Damian Carrington at the Guardian on the latest IPCC report and possible paths out of environmental catastrophe: If you are embarking on a long and essential journey, it really pays to book early. That is the key message from Sundays landmark UN report that sets out the route to averting catastrophic climate change. By starting right now to end the era of dirty fossil fuels and create a new world of clean energy, not only do you ensure you arrive at your destination – a safer world – but you also get the cheapest ticket. The reports message was as clear as a travel agents advertisement: buy now or pay a premium later. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes chair, Rajendra Pachauri, drew on his early years as a railway engineer to drive the point home: The high speed [carbon-cutting] train will leave very soon and all of the global community will have to be on board. But his IPCC colleague, Youba Sokona, a scientist from Mali and one of the trio who led the new report, was clear about the limits of the new plan: We are the mapmakers: the [powerful] are the navigators. He said the report is telling truth to power: the question now is whether the powerful want to listen. The IPCC report sets out multiple possible routes. Some, based on renewable energy and cutting energy waste, are low-risk and comfortable, rather like a fast electric train. Other more circuitous routes, such as delaying action and then being forced to suck carbon out of the air later, look more like a four-wheeled drive over a mountain range. -Erika
Posted on: Sun, 13 Apr 2014 21:00:00 +0000
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