What would it take to get the lead countries in the world to take climate change seriously? The 4th report of the UN International Panel on Climate Change produced by 1,250 of the world’s top scientists and approved by 194 governments, has just been published with the irrefutable argument that diverting funding from fossil fuels to renewable energy and cutting energy waste would reduce expected annual economic growth rates of 1.3%-3% by a minuscule 0.06%.

Given the imminent risk of cataclysmic climate upheaval within the next 20 years, you might think such a deal couldn’t be resisted, but that of course is without reckoning with the political lobbying power of the oil, gas and coal industries. But there is another argument which ought to give governments pause enough even to override the selfish pleading of the vested interests putting profits before human survival. And that is the very real risk of dramatic feedbacks. Continue reading →