After a week of dire news - the certainty of our ruptured nation, the likelihood of a journalist being murdered - the United Nation's report on climate change was, for some people, a bridge too far.
"I heard something about it," a normally well-informed friend told me, "but I'm on a week-long hiatus from the news."
For those who were still able to take it in, the report could hardly have been more frightening: By 2040 - only 22 years from now - the world will in deep trouble, according to the unassailable expertise of the U.