A Stern warning on climate change
The impacts of climate change are not evenly distributed - the poorest countries and people will suffer earliest and most. And if and when the damages appear it will be too late to reverse the process. Thus we are forced to look a long way ahead.
From the executive summary (PDF) of the Economics of Climate Change report from former World Bank Chief Economist Sir Nicholas Stern to Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the UK government. The report is being covered by all the major news websites, but I liked the coverage on BBC News, which includes downloads and quotes from this morning's round of press conferences.
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For those of us wishing to see a healthier planet and a more equitable distribution of its riches it's easy to see a report like this and think "I told you so" and imagine that something must surely happen now to fix it.
Before we get too carried away it's always worth reading some of the contributions to the BBC "Have your say" discussions http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/default.stm and you will soon see why our political leaders are so reluctant to really act on these warning.
To my mind it's less the case that the deniers need silencing and the public need frightening but that the hair shirted, vegetarian, recyling, composting, wind powered hippies need to calm down and think about realistic futures. Odd though it may seem to them we could probably all live as they do today, if we wanted to. We don't, so let's consider more realistic options. Nuclear anyone?
Posted by: Michael Saunby | Nov 5, 2006 4:54:33 AM