The clock is ticking

Harald Welzer's predictions in his book Climate Wars may be intellectually sound, but we hope he's wrong

The author's choice of sub-title—an offer to explain why people will be killed in the coming decades—is bound to attract attention. And to sound an alarm is precisely his intention: German social psychologist Harald Welzer wants to wrench us from our comfort zone, and recognise that our current lifestyle in the West will end if temperatures rise above two degrees by the end of this century. Despite countries' best efforts, staying within the limits of the Paris climate accord is widely viewed as highly unlikely. The book's premise is that as resources become more scarce, fighting will break out among those trying to use them. This in turn will displace people, provoking violence between refu