researchers from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography tweeted, posting pictures from the research vessel Ramon Margalef.

Residents of several areas of Tazacorte, a village near the coast, were told Monday to stay at home to avoid harm from the release of toxic gases that can take place due to a reaction between the 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit) lava and water.

On Tuesday afternoon, the slow-moving lava flow, which has varied in speed over the past few days, was still around 800 metres (half a mile) from the coast.

Residents were warned to stay home due to “the possibility that there will be a small shock when the magma enters the seawater, and that this small shock causes vapours which can be toxic,” stressed Miguel Angel Morcuende, technical director of the Canary Islands Volcanic Emergency Plan (Pevolca).

– Homes destroyed –

Experts say the entry of lava into the seawater could cause explosions sounding like gunshots and a fragmentation of the molten rock.

“Inhalation or contact with acid gases and liquids can irritate the skin, eyes and respiratory tract, and may cause breathing difficulties, especially in people with pre-existing respiratory diseases,” Involcan warned.

The two last eruptions on La Palma, in 1949 and 1971, killed a total of three people, two of them from gas inhalation.

A state of natural disaster has been declared on the island, where the molten rock has so far scorched its way across more than 268 hectares (662 acres) of land and destroyed 656 buildings, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Earth Observation Programme.

The government on Tuesday released 10.5 million euros ($12.3 million) in aid for victims of the eruption, in particular to buy housing for those whose homes were engulfed in lava.

The eruption has forced the evacuation of more than 6,000 people from their homes but has not killed or injured anyone.

The lava flow has destroyed several roads, with the Canaries regional head Angel Victor Torres estimating last week that the damage to land and property would exceed 400 million euros.

Since it erupted, the volcano has been spewing huge columns of smoke and ash reaching several hundred metres high, disrupting air traffic.

Domestic flights were cancelled on Friday and the airport was closed the following day.

The airport has since reopened but flights remain suspended.

Experts estimate the eruption could last for several weeks, or even months.

Like other islands in the archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa, La Palma relies mainly on the cultivation of bananas and tourism.

Lava from an erupting volcano in the Canary Islands has reached the ocean, volcanologists said, raising fears of toxic gases being released as the molten magma hits the seawater.

The Spanish archipelago had earlier declared an exclusion zone of two nautical miles around the location the lava was expected to enter the Atlantic and asked residents to stay at home.

“The lava flow has reached the sea at Playa Nueva,” the Canary Islands Volcanic Institute (Involcan) said on Twitter Tuesday night.

La Cumbre Vieja volcano, which straddles a southern ridge in La Palma, an island with 85,000 inhabitants, erupted on September 19, spewing out rivers of lava that have slowly crept towards the sea.

Television images showed a stream of glowing lava entering the water, creating a large cloud of smoke.

Residents of several areas of Tazacorte, a village near the coast, were told Monday to stay at home to avoid harm from the release of toxic gases that can take place due to a reaction between the 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit) molten lava and water.

On Tuesday afternoon, the slow-moving lava flow, which has varied in speed over the past few days, was still around 800 metres (half a mile) from the coast.

Residents were warned to stay home due to “the possibility that there will be a small shock when the magma enters the seawater, and that this small shock causes vapours which can be toxic,” stressed Miguel Angel Morcuende, technical director of the Canary Islands Volcanic Emergency Plan (Pevolca).

– Homes destroyed –

Experts say the entry of lava into the seawater could cause explosions and a fragmentation of the molten rock like gunshots. 

“Inhalation or contact with acid gases and liquids can irritate the skin, eyes and respiratory tract, and may cause breathing difficulties, especially in people with pre-existing respiratory diseases,” Involcan warned.

The two last eruptions on La Palma, in 1949 and 1971, killed a total of three people, two of them from gas inhalation.

A state of natural disaster has been declared on the island, where the molten rock has so far scorched its way across more than 268 hectares (660 acres) of land and destroyed 656 buildings, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Earth Observation Programme.

