Time's Up - Stolen Future, Broken Present: The Human Significance of Climate Change - page 36

Chapter 3
Time's Up
Many observers, long used to the slow pace of political transformation,
might agree with everything I've said so far but insist that we need not
worry too much: given time, our economy will recover, the superma-
jority of Americans will prevail, our political system will work, and we
will see real action on climate change. With enough persistence, over the
next decade or so we will help forge a genuinely effective international
agreement. The research into new technologies will begin to see fruitful
results, we'll create the new energy economy, and we'll be on a secure
footing at last.
But in the case of this particular transformation, unlike most others,
we just don't have the time to let things play out. While we proceed at
our usual deliberative pace, climate change speeds ahead. The mismatch
is stark and growing. If we're going to get anything done, we should do it
now, and preferably yesterday. As Rajendra Pachauri, the scientist who
headed the IPCC in 2007, remarked in that year, “If there's no action
before 2012, that's too late… . What we do in the next two or three years
will determine our future. This is the defining moment.” 67
We're not used to thinking about acting so quickly in part because we
tend to accept the pace of political change. The international negotiations
for a climate change treaty, building on that premise, takes for granted
that we have some time: the proposed agreement sets the target of an 80
percent reduction in the emission of carbon dioxide by 2050. hat year is
indeed some distance away. But if we take a good look at the most recent
information, it's clear that we will have to make the cuts much deeper and
sooner than we thought.
But wait a minute , many voices say; why do you keep insisting that
everything has to happen now ? Why not let the country recover economically