Climate change was not even discussed at the G20 last month. It was not even brought up over beer and seal flippers. Thus climate is clearly not of concern anymore for any government. Besides, Britain is broke pal, money for climate crap is off the table. I’d say you had better start looking for a new job.

The financial crisis, budget cuts, and changes in government obviously raise questions about commitment and resources for addressing climate change. But I think the advantages of the Hadley Centre 4 degree map and the new Google Earth version of it are quite different things. They make more specific and visible the expected impacts of 4 degree warming. So much of the challenge in fostering strong response is in communication of risks and impacts. These tools are advances in that regard given their accessibility especially.

The fact that the UK has a serving Rear Admiral, double hatted with MOD and FCO, as climate and energy security envoy is something not many countries can claim. It is significant both for the seniority of the serving officer and for the ability of MOD and FCO to work together. We in the United States do have some leaders still in uniform (as opposed to a fair number of retired officers) exhibiting leadership on this issue – RADM David Titley, the oceanographer of the Navy comes to mind for one.

Their involvement is not going to "solve" the climate challenge as they are first and foremost on what climate means for security actors, not directly solving the climate challenges. But they are welcome voices bringing sophisticated risk analysis tools to bear, highlighting some of the wider climate challenges for societies. And in places like the UK and the United States where they are commonly viewed as trusted voices, their flagging those climate challenges should be beneficial.

Chloe, to prevent a 4 degree world becoming a reality, countries need to understand the risks from climate change to their national prosperity and security. You can help do this by encouraging others to use the Google Earth map to explore themselves what the impact of failing to limit our carbon emissions could be. At the same time, you can work to ensure that within your organization/chain of command action is being taken to reduce CO2 emissions through energy efficiency and use of alternatives to fossil fuels.

Many factors contribute to climate change including both natural and human activity. However, since the Industrial Revolution, additional greenhouse gases have had about ten times the effect on climate as changes in the Sun's output. Most of the climate change that is shown on this map is the result of greenhouse gas emissions, with only very small contributions from natural changes, such as changes in solar output. We know this because if we run the models again, but take out the effect of greenhouse gases on the atmosphere, we no longer see the kind of temperature rises shown here.

Bethrand.
its unfortunate that we have to find ourselves in these situation, for i believe that it was the same issue that gave rise to the extintion of the dinusads age.
lets just develop our environment the best ways we can for 30% emission or not, somebodypeople will still pay for the ones in the air now as we are noticing the effects of the developed nations now