I think we have a very brief window of opportunity to deal with climate change. No longer than a decade at most.

The last time the world was three degrees warmer than today-which is what we expect later this century-sea levels were 25m higher. So that is what we can look forward to if we don't act soon.

The democratic process is supposed to be one person one vote, but it turns out that money is talking louder than the votes.

What has become clear from the science is that we cannot burn all of the fossil fuels without creating a very different planet.

The fact is fossil fuel carbon will stay in the surface climate system for millennia.

If we fail to act, we will end up with a different planet.

Several times in Earth's history, rapid global warming occurred, apparently spurred by amplifying feedbacks. In each case, more than half of plant and animal species became extinct. New species came into being over tens and hundreds of thousands of years. But these are time scales and generations that we cannot imagine.