That is how much we must spend in the attempt to regain climate stability, according to John Ashton, the UK's special envoy for climate change, in the first of three articles on climate falling out of my tubes this morning. His new opinion piece
World's most wanted: climate change is part of BBC News' ongoing Green Room series. (
John Ashton's cv)
Ashton argues that global warming threatens the ability of governments to uphold their end of the social contract, and submits for our consideration Exhibit A: the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. If the US cannot deal with social upheaval caused by growing environmental disturbances, what hope for anyone else?
This paragraph is accompanied by the infamous Mission Accomplished photograph:
But there is no hard power option either for mitigating climate change or for dealing with its direct impacts. You cannot use military force to make everyone else on the planet reduce their carbon emissions. No weapon system can halt the advance of a hurricane bearing down on a city, or stem the rising sea, or stop the glaciers melting.
This is a blunt piece and needs no elaboration. It needs to be read.
What this means is that we need to treat climate change not as a long-term threat to our environment but as an immediate threat to our security and prosperity.
We need to see a stable climate as a public good without which it will become increasingly difficult to deliver the other public goods that citizens rightly expect from those who govern them.
Meanwhile Deputy Editor Emma Duncan of the Economist presents a survey on climate which evidently will show that The heat is on. Not being a subscriber, I can only read her lengthy introduction. Althought it begins Global warming, it now seems, is for real, it takes Ms. Duncan 12 paragraphs of background and dithering to get to
This survey will argue that although the science remains uncertain, the chances of serious consequences are high enough to make it worth spending the (not exorbitant) sums needed to try to mitigate climate change.
The most interesting part of the intro is actually a footnote:
This survey, which generated about 118 tonnes of carbon dioxide from flights, car journeys, paper production, printing and distribution, has been carbon-neutralised through the Carbon Neutral Company. The cost was £590; the money was spent on capturing methane from an American mine.
Perhaps Jerome will weigh in with an analysis of the rest.
Most promising of all is the first of a series in the Daily Astorian, from the mouth of the Columbia River: The evidence is here
North Coast scientists warn that warming trends are irrefutable
This piece examines the cascading effect of warming on ocean upwelling and the biological web in our little corner of the Pacific through the eyes of local scientists. I look forward to the next two installments.
For reading this far, you get a breakfast treat: Pacific oysters, while they last.