Re: SC29

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20061110a1.html

Climate change to test our adaptability

......................A study by the World Bank's former chief economist, Nicholas Stern of Britain, called climate change "the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen," with the potential to shrink the global economy by 20 percent and to cause economic and social disruption on a par with the two world wars and Great Depression.

The scientific consensus, already clear and incontrovertible, is today moving toward the more alarmed end of the spectrum. Many scientists long known for their caution are now saying that warming has reached dire levels, generating feedback loops that will take us perilously close to a point of no return.

A similar shift may also be taking place among economists, with some formerly circumspect analysts now saying it will cost far less to cut emissions now than to adapt to the consequences later.

Insurers, meanwhile, have been paying out more and more each year to compensate for extreme weather events. And growing numbers of corporate and industry leaders have been voicing concern about climate change as a business risk.

The few skeptics who continue trying to sow doubt should be seen for what they are: out of step, out of arguments and just about out of time.

A major U.N. climate change conference opened Monday in Nairobi. The stakes are high indeed. Climate change has profound implications for virtually all aspects of human well-being, from jobs and health to food security and peace within and among nations. Yet too often, climate change is seen as an environmental problem when it should be part of the broader development and economic agenda. Until we acknowledge the all-encompassing nature of the threat, our response will fall short.

Environment ministers have been striving valiantly to mobilize international action. But too many of their counterparts -- energy, finance, transport and industry ministers, even defense and foreign secretaries -- have been missing from the debate. Climate change should be their concern as well. The barriers that have kept them apart must be broken down, so that they can, in an integrated way, think about how to "green" the massive investments in energy supply that will be needed to meet burgeoning global demand over the next 30 years...............