Assignment:

Read This (its not very long), which is a qualitative synopsis of the collective impact and warnings of the various IPCC reports on climate change.

In a response piece of 800 words:

a) distill the IPCC reports, as organized in this article, into three main climate impact themes that are consistent from report to report.

b) Provide arguments for why most all of this is simply being ignored by 1) the lay public and 2) congressional decision makers.