Blah, blah, blah: Left-wing warmist Elizabeth Kolbert suggests that the threat of slightly warmer weather is like the threat of being shot directly in the head with a .44 magnum

Comment: Two Degrees of Disaster : The New Yorker

In fact, many scientists have warned that holding the average global temperature increase to “only” two degrees Celsius is a bit like limiting yourself to “only” a few rounds of Russian roulette: unless you’re uncommonly lucky, the result is not likely to be happy.

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Meanwhile, even if it’s only self-interest in the narrowest possible sense that moves people, global warming still ought to be high on almost everybody’s list of concerns. Between here and 4°C, or now and the 2070s, there are all sorts of potential calamities of which the punishing drought in Texas, the flooding in Thailand, and the famine that has recently killed tens of thousands of Somalis are just a foretaste.

Later this month, representatives from around the world will meet in Durban for another round of international climate negotiations. Because all of the trends have been heading in the wrong direction since Copenhagen, the expectation is that little will be accomplished. But, of course, the direction of the trends is precisely why urgent steps are needed. As the new I.E.A. report points out, delaying action on climate change is a “false economy”; every dollar we don’t spend today, we will end up spending several times over in a much hotter, more dangerous world.