ABSTRACT
Global climate change may be the greatest environmental risk of our time. Of all time. It has the potential to affect all of Earth’s inhabitants, like previous climatic change has, but perhaps in a shorter time-frame and on a larger scale. It could alter life as we know it in many arcane, unpredictable ways. Notice the careful phrasing—‘may be’, ‘potential’, ‘perhaps’, ‘unpredictable’ and ‘could’. These words are used not to diminish the threat that this environmental risk portends, but only to highlight the dynamic state of climate change science and the careful way scientists’ phrase their findings. Unlike previous climatic changes, this one is being observed, predicted, studied, analysed and perhaps adapted to because of scientific discoveries.
