Climate Change Concerns: Geo-engineering needed or a longer recession

Whenever an article by Gwynne Dyer (an independent journalist based in London, England) appears in the local paper of my home city (the other London) I read it closely.

His most recent (‘Point of no return: No hope for US climate action,’ July 31, London Free Press) pins our ears back.

Mr. Dyer quotes Ben Lieberman, an energy expert at a Washington think-tank, who says, “It’s pretty clear that no post-Kyoto treaty is in the making - certainly not in Cancun, and maybe not ever.”


Looks like Big Coal and Big Oil will win again.

Dyer comments, “...With every year that passes, the cuts we would need to make to hold the temperature below that level (i.e., the point of no return; two C degrees higher average global temperature) become deeper. Eventually, in practice, they become impossible to achieve.”

When he next said the following, i.e., “Before the current recession, global emissions of greenhouse gases were growing at almost 3% a year, and they will certainly return to that level when the recession ends,” I realized anew my oft-shared advice - to reduce spending, pay down debt, save money for tough times ahead (because a hard rain’s a-gonna fall) - is spot on.


We can change the rate of warming by keeping our cold hard cash tucked inside our wallets and purses. A purposeful retreat from over-consumption or a meaningful recession would have a big payoff as the warming engines of coal and oil are kept turned-down-low for a longer period of time.

If the fact we are experiencing the hottest year (so far in 2010) on record since 1880 isn’t motivation enough, read Dyer’s article closely.

He doesn’t pull punches. He pins our ears back.

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We are a society based on consumption, often over-consumption is the appropriate term.

Consequences are afoot.


["Want clear sailing? Reduce spending, save money for tough times": photo GH]

The word ‘retreat’ may seem to have a negative sound, but a purposeful retreat is a positive term.

Please click here for more Climate Change Concerns.

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