“The consensus among climate scientists that climate change is being driven mainly by human activity is now 95%, according to a leaked draft report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This is up from 90% in the previous – or fourth – IPCC assessment, which was released in 2007. The draft, which synthesises the results of thousands of peer-reviewed studies over the past six years, projects that seas will rise by between 29cm and 82cm by the end of the century, if greenhouse gas emissions continue to soar, and that temperatures will rise by a maximum of 4.5°C. At 2,200 pages, the report has 840 authors from 138 countries. However, most of the contributors are from Britain and the US. As well as including future projections, the report seeks to explain why global temperatures have risen more slowly since the 1990s, even though carbon emissions have accelerated. It says it has “medium confidence” that this is due to natural variations in the weather, and an increase in the amount of heat being absorbed by deep ocean currents”. (The Guardian).

The chances of getting any meaningful action is small, given the pecuniary interests involved. The oil and mining companies have a massive interest in the status quo. Epicureans should vote for any enlightened person with the power to knock sense into the short-sighted and do what they can to persuade the unpersuaded. But in the end we have to spend time in the Garden value our friends and keep our fingers crossed that some smart person finds an answer. Odds? About 500 to 1 against, but then what else can we do?