EKOS Communications, Inc.

Blogging on a daily basis is proving to be a real challenge for me, as is plainly evident by the lapses between entries. As president and senior producer of a fledgling new media company and as a university instructor with 30+ students to teach, I find I'm pulled in so many directions.

Another challenge is deciding what to blog on. As you can see, the past four entries have dealt with climate change. Each was written in reaction to coverage of the issue in mainstream media. My intent has been to present some thoughts and ideas that, hopefully, you've found helpful in some way on this truly life-threatening crisis that looms closer and larger by the minute.

And so it is that, even though I had wanted to blog on some other topic tonight, I am about to "blog on" again about climate change.

Who couldn't? Especially after "The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change" was presented to Britan's Prime Minister, Tony Blair, today. The 700page report was commissioned because of "growing fears about the human and economic cost of global warming," according to the Guardian, which went on to say "It had a simple and apocalyptic message: climate change is fundamentally altering the planet; the risks of inaction are high; and time is running out." (1)

Not particularly original. Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" conveys pretty much the same one.

But what it may lack for in originality, it more than makes up for in "street cred."

Written by none other than Sir Nicolas Stern, a former World Bank chief economist and just the person to go toe-to-toe with all those sceptics who dismiss climate change as a product of "junk science" and as being bad for the economy - especially the latter as the former has been shown to be not true.

Over the past few years, scientific consensus has consolidated. Yes, climate change is real. It's happening fast. And human activity is driving it to the extremes the planet is now experiencing.

These facts were presented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and now endorsed by an internationally respected "bean counter". Moreover, he states conclusively that "...doing nothing about climate change--the business-as-usual (BAU) approach--would lead to a reduction in global per capita consumption" possibly to a point resembling "the great depression of the 1930s, when the US economy shrunk by almost 25%." (2)

In other words, climate change is bad for business and what's bad for business is bad for a country's Gross Domestic Product. Not that business is the only driver of the economy, because clearly it isn't. As a columnist with BBC quickly pointed out somewhat derisively: "It is affected by war, disease, storms, global events: even (if you live in north Africa) by plagues of locusts" (3)

Still, there are high hopes that an argument based on numbers, particularly numbers representing sums of money, will get action where its most needed: among political and business leaders, with the most challenging of the bunch being US President George Bush and his administration-- steadfast in their resistance to scientific consensus on the issue.

Now, however, might not be the best time for presenting the report to the White House. The critically-important Mid-term Elections are close-at-hand with Bush and the Republicans scrambling to maintain control over Congress. Their power is slipping away in the face of a mounting backlash among Americans over the war on Iraq.

Then again, it could be a pivotal time in which to do so. Middle East policy, oil consumption and climate change are inextricably linked.

There's tons more that I'd like to say, but I'm bagged. Perhaps I'll get a chance to pick up the thread tomorrow. Hope so.

For more information:

HM Treasury. Stern review on the economics of climate change. www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/independent_reviews/stern_review_ economics_climate_change/sternreview_index.cfm

IPCC www.ipcc.ch

References:

(1) Adam, David and Larry Elliott, "Simple verdict after a complex inquiry: time is running out." Guardian. Oct. 31, 2006. Retrieved Oct. 30, 2006 from http://environment.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329614831-121568,00.html

(2) Ibid.

(3) Black, Richard. "Climate costs: The Next Generation" BBC News website. Posted Oct. 30, 2006. Retrieved Oct. 30, 2006 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/6098124.stm