A Brief Guide to Status Panic

Yes, I know I said I was going to return to the theme of climate change as soon as I got back from my working trip to England. Regular readers will know that my muse is an unpredictable lady, however, and what she decides to talk about is not always what I had in mind. Add to that long hours sitting on planes and trains and Underground cars, brooding over certain recent events, and unexpected insights are hard to avoid.

The recent events just mentioned, and thus the insights, centered on a conve...