Stern warns that climate change is far worse than 2006 estimate

[OneBlueSky]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/stern-warns-that-climate-change-is-far-worse-than-2006-estimate-810488.html

Lord Stern, the economist whose report on climate change helped galvanise world leaders behind the green energy movement when it was published 18 months ago, has admitted that the situation is far worse than the assumptions that formed the basis of his ground-breaking report.

"We badly underestimated the degree of damages and the risks of climate change," said Lord Stern in a speech in London yesterday. "All of the links in the chain are on average worse than we thought a couple of years ago."

When it was first published, the Stern Review and its recommendations – zero-emission automobiles around the world by 2050, for example – brought plaudits and brickbats from the different sides of the climate change debate. A year and a half on from its publication, Lord Stern dismissed the doubters and renewed his call for urgent global action: "People who said this was scaremongering are profoundly wrong. If anything, I was too reticent. What we are playing for is the transformation of the planet," he said.

Greenhouse gas emissions are growing much faster than previously thought because of several factors that were not fully appreciated before, including the release of methane from thawing permafrost, the acidification of oceans, and the decay of carbon sinks. The worsening situation increases the need, he argued, for a global pollution-cutting agreement to be reached by next year's climate conference in Copenhagen. He also reiterated his previous estimates that governments and business must invest the equivalent of between 1 to 2 per cent of global GDP annually up to 2050 in new technologies and efficiency measures or face climate change of catastrophic proportions. A global carbon trading system would be the "glue" for a worldwide climate deal, he said.

- more

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/stern-warns-that-climate-change-is-far-worse-than-2006-estimate-810488

[glowing]

1. If we create a society that promotes sustainable living, then we will control this

phenomenom.. This means attacking the environmental problems like they did with the space race or the Manhatten project. It encompasses energy needs, air quality, water quality, and food quality. AND to a varying degree it encompasses healthier living, less stress, less junk, and much more time to live and explore. This is a struggle.. this is a time that the oil monarchies are trying to hold onto... its us who have to push and we have to help small companies and independent inventors who are bought out and silenced when they find a really great creative sollution.. Its going to require really paying attention.. there is a sollution to this mess. I'm not so sure it necessarily need to equate in more taxes.. which then are passed onto the consumer.. who become broker. We need to push our govt and state govt to stop funding billion dollar nuc plants and start funding simplicity like solar, wind, and geothermal technologies.

[pscot]

2. And if pigs had wings

they'd be roosting in the ham trees.

[tama]

3. No deus ex machina

No technocratic solution to sustainable living, there fore comparison with space race of Manhattan project is a poor one - megatechnoproject would only make things worse. Sustainable living requires a very profound holistic change, "amending our ways" and living in peace with Mother Nature. Not alianeted from Her part as integral part.

[glowing]

6. I meant in funding.. not actual atrocities that the Manhaten Proj brought about.

[Boomer]

4. You left out one very important component

An integral and essential factor for sustainable living is population control. As a species, we have shown ourselves to be incredibly resistant to controlling, much less reducing, our numbers.

Unless that happens, everything else is simply a stalling action.

[Triana]

5. yep. That's the crux of it right there...but people, particularly the religious ones....

...won't give up their right (ie: directive from "Gawd" or who/whatever) to 'go forth and multiply'. Without some semblance of common sense (the moral imperative of this issue is far far beyond religion) about that WORLDWIDE, we're screwed.

So - um - we're screwed.

[glowing]

7. It has been proven that with education and better quality of life.. meaning

food, medicine, etc. that popultion levels become sustainable.. It will take educating people, esp. women on options like birth control... and it will take holding everyone everywhere in the world with equality.. AND it will take more people in developed countries willing to change their unsustainable ways so that the rest of the world may live with any quality of life.

[tom_paine]

8. Don't listen to him. He's just a stupid doomer.

:sarcasm: :puke: