UK’s Johnson warns of ‘doomsday’ as climate summit begins

By SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has opened a global climate summit, saying the world is strapped to a “doomsday device.” Johnson likened the Earth’s position to that of fictional secret agent James Bond — strapped to a bomb that will destroy the planet and trying to work out how to defuse it. He told leaders Monday that “we are in roughly the same position.” But that now the “ticking doomsday device” is real and not fiction. He was kicking off the world leaders’ summit portion of a U.N. climate conference. The meeting is aimed at getting agreement to curb carbon emissions fast enough to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius below pre-industrial levels.