Thanks to Douglas Coker for locating the third of three articles by Elizabeth Kolbert online here. She finishes with this question:

'As the effects of global warming become more and more apparent, will we react by finally fashioning a global response? Or will we retreat into ever narrower and more destructive forms of self-interest? It may seem impossible to imagine that a technologically advanced society could choose, in essence, to destroy itself, but that is what we are now in the process of doing'.

(See also an earlier entry in this blog on Kolbert The art of good science writing).

CH