Climate change: Prepare for global temperature rise of 4C, warns top scientist | Environment | The Guardian

"My own feeling is that if we get to a 4 degree rise it is quite possible that we would begin to see a runaway increase," said [alarmist David] King.

He said a two-and-half-year analysis by the government's Foresight programme on the implications for coastal defences had more impact in the corridors of power than any other research on the effects of climate change that he presented.

"No other single factor focussed the minds of the cabinet more than the analysis that I produced through that ... We begin to have to talk about ordered retreat from some areas of Britain because it becomes impossible to defend," he said. "There's no choice here between adaptation and mitigation, we have to do both."