The symptoms of our planetary fever are becoming more obvious
with each passing year. Now a place that has been locked in
solid ice since our ancestors were swinging from the trees is
turning to liquid, way ahead of previous scientific predictions.
Robert Corell, one of America's leading climate scientists,
warns: "If you want to see what will happen to the rest of the
world, look to the Arctic. It happens there first." The speed
with which this is happening suggests it won't just happen to
the grandchildren and polar bears politicians keep evoking in
speeches. It will happen to us. The world's climate scientists
are warning that in my lifetime, we could be on course for five
degrees of warming. What would that mean? Another tipping point
sees massive amounts of methane – a potent greenhouse gas –
released by melting Siberian permafrost, further boosting global
warming. Much human habitation in southern Europe, north Africa,
the Middle East and other sub-tropical areas is rendered
unviable due to excessive he