A senior British scientist has urged us all to prepare for global temperature rises of 4ºC.

Last year climate scientists warned the UN climate change conference in Bali that the emissions must be cut with a goal of limiting warming “to limit global warming to no more than 2ºC above the pre-industrial temperature” (Nature News story). A four degree rise would be seriously damaging to a whole host of things, not least people, as you can see on this National Geographic video, which is a little reminiscent of The Day After Tomorrow.

“There is no doubt that we should aim to limit changes in the global mean surface temperature to 2ºC above pre-industrial,” Bob Watson, chief scientific adviser to the UK’s Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, told the Guardian newspaper. “But given this is an ambitious target, and we don’t know in detail how to limit greenhouse gas emissions to realise a 2 degree target, we should be prepared to adapt to 4ºC.”

In an editorial the Guardian says four degrees is “a rise deep in catastrophe territory”:

Even at 3ºC between a fifth and a half of all species would face extinction. At 4ºC some human populations could be heading the same way.

The more traditional and stiff-upper-lip Daily Telegraph says a four degree rise “would be disastrous”. Although being a traditional English paper it prefers to think of it as a 7 degrees Fahrenheit rise.

Keeping things in the proper perspective is the Daily Mail, which has ascertained that a four degree temperature rise will mean more misery for … users of London’s underground rail network: “Commuters will suffer as temperatures continue to rise,” it says.

Of course fans of metal band Tool already know about all this, as they have for years been singing, “Four degrees now, four degrees warmer. Give in, now. Give in, now.”