• As a child, Shari Fox Gearheard used to dig snow caves around her house in Ontario (Canada), crawl inside and fall asleep, "because it was so peaceful".

• However, all models agree that the warming will be significant and likely unprecedented in human history, that continents will warm more than oceans, that high latitudes will warm more than low latitudes, that sea levels will rise, snow and sea ice extent and thickness will decrease, and that there will be an increase in average global precipitation, accompanied by major changes in the distribution of precipitation.

• It includes three soil layers, a snow layer where applicable, and can even represent the effects of a vegetative canopy.