You Know That "Winter" We Had?

According to a new report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, winters like that may be the new normal. The 594-page report, with authors from 62 countries, has basically said that stopping climate change wholesale is pretty much impossible at this point, given woefully inadequate action taken by the world as a whole. Asia and low-lying areas are expected to take the brunt of it, particularly island nations and the Third World, but every nation is expected to take damage.

First against the wall among large cities is expected to be Mumbai, India, which the report warns could become uninhabitable. Miami was also singled out as a city at particular risk, as were Bangkok, Shanghai, Ho Chi Minh City, Kolkata, Yangon and Guangzhou.

And yes, there will be more, stronger heat waves. Stronger and stronger and stronger as the years go by.

The focus, according to the report, is now on trying to implement "low regrets" solutions over the next few decades. As Chris Field of the Carnegie Institution puts it, "That's a time frame where most of the climate change that will occur is already baked into the system and where even aggressive climate policies in the short term are not going to have their full effects."

Or in other words, 'you all spent too many years bickering over who ought to take responsibility and do something before everyone else first, nobody did anything, and now it's too late and people are going to die. Congratulations, assholes. Hope you're happy.'