The article in the url below contains the starkest warning yet from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that the window that we have to avoid significant climate change is rapidly closing:
“Nations have so dragged their feet in battling climate change that the situation has grown critical and the risk of severe economic disruption is rising, according to a draft United Nations report. Another 15 years of failure to limit carbon emissions could make the problem virtually impossible to solve with current technologies, experts found.”
While technology will undoubtedly have a role in helping us curb the worst consequences of the damage we have inflicted on our planet, the IPCC concludes that it is unwise to rely on it completely:
“A delay would most likely force future generations to develop the ability to suck greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere and store them underground to preserve the livability of the planet, the report found. But it is not clear whether such technologies will ever exist at the necessary scale, and even if they do, the approach would probably be wildly expensive compared with taking steps now to slow emissions.”
While the world’s climate deteriorates, however, politicians seem quite willing to stand by, knowing full well that they will not be in office when the worst of the changes occur:
“The report said that governments of the world were still spending far more money to subsidize fossil fuels than to accelerate the shift to cleaner energy, thus encouraging continued investment in projects like coal-burning power plants that pose a long-term climate risk.”
Additional detail on the report released earlier this week by the IPCC can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/31/science/earth/panels-warning-on-climate-risk-worst-is-yet-to-come.html
Take care
David
David Chandler & Bill Werther
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U.N. Says Lag in Confronting Climate Woes Will Be Costly
U.N. Says Lag in Confronting Climate Woes Will Be Costly
By Justin Gillis
January 17, 2014
The New York Times
Late Edition – Final
A8
