Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 04/23/2008 6:03:36 AM PDT by Puppage
Climate change could cause global conflicts as large as the two world wars but lasting for centuries unless the problem is controlled, a leading defence think tank has warned.
The Royal United Services Institute said a tenfold increase in research spending, comparable to the amount spent on the Apollo space programme, will be needed if the world is to avoid the worst effects of changing temperatures.
However the group said the world's response to the threats posed by climate change, such as rising sea levels and migration, had so far been "slow and inadequate," because nations had failed to prepare for the worst-case scenario.
"We're preparing for a car bomb, not for 9/11," said Nick Mabey, author of the report which comes after Lord Stern, who compiled an economic assessment of climate change for the Government, said last week that he had underestimated the possible economic consequences.
Mr Mabey, a former senior member of the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit who is now chief executive of the environmental group E3G, said leading economies should be preparing for what would happen if climate change turned out to be running at the top of the temperature range scientists are predicting.
He noted that investment in energy research is ten times less than the £10 billion a year (at 2002 prices) spent on the Apollo shuttle programme.
Unless similar sums are poured into battling climate change the world risks being caught completely unprepared if the climate reaches a "tipping point" where warming and sea level rise began to accelerate, he said.
Even if climate change was more benign than the worst-case scenario, the research would not be wasted as technological advances in nuclear power, biofuels, carbon capture and storage and renewables were urgently needed anyway, he added.
The report said: "If climate change is not slowed and critical environmental thresholds are exceeded, then it will become a primary driver of conflicts between and within states."
It added: "Climate impacts will force us into a radical rethink of how we identify and secure our national interests.
For example, our energy and climate security will increasingly depend on stronger alliances with other large energy consumers, such as China, to develop and deploy new energy technologies, and less on relations with oil producing states.
"No strategy for long run peace and stability in Afghanistan can possibly succeed unless local livelihoods can survive the impact of a changing climate on water availability and crop yields."
A spokesman for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office said: "We welcome the RUSI report as a helpful addition to the growing debate on climate security."
How much did the Brits spend on the Apollo space program? ;-)
UH, the world’s already at Jihad, climate change or not.
Great point.
The Royal United Services Institute said a tenfold increase in research spending, comparable to the amount spent on the Apollo space programme, will be needed if the world is to avoid the worst effects of changing temperatures.
It's always the same, the bottom line... Follow the money.
“The Royal United Services Institute said a tenfold increase in research spending...”
I imagine they’ll be first in line for a fat government grant.
Send more money....as if the hundreds of billions we spend on propaganda models is not enough already.
Mr Mabey, a former senior member of the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit who is now chief executive of the environmental group E3G And what does E3G do? From their webpage:
Our work is organised into four linked programme areas: Climate and Energy Security, Europe in the World, New Foreign Policy, and Systems for Change.
In other words, they make money by conning governments into wasting money on climate change initiatives.
But the Royal United Services wouldn’t get any of that money. Climate or energy research isn’t what they do.
I’m suspicious of the “tenfold increase in research spending” for other reasons. Where did they pluck that figure from? Research, by its very nature, is dealing with the unknown. If it is unknown, how can you quantify how much you have to do? Granted, the more money you plough into R&D the more likely you are to get a result, but there are no certainties.
Busybodies.
What if the new ice age guys are right? Then taking greenhouse gasses out of the atmosphere will accelerate it and lead to mass starvation, riots and war.
However, War has gone hand and hand with the natural resources.
We see China making a attempt in Africa to fuel its need for Natural resources for economic growth and their conquest of Tibet to keep a buffer from the West.
The future will bring some problems and we can easily see it in our backyard. Simply look at Atlanta. They are running out of water and imposing restrictions because they have not developed a plan to get water. Also, the South West and other parts of America depend of the Water from Canada. If that did dry up, you bet we could have some problems.
Bingo!!
The Earth's climate has changed drastically before we even set foot on this planet. It has ranged between an ice-ball and a super-hot green house waterworld without any human intervention.
Eventually it will go back to a climate unsuitable for humans and there is nothing we can do about it. Some humans will survive with technology but most will die off slowly as the planet loses the ability to sustain them. Wars will happen as resources decline. Disasters will get worse as the climate becomes less temperate.
Sadly, there is nothing we can do about it. The sun will eventually die. The milky way will eventually collide with another galaxy. Liberals just can't accept that humans are not all-powerful and there is something above us.
Yeah, we'll need at least that much to build huts. Or is it igloos?
What a bunch of idiots. It's like wanting to live at the base of a mountain that's on the horizon, but instead of simply moving to the base of the mountain, you design elaborate plans to have the mountain brought to you.
I'm in the wrong business...
LOL. That makes two of us, my FRiend.
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