"When we look at the last 4 decades, we've seen 0.5°C global warming. Some people say, 'well that's not much!' Then I tell them to think of their bodies: 2°C extra and you'd have a fever. An extra 4°C and you'd be dead!"—Prof. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber.

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Bite notes: The human body is regulated internally at around 37°C (~98F). A temperature rise of two degree C would produce delirium in most people and would need immediate treatment. It is not advisable to mentally calibrate temperature measurements of the human body, or of global climate, on the same scale we would for temperature variations relating to other aspects of our lives.

Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, is known as "John" to his English-speaking friends. Among other positions, he is Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), in conjunction with a Chair for Theoretical Physics at the University of Potsdam, Germany.

This quote can be heard in a lecture given by Prof. Schellnhuber at climate conference held at the University of Melbourne in July 2011

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