Most of you will probably be aware that the United Nations Doha Climate Change Conference is lumbering to a close . Delegates sit in air-conditioned comfort in a country which is perhaps a small foretaste of our future world and struggle to make decisions that are in some way meaningful. As a result, we have been getting updates on the latest findings of climate science, and the results are not pretty. Data on increases in emissions, rises in sea levels and trends in average global temperatures are all worse than expected. Melting permafrost adds an element to warming that most models didn't include because of previously inconclusive evidence. Climate scientists are pessimistic about our ability to acheive the objective of keeping warming to 2 degrees celsius by 2100, and 4 degrees is being discussed. A recent World Bank report suggests the human consequences of such a rise would be catastrophic. Here's a bit of what they say. Even with the current mitigation
'Contemplating the teeming life of the shore, we have an uneasy sense of the communication of some universal truth that lies just beyond our grasp.' - Rachel Carson