72 months and counting … | Andrew Simms | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

in one paper, according to Kevin Anderson and Alice Bows of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Research at the University of Manchester, the impacts related to a rise of just half that are so bad, "that 2C now represents the threshold [of] extremely dangerous climate change".

This is the problem. Once the planet warms to the point where environmental changes that further add to warming feed off each other, it becomes almost meaningless to specify just how much warmer the planet may get. You've toppled the first domino and it becomes virtually impossible to stop the following chain of events. Honestly, nobody really knows exactly where that will end, but they do know it will end very, very badly.

Cancún climate change summit: UK government gets cosy with corporations | Environment | guardian.co.uk

The main conference centre is at the mighty Moon Palace resort, which is 35km away from most hotels and actually comprises three separate monstrous complexes. To get to the Moon, people must take off in a bus, travel 40km, go through a security check, and then take another bus a further 10km. When on the Moon, it is nearly a mile between the press centre and the hall where the press conferences take place, and a further mile or so between there and where government delegations hang out.

Add to this intermittent internet access, one-hour traffic jams, a boiling sun and freezing aircon, and you have all the elements of a PR disaster with delegates despairing and lost journos rushing around. Still, the British government has done well for itself. Delegates have a very nice flat on the beach, right next door to the US delegation. Name of the place? The Tequila building.