“In a rare fit of unity,” you write sardonically, the African Union will come to the climate-change summit in Copenhagen in December with a demand for nearly seventy billion dollars a year from the richest countries to deal with the effects of global warming on the continent (“A Green Ransom,” September 5, 2009). The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that Africa will be the continent worst hit by higher temperatures. “Africa’s demand is high,” you conclude your article in a conciliatory tone, “but there is a widespread agreement that the continent should get help to adopt to climate change.” Indeed. All other parts of the world so affected should get compensated in the same fashion, as well. But you eschew two good reasons for this. To begin with, there is no more time to turn things around concerning climate change. Only direct help, no matter how administered, can avoid mayhem. Perhaps even more important, lack of timely help will result in massive movement of those worst hit. A couple of billion people on the move would quickly squash all sardonic remarks.