Mr. Dennis rightly identifies the economy as an important aspect of policy discussion about climate change. However, there is a fundamental misunderstanding about the timeframe in which economic loss will impact people resulting from the effects of climate change.
The sorry reality is that regardless of what we do or don’t do in response to climate change, the impacts of climate change will be felt for another 50 years at the least, because the balance of the destabilizing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will remain there for 50 years or more and will continue to destabilize the climate, even if we move to non-fossil fuel energy resources today, something that is unlikely to happen at the rate necessary to avert catastrophic climate change in this generation or the next. Something more is needed.
The economic argument is better made on the positive side where the global economy can benefit from a 100 year project to address both the downsides of the inevitable climate disturbances — and resulting losses — as well as from the positive benefit of redesigning and rebuilding just about everything to sustainably live in the new reality, including rationally developing local renewable energy, rebuilding transportation to sustainable paradigms, and re-invigorating the maritime, agricultural and forestry sectors as they would be front line agents of carbon capture in any meaningful policy initiative addressing climate change.
Thomas Vanacore
Bridport