The government on Tuesday released 10.5 million euros ($12.3 million) in aid for victims of the eruption, in particular to buy housing for those whose homes were engulfed in lava.

The eruption has forced the evacuation of more than 6,000 people from their homes but has not killed or injured anyone.

The lava flow has destroyed several roads, with the Canaries regional head Angel Victor Torres estimating last week that the damage to land and property would exceed 400 million euros.

Since it erupted, the volcano has been spewing huge columns of smoke and ash reaching several hundred metres high, disrupting air traffic.

Domestic flights were cancelled on Friday and the airport was closed the following day.

The airport has since reopened but flights remain suspended.

Experts estimate the eruption could last for several weeks, or even months.

Like other islands in the archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa, La Palma relies mainly on the cultivation of bananas and tourism.

Lava from an erupting volcano in the Canary Islands has reached the ocean, volcanologists said, raising fears of toxic gases being released as the molten magma hits the seawater.

The Spanish archipelago had earlier declared an exclusion zone of two nautical miles around the location the lava was expected to enter the Atlantic and asked residents to stay at home.

“The lava flow has reached the sea at Playa Nueva,” the Canary Islands Volcanic Institute (Involcan) said on Twitter Tuesday night.

La Cumbre Vieja volcano, which straddles a southern ridge in La Palma, an island with 85,000 inhabitants, erupted on September 19, spewing out rivers of lava that have slowly crept towards the sea.

Television images showed a stream of glowing lava entering the water, creating a large cloud of smoke.

Residents of several areas of Tazacorte, a village near the coast, were told Monday to stay at home to avoid harm from the release of toxic gases that can take place due to a reaction between the 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit) molten lava and water.

On Tuesday afternoon, the slow-moving lava flow, which has varied in speed over the past few days, was still around 800 metres (half a mile) from the coast.

Residents were warned to stay home due to “the possibility that there will be a small shock when the magma enters the seawater, and that this small shock causes vapours which can be toxic,” stressed Miguel Angel Morcuende, technical director of the Canary Islands Volcanic Emergency Plan (Pevolca).

– Homes destroyed –

Experts say the entry of lava into the seawater could cause explosions and a fragmentation of the molten rock like gunshots. 

“Inhalation or contact with acid gases and liquids can irritate the skin, eyes and respiratory tract, and may cause breathing difficulties, especially in people with pre-existing respiratory diseases,” Involcan warned.

The two last eruptions on La Palma, in 1949 and 1971, killed a total of three people, two of them from gas inhalation.

A state of natural disaster has been declared on the island, where the molten rock has so far scorched its way across more than 268 hectares (660 acres) of land and destroyed 656 buildings, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Earth Observation Programme.

The government on Tuesday released 10.5 million euros ($12.3 million) in aid for victims of the eruption, in particular to buy housing for those whose homes were engulfed in lava.

The eruption has forced the evacuation of more than 6,000 people from their homes but has not killed or injured anyone.

The lava flow has destroyed several roads, with the Canaries regional head Angel Victor Torres estimating last week that the damage to land and property would exceed 400 million euros.

Since it erupted, the volcano has been spewing huge columns of smoke and ash reaching several hundred metres high, disrupting air traffic.

Domestic flights were cancelled on Friday and the airport was closed the following day.

The airport has since reopened but flights remain suspended.

Experts estimate the eruption could last for several weeks, or even months.

Like other islands in the archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa, La Palma relies mainly on the cultivation of bananas and tourism.

Lava from an erupting volcano in the Canary Islands has reached the ocean, volcanologists said, raising fear of toxic gases being released as the lava hits the sea water.

The regional government of the Spanish archipelago had already declared an exclusion zone of two nautical miles around where the lava was expected to enter the Atlantic and asked nearby residents to stay at home.

“The lava flow has reached the sea at Playa Nueva,” the Canary Islands Volcanic Institute (Involcan) said on Twitter Tuesday night.

La Cumbre Vieja volcano, which straddles a southern ridge in La Palma, an island with 85,000 inhabitants, erupted on September 19, spewing out rivers of lava that have slowly crept towards the sea.

