Info Ink Environmental Opinion

Ten years ago, James Hansen warned the world that global warming would destroy the planet if it was not put in check.  Now he is back to rub Congress nose in the fact that they were an ostrich on this subject.  He is telling them that drastic measures are needed and now is the time before it is too late.

We all depend upon the Earth’s atmosphere. Yet we continue to treat it as though it were a free, limitless and indestructible rubbish dump.

With little more than our fingers crossed, we seem to cling to the hope that the atmosphere will be able to absorb all of the greenhouse gases that we pump into it without changing its chemical structure.

Unfortunately, the available scientific evidence tells us this is not the case, and that humanity’s emissions have already increased the risk that dangerous, perhaps abrupt, climate change will hit billions of people over the years ahead.

The time has come for us to stop freeloading and to find a fair, affordable and effective way of valuing, in dollar terms, the maintenance of a stable climate.

Put simply, we need to make it cheaper to help the environment than to harm it.

The principle of costing carbon emissions is not new – the international carbon trade, led by the EU market, turns over billions of dollars a year.

But the majority of the world’s countries, companies and citizens play no part in the exercise. It is remote and aloof, so we need something that touches everybody.

I agree that now is the time and now is the issue.  Time to realize that too much longer and the damage cannot be repaired.