Yesterday's "Behind the Headlines" stories on Dr. Annie Glasspool's report on the potential effects of climate change on Bermuda make for compelling, and at times frightening, reading.

But they also make all the more glaring the reality that Bermuda has yet to get to grips with the strong possibility that Bermuda could be dramatically affected by climate change.

In part that's because it seems somewhat remote and in the meantime other issues feel more pressing.

But it may also be due to the fact that, along with an unusually cold winter and a failed international summit on the issue, climate change science has come under some assault in recent months.

There is not the space to go into detail on that debate here.

But the fact remains, as the Economist Magazine said last week, that the threat is real, and the uncertainty over climate change is the reason to work to avoid it: "If it were known that global warming would be limited to two degrees Centigrade, the world might decide to live with that. But the range of possible outcomes is huge, with catastrophe one possibility, and the costs of averting climate change are comparatively small."