Six Degrees Wins

How's this for cataclysmic book-cover art: Big Ben washed aside by a giant tidal wave? Author Mark Lynas has just won this year's Royal Society prize for Science Books, worth £10,000, for his book on global warming: Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet. Mark explains how each degree rise in temperature (maximum 6, one assumes) will change our planet: droughts, floods, mass extinctions. It's "compelling and gripping" stuff, according to Professor Jonathan Ashmore, the chair of the judges. Why not send a copy to President Bush before he leaves office? On second thoughts, send him the National Geographic video. He can view it on TV while he's adding to global warming by jetting round the world.