When in this hole… how should we stop digging?
Sir, Martin Wolf, “In spite of economic skeptics, it is worth reducing climate risk”, February 7, is absolutely right saying that we should view our current investments to reduce climate risks as an insurance, I guess similar to those that you are the happiest with when they turn out to be lousy investments… like who loves to collect on a sickness insurance?
Having said that when Wolf mentions that some have criticized The Stern Review for ignoring the “possibility that richer future generations will also be able to adapt quite well to climate change” he should perhaps have made it more clearer that we might in fact be that future richer generation that is trying to adapt, while there is still time.
One thing that Wolf does not point out sufficiently, and that might also be the biggest cause for our inactions, is the growing divergence between the seriousness of the environmental problems described and the frequently silly nature of the solutions prescribed. Today even if we know ourselves to be in a big bad very ugly hole, we still have very few sensible ideas of how to stop digging.
Having said that when Wolf mentions that some have criticized The Stern Review for ignoring the “possibility that richer future generations will also be able to adapt quite well to climate change” he should perhaps have made it more clearer that we might in fact be that future richer generation that is trying to adapt, while there is still time.
One thing that Wolf does not point out sufficiently, and that might also be the biggest cause for our inactions, is the growing divergence between the seriousness of the environmental problems described and the frequently silly nature of the solutions prescribed. Today even if we know ourselves to be in a big bad very ugly hole, we still have very few sensible ideas of how to stop digging.
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