In response to Chris Keene's point two things are worth noting:
1. There is an enormous amont of work going on already on mitigating the
effects. A lot of local authority work is being done on flooding; the UK
Climate Impacts Programme is extensively engaged; bodies such as the
National trust are certainly taking climate change effects into their
planning (managed retreat etc.) and so on.
2. Much as the Independent may wish to sell papers to the alarmed middle
classes the idea of a point of no return is a little dangerous. We are
clearly already affecting the climate to some extent (and climate, as the
contrarians, flat earthers and fuel companies tell us, does indeed change
all the time). The uncertainties (negative feed back loops, tundra melt
etc.) are scary and may well suggest that it is inevitable that things will
get a lot worse. But betting on one particular future in an age of
uncertainty is (probably) to lose your stake - there may be all sorts of
factors that may swing things the other way. Unlikely perhaps but certainly
open enough to continue work on minimising / avoiding climate change rather
than joining the depressed mitigationists.
And this is after all a forum about the 'crisis'. I think the crisis only
really starts when people think we are past some 'point of not return' and
give up trying?
Chris Church
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