Climate change gurus should cool it and not set their sights too high

THE radio came on the other morning at 7 o’clock as usual: “We are now facing the end of the world as we know it”. My ears pricked up. I was instantly wide awake. What could this be? An exchange of nuclear weapons? A terrorist attack? A trailer for a new series of Doctor Who?

On the contrary, it was yet another prophecy of doom posing as a news item reporting the UN’s view that the evidence for global warming is now “unequivocal”. Hmmm. The words of one geologist came to mind: “The public appetite for all this crap seems to be insatiable.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is warning that average world surface temperatures could rise by three degrees celsius by 2100, and possibly even more, if no measures are taken to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.