When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans two years ago, Mark Lynas, like everyone else, was shocked. At the same time, he realised that this was the window into the future, a glimpse of what would be in store if global warming continued to be ignored. Hence, he pored through thousands of scientific papers and laid out the effects of global warming while the Earth heats up degree by degree in his latest book, “Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet”.

Six degrees: what difference do they make? Before you brush this aside as something that tries to make you feel guilty about driving or flying, consider this: 18,000 years ago, the Earth was six degrees cooler. It was an ice age. So what happens if we move six degrees up the opposite direction?

At one degree, the Great Barrier Reef would reduce to rubble and we can wave goodbye to low-lying Pacific Nations. At two degrees, a third of species worldwide would face extinction, and we would be hit regularly by heat waves, although the human race should still get by.
By three degrees, the rainforest would become a desert, as it would burn into ash. The North Pole would have no ice for the first time in three million years. Millions would be “displaced as the Kalahari desert expands across southern Africa.”

At six degrees, it would be practically living hell on Earth. We would not want a repeat of the end of the Permian period, which was the worst catastrophe that befell the planet – up to 95% of species became extinct. Lynas describes scenes of fireballs racing across the sky and crashing into cities with the force of an atomic bomb, “with all the remaining forests burning, and the corpses of people, livestock and wildlife piling up on every continent.”
Having devoted one chapter to each degree rise in planetary temperature, the book suggests that it is time for us to choose our future. The planet is definitely going to heat up by one degree, but we’ve got to stop it there before it’s too late.

But before the sceptics start arguing, the book does emphasise the long-term effects, thousands of years in this case. Lynas was careful in not going beyond the published scientific works, as he claimed at the outset. Alarmist? I think not.

I suppose a total ban on cars is impossible in the near future. However, I would definitely be switching to more walking and cycling. Hey, these serve as forms of exercise at the same time, so why not? In addition, small actions such as reducing the amount of waste and usage of plastics help as well. So spread the word, help in saving our planet together while we still can.