Will the leaders of the world listen to Sir Nicholas Stern? He’s one of the top economists and has said that if the climate change issue is not tackled now, it will cause a global recession later in the century. Perhaps now countries, corporations and people will take notice if there’s a threat to their pocket books and “profits”…

Stern warns that climate change risks causing economic consequences “on a scale similar to those associated with the great wars and the economic depression of the first half of the 20th century”. But in the long run we would all benefit from the cleaner, greener energy technologies.

Source: NewScientist

Limiting CO2 is not the end all, we also have to keep tabs on other greenhouse gases like Nitrous Oxide, methane or even common refrigerants such as R134A, all of which are many times more potent than CO2.

Also keep in mind that we’ve already done enough damage that we can no longer control positive feedback. Think about it this way, white snow reflects sunlight while the darker oceans absorb it; the shrinking polar ice caps have increased the surface area of the ocean which means the Earth is now absorbing more and more energy. Even if we could stop all emissions tomorrow, the world will still get hotter. That doesn’t mean we’re done for but we certainly have to work closer in tune with what the Earth can handle.

An influential economist on the slide of climate change definitely helps things but we should go further. The main issue is the way Western society consumes everything. Climate change and other social/economic/environmental issues will only grow exponentially when the rest of the world starts consuming like we do. If we’re truly the leaders of the world, let’s also set the right example for countries like China and India.