A Sicker, Poorer, and Less Abundant World

Yesterday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published another one of its tomelike reports on the dangers of global warming. It is, it must be said, a dry and colorless document. Tasked with describing the impacts of climate change on human society and the natural world—which is to say, every living thing—as well as how humanity might adapt to those convulsions, it falls back on phrases such as “ecosystems, people, settlements, and infrastructure.” Kraftwerk was more lyrical. The style of every IPCC report is the same: It piles fact upon fact, until the picture is overwhelming.

“The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health,” this one concludes. In order to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, humanity must begin to significantly reduce carbon emissions during its “brief