May we get sense and keep this world degree by degree

We humans have reached payback time, and if we put the final boot into Mother Nature we will see off ourselves and all other life on this unique rock, and return it to the insignificance of a dead moon, writes Damien Enright

If we let the planet warm just 1ºC above present pre-industrial levels (it is already 1ºC above these levels), further warming to 3ºC will be unstoppable. A millennium of deprivation, desperation and wars will follow before all goes cold and quiet. The job will have been done.