Denis: When nature calls

Mar 16 2009 By Denis Kilcommons

IF we are to believe the experts on global warming we are all doomed.

The world will turn into a total war zone as rivers dry up, southern Europe will look like the Sahara, ice caps melt and sea levels rise.

"What would be the implication?" said British economist Lord Stern at an environmental conference in Copenhagen.

"Hundreds of millions of people would have to move, probably billions.

"What would be the implication of that? Extended conflict, social disruption, war essentially, over much of the world for many decades.’’

The 2,500 scientists at the conference called on governments to act now before it is too late. Governments must stand up to big business and vested interest, they said. Fat chance.

I doubt whether the conference has contributed anything other than another wave of hot air. This doomsday scenario is the end of the century and most politicians are only interested in the next election and big business is only interested in surviving the recession.

This latest meeting will be followed by the United Nations Climate Conference in December that hopes to draft an updated Kyoto-style agreement on reducing emissions to save the planet. Previous assumptions have now been thrown out of the window.

I have no doubt Western politicians will make speeches and gestures but I doubt very little will actually be done. For the world’s greatest polluter, the United States of America, to change tack they would have to bring back horse-drawn transport and revert to gas lamps.