David "Climate Nuremberg" Roberts tries again to simplify things for us: He compares the Earth with 400 ppm CO2 to a "morbidly obese" human who is quite likely to die within a year

The doctor and the life coach: A question for Andy Revkin | Grist

Say you are morbidly obese -- you weigh 350 pounds. You go see a doctor and she gives you some blunt, upsetting news: Unless you lose 100 pounds within a year, you're likely to develop a variety of life-threatening complications. It's impossible to predict these things with precision, she tells you, but based on the best current health science, your chances of dying within the year are quite high and getting higher every day. And even if you don't die, you're likely to live the rest of your life in suffering. Just to be sure, you check with a few more doctors, but they all tell you roughly the same thing.