Stern warning on warming

The British government produced an authoritative review in 2010 of projected economic effects of varying levels of global warming.  It is referred to as the "Stern Report", after Sir Nicholas Stern, head of the Government Economic Service at the time.

Below is a figure summarizing the ecologic and economic projected effects.  It's from the executive summary of the report.

We're heading towards the higher end of this plot, as predicted by the rather amazing visualization tool developed by the NCAR based on IPCC-4 data.  The mean prediction for global temperature rise by 2100 is +3C, though more recent modeling has shown even higher deltas.

You can download the complete report from the British National Archives here.  It's meant to be readable by a lay audience.

the Krugginator

"Consider, if you will, the current state of our nation.  Despite hints of economic progress, we're still in the midst of an immense disaster, in which unemployment and underemployment are devastating millions of America lives.  And none of this need be happening!  There has been no plague of locusts; we have not lost our technological know-how.  Americans should be richer, not poorer, than they were five years ago.  Yet economic policy across the board has become almost passive, has essentially accepted this disaster instead of trying to end it."

--Paul Krugman, NYT, April 20, 2012