Residents of several areas of Tazacorte, a village near the coast, were told Monday to stay at home to avoid harm from the release of toxic gases that can take place due to a reaction between molten lava and water. 

On Tuesday afternoon, the slow-moving lava flow, which has varied in speed over the past few days, even halting at one point, was still around 800 metres (half a mile) from the coast, making it impossible to predict when it would reach the ocean.

Residents were warned to stay home due to “the possibility that there will be a small shock when the magma enters the sea water, and that this small shock causes vapours which can be toxic,” stressed Miguel Angel Morcuende, technical director of the Canary Islands Volcanic Emergency Plan (Pevolca).

Experts say the entry of lava into the seawater will send clouds of toxic gas into the air, causing explosions and a fragmentation of the molten rock like gunshots. 

“Inhalation or contact with acid gases and liquids can irritate the skin, eyes and respiratory tract, and may cause breathing difficulties, especially in people with pre-existing respiratory diseases,” Involcan warned.

A state of natural disaster has been declared on the island, where the molten rock has so far scorched its way across more than 258 hectares (640 acres) of land and destroyed 589 properties — not all of them homes, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Earth Observation Programme.

The government earlier Tuesday released 10.5 million euros ($12.3 million) in aid for victims of the eruption, in particular to buy housing for those whose homes were engulfed in lava.

The eruption has forced the evacuation of more than 6,000 people from their homes but has not killed or injured anyone so far.

The island of La Palma lives mainly from the cultivation of bananas and tourism. 

Humans can probably live to at least 130, and possibly well beyond, though the chances of reaching such super old age remain vanishingly small, according to new research.

The outer limit of the human lifespan has long been hotly debated, with recent studies making the case we could live up to 150 years, or arguing that there is no maximum theoretical age for humans.

The new research, published Wednesday in the Royal Society Open Science journal, wades into the debate by analysing new data on supercentenarians — people aged 110 or more — and semi-supercentenarians, aged 105 or more.

While the risk of death generally increases throughout our lifetime, the researchers’ analysis shows that risk eventually plateaus and remains constant at approximately 50-50.

“Beyond age 110 one can think of living another year as being almost like flipping a fair coin,” said Anthony Davison, a professor of statistics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), who led the research.

“If it comes up heads, then you live to your next birthday, and if not, then you will die at some point within the next year,” he told AFP.

Based on the data available so far, it seems likely that humans can live until at least 130, but extrapolating from the findings “would imply that there is no limit to the human lifespan,” the research concludes.

The conclusions match similar statistical analyses done on datasets of the very elderly.

“But this study strengthens those conclusions and makes them more precise because more data are now available,” Davison said.

The first dataset the team studied is newly released material from the International Database on Longevity, which covers more than 1,100 supercentenarians from 13 countries.

The second is from Italy on every person who was at least 105 between January 2009 and December 2015.

– ‘One in a million’ –

The work involves extrapolating from existing data, but Davison said that was a logical approach.

“Any study of extreme old age, whether statistical or biological, will involve extrapolation,” he said.

“We were able to show that if a limit below 130 years exists, we should have been able to detect it by now using the data now available,” he added.

Still, just because humans can theoretically reach 130 or beyond, doesn’t mean we’re likely to see it anytime soon.

For a start, the analysis is based on people who have already achieved the relatively rare feat of making it to well over 100.

And even at age 110, your chances of making it to 130 are “about one in a million… not impossible but very unlikely,” said Davison.

He thinks we could see people reaching 130 within the century, as more people make it to supercentenarian status, increasing the chances of one becoming that one in a million.

“But in the absence of major medical and social advances, ages much over this are highly unlikely ever to be observed,” he added.

For now, the oldest person on record is Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the confirmed age of 122.

Her true age was the subject of some controversy, with claims of a possible fraud, but in 2019 several experts said a review of the evidence confirmed her age.

Other pretenders to the throne of oldest person ever have a long way to go. The oldest verified living person in the world is Japan’s Kane Tanaka, a comparatively youthful 118.