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A renowned economist who helped persuade the world to start taking climate change seriously has warned the global economy could “self-destruct” if countries fail to ditch fossil fuels and embrace a clean, green, high-tech future.
Professor Lord Nicholas Stern was credited with bringing about a sea change in attitudes when he calculated the cost of failing to tackle the problem in 2006. While dealing with global warming would cost one per cent of the world’s gross domestic product, doing nothing would be up to 20 times more expensive, he concluded.
Now Professor Stern, former Mexican president, Felipe Calderón, and other leading figures from politics, finance and science have launched a major new report saying Governments and businesses must change course – and quickly.
“The challenge is urgent: the investment choices we make even over the next two to three years will start to lock in for decades to come either a climate-smart, inclusive growth pathway, or a high-carbon, inefficient and unsustainable pathway,” said the report by The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate.
Global economy could 'self-destruct' if world carries on burning fossil fuels, leading economist warns by Ian Johnston, The Independent, Oct 6, 2016
Using the metric of comments garnered, the two most popular articles posted on SkS during the past week are:
As the American Southwest grows hotter, the risk of severe, long-lasting megadroughts rises, passing 90 percent likelihood by the end of the century if greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current pace, a new study says. If we aggressively reduce emissions, however, we can cut that risk substantially, the authors write.
The findings from scientists at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Cornell University and NASA provide new insights into the role temperature plays in megadrought risk and how our choices today can affect water resources in the future.
“By the end of the century, the real controlling influence on megadrought risk will be temperature. That stands out very starkly against precipitation projections that can vary quite a bit,” said study co-author Jason Smerdon, a climate scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. “What really seems to drive the drying in terms of future projections is the magnitude of the mean temperature increases.”
Rising Temperatures Load the Dice for Megadrought Risk by Stacy Morford, Nexus Meida, Oct 6, 2016
Hurricane Matthew threatens the Southeast through this weekend. Although no major hurricane has made landfall in the U.S. since 2005, that has not been the case in other parts of the Atlantic Basin. The number of major Atlantic hurricanes has been increasing since 1970 and the the U.S. is long overdue for one to strike.
Annual Average Atlantic Hurricanes by Decade, Climate Central, Oct 5, 2016
In his article, Cross Post: What do sugar and climate change have in common? Misplaced scepticism of the science, Prof Neil Levy links to the SkS Rebuttal article, Over 31,000 scientists signed the OISM Petition Project. Levy's post is on the Practical Ethics website of the University of Oxford.
The Women's Earth & Climate Action Network is a solutions-based, multi-faceted effort established to engage women worldwide to take action as powerful stakeholders in climate change and sustainability solutions.
Atmospheric Scientist: Donald Trump & Mike Pence are a Climate ChangeDenial Dream Team, Democracy Now!, Oct 6, 2016
Climate Feedback's team of experts analyze the article, James Lovelock: ‘Before the end of this century, robots will have taken over’ by Decca Aitkenhead (Guardian, Sep 30, 2016) and concludes:
Five scientists analyzed the article and estimated its overall scientific credibility to be ‘low’ to 'very low'.
Click here to access the detailed review.
Richard Alley's bio page and Quote source
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Posted by John Hartz on Sunday, 9 October, 2016
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