False Alarm

Sometimes I have this dream.

I’m going for a hike and discover a remote farmhouse on fire.

Children are calling for help from the upper windows. So I call the fire brigade. But they don’t come, because some mad person keeps telling them that it is a false alarm.

The situation is getting more and more desperate, but I can’t convince the firemen to get going.

I cannot wake up from this nightmare.

Stefan Rahmstorf

Head of Earth System Analysis

Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research