frogblog

Churchill that is. When one of the UK’s top scientists says “Prepare for global temperature rise of 4C“, we know we’re in trouble.

“There is no doubt that we should aim to limit changes in the global mean surface temperature to 2C above pre-industrial,” Watson, the chief scientific adviser to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, told the Guardian. “But given this is an ambitious target, and we don’t know in detail how to limit greenhouse gas emissions to realise a 2 degree target, we should be prepared to adapt to 4C.

Globally, a 4C temperature rise would have a catastrophic impact.

He said a two-and-half-year analysis by the government’s Foresight programme on the implications for coastal defences had more impact in the corridors of power than any other research on the effects of climate change that he presented.

No other single factor focussed the minds of the cabinet more than the analysis that I produced through that … We begin to have to talk about ordered retreat from some areas of Britain because it becomes impossible to defend,” he said. “There’s no choice here between adaptation and mitigation, we have to do both.

So what exactly are we seeing here? A capitulation that all is lost so we might as well begin our retreat, or a sensible hurry up and do something substantial before it’s too late message?

I don’t care really. Either way it’s about making clear the urgency with which we must act. There are huge time lags between our fossil fuel burning ways and their effects. Humans struggle with delayed gratification - and punishment.

So I am back to my original question. Where’s Winston? Where is that Dunkirk spirit? So far we see the Little Ships of Dunkirk in the form of carbon trading, new renewables, energy efficiency campaigns, etc. When are we going to see the big ships, the paradigm shifts and the behaviour change? When will we start to look past the obfuscations of the climate deniers and take stock of the risks we face?

Bookmark to: