Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
a way that will achieve maximum profit. Nor is there any guarantee that if we had unlim-
ited free energy it would prevent us from continuing to abuse the planet. Professor Paul
Ehrlich at Stanford University, commenting on the possibility of unlimited clean energy
from cold fusion, suggested it would be 'like giving a machine gun to an idiot child'.
We must not pin all our hopes on global politics and clean energy technology, so we must
prepare for the worst and adapt. If implemented now, a lot of the costs and damage that
could be caused by changing climate can be mitigated. This requires nations and regions
to plan for the next 50 years, something that most societies are unable to do because of the
very short-term nature of politics. So climate change challenges the very way we organize
our society. Not only does it challenge the concept of the nation-state versus global re-
sponsibility, but also the short-term vision of our political leaders. To answer the question
of what we can do about climate change, we must change some of the basic rules of our
society to allow us to adopt a much more global and long-term approach. In doing so we
may also provide solutions to global environmental degradation, poverty, and security.
