Re: SC27

http://www.climateark.org/

Facing Deadly Global Heating in Oz

Did you hear the joke about how many Australians it takes to recognize climate change induced environmental ruin in the form of deadly drought and wildfires? Apparently more than the lackluster government can muster, as Australia refuses to implement rigorous climate change policies as it is being wracked by the "worst drought in a century with rampant fires devastating agricultural areas, rivers drying up, crops failing, and farmers forced to sell off their livestock." Australia is an incredibly ecologically fragile continent, and Australians have been whooping it up for decades, unsustainably crapping on the atmosphere, rivers and land. It is absolutely crucial that Australia and the United States cease their obstruction of international climate change policy and ratify the Kyoto protocol (expect more activism in this regard here soon). Kyoto is clearly inadequate to achieve the magnitude of emissions cuts necesary to save the Earth and human existence. But it does provide mechanisms that can and must be strengthened.

Climate Change Inaction to Cost Trillions

A new report from the Global Development and Environment Institute of Tufts University finds that "failing to fight global warming now will cost trillions of dollars by the end of the century even without counting biodiversity loss or unpredictable events like the Gulf Stream shutting down... spending just 1.6 trillion pounds a year now to limit temperature rises to two degrees could avoid annual economic damage of around 6.4 trillion pounds." The article and report itself correctly grasps the magnitude of the ecological collapse that will be caused by continued greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental wrongs such as habitat fragmentation, water and ocean mismanagement, and toxics. Yet given the impossibility of engineering a biosphere, the report does an injustice by monetizing ecosystem services. It is not that a large price tag will be presented to humanity for failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions now. The price will be paid for in human misery and injustice.