You wouldn't know it from the happy spin emanating from the Oval Office, but a Third World revolt in Bonn, Germany, this week almost derailed the Paris climate change negotiations in November. Although peace has been restored for now, it only happened by papering over this fundamental conundrum: The world can either avert climate catastrophe or seek "climate justice," not both.

But let us return to James Lovelock for a moment; early on in The Vanishing Face of Gaia he does recognize his pessimism and the fact that the the grim message in his last book, The Revenge of Gaia, gave us nothing to hope for.

(harnessing the power of waves could help our climate, according to Lomborg.)

Catastrophic climate destabilization. Sounds scary, right? Well, quite frankly, most of the projected impacts of our changing climate are, in fact, very scary. But is fear useful to us in this situation?

To be honest, when Lovelock says in The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning that “it is too late for us to try to save our familiar world,” the effect for me is that hope and optimism quickly dissipate. It’s hard to act when failure is guaranteed.

(Dust Bowl, circa 1930s. By U.S. Department of Agriculture (NRCSDC01008) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)

So, on the advice of Greg Craven, we ask the question: what’s the worst that could happen? Looking to sources we believe are highly credible, we find James Lovelock, fellow of the Royal Society, former NASA consultant and author of The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning, who tells us that “we do have to take seriously the possibility that global heating may all but eliminate people from the Earth.” A solemn response to our question.

If the Greenland ice sheet melts completely, will drive up sea levels in the coming decades by about 20 feet. Photo: AFP

Researchers gather empirical data from the bone chilling glaciers in Greenland to assess the impact of climate change amid the looming threat of suspension of government funds for these projects...

Greg Craven, the high school science teacher who created The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See 2, also wrote a book called What's the Worst That Could Happen?: A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate. A quick, easy, and fun read, this little book explains the platforms of the "warmers" and the "skeptics," or those who support the idea that we should take significant action to cut carbon emissions and those who oppose this idea, respectively.