Dante's Environmental Inferno

There are numerous examples which show that we react poorly to slow degradation of our environment (the "boiling frog" effect). A recent example is that even though public awareness of climate change and hence popular pressure to act are at their highest in recorded history, the 2009 summit in Copenhagen produced arguably insignificant results.

The Environmental Inferno, to be held in Florence, Italy (Dante Alighieri's city of birth), will make the consequences of inaction truly palpable! The venue of the conference will be a sauna of proportions adequate to accommodate an appropriate selection of world leaders, and over a period of two weeks, negotiations will take place.

On the first five days, temperatures will be held at an agreeable 22 degrees Celsius, and all participants will be granted access to proper meals as well as cleansing and sleeping facilities. However, as long as no deal within minimal requirements is signed by all convened parties, no-one may leave the premises.

From day six, a downward spiral kicks in which casts conference participants successively into the nine circles of climate hell! Temperatures rise, meals are disrupted, facilities are unclean, pest-ridden or inundated. Random sections of the venue are flooded periodically, and an overall water level begins its inexorable rise.

By the end of the fortnight, our conference will have either produced a significant global agreement, or simultaneously starved, baked and drowned a selection of inadequate world leaders.