Protecting dozens of major coastal cities from future flooding will be challenging enough-rebuilding major coastal cities destroyed by super-hurricanes will be an almost impossible task.

By the end of the third decade of this century, all of American life - politics, international relations, our homes, our jobs, our industries, the kind of cars we drive - will be forever transformed by the climate and energy challenge.

Time is short. We have at most a decade to sharply reverse course.

On our current path, all our great Gulf and Atlantic coast cities are at risk of meeting the same fate as New Orleans.

The last time Earth was 1°C warmer than today, sea levels were 20 feet higher.

If the politics of inaction and delay that have triumphed in this country continues for another decade, then Planetary Purgatory in the likely future facing our country before midcentury - probably in your own lifetime.

Much of the scientific community has been astonished that their increasingly strong and detailed warnings have been either ignored or attacked.