Climate For Change: The Next Great Depression?

A report on the economic ruin facing many countries due to inaction on climate change, will warn next week that climate change could force the world into the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930's.

The comprehensive British report written by former World Bank chief economist Sir Nicholas Stern and commissioned by the British Treasury, seeks to overturn conventional wisdom by insisting that fighting climate change will save, not cost, governments money.

Britain's chief scientist, Sir David King, told The Guardian the report indicated "that if we don't take global action … we will be faced with the kind of downturn that has not been seen since the Great Depression and the two world wars.

"If you look at sea level rises alone and the impact that will have on global economies where cities are becoming inundated by flooding … this will cause the displacement of hundreds of millions of people."

Sir David described the Stern report as the most detailed economic analysis yet conducted and said it would "surprise many people in terms of the relatively small cost of action".

However, he told a climate change conference in Birmingham that achieving global consensus would be very hard.

"In my view this is the biggest challenge our global political system has ever been faced with. We've never been faced with a decision where collective decision making is required by all major countries … around risks to their populations that are well outside the time period of any electoral process."
The United States and Australia have refused to join the Kyoto Protocol — the international agreement on greenhouse gas emissions — because US President George Bush and Prime Minister John Howard have argued that it would harm their countries' economies.The

The Stern report comes as the Howard Government is signalling a shift in its attitude to climate change. Environment Minister Ian Campbell told The Age yesterday governments needed to invest more in emission reduction technologies such as carbon capture and storage.

Content Source: Climate an economic time bomb - The Age - October 27, 2006

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I have to applaud the decision to finally start dealing with the issue of Global Warming, a positive decision t build a huge $420 million solar power plant near Mildura - the second biggest in the world.

A joint project between the Victorian State Labour/Bracks Government and the Federal Liberal/Howard Governments.


The evidence for global warming is strengthening every week.

But the announcement needs to be just a start, as Australia has many options for clean energy and we could have been the world leaders in this environmentally friendly clean energy industry but we missed the boat, and now risk being left behind and shunned by other countries for not signing the Kyoto Protocol and doing more to slow the destruction of the ozone.

It is easy enough to be lost in despair over the global warming topic, but ignoring this issue wont help the future generations of this world and our own enjoyment of life on this planet!

We do have options, such as solar power, bioenergy, wind power, cogeneration, energy efficiency, hydroelectricity and natural gas.

These options have been around for years and are excellent at cutting greenhouse gas emissions today.

I longer we wait, the bigger the mess we have to deal with and the further the destruction.

Content Source included: Hazy dawn on a greenhouse fix (p. 22) - Herald Sun - October 26, 2006