Climate Change: US Economist's Grim Warning to Blair's Cabinet

[Gloria]

1//The Independent, UK—CLIMATE CHANGE: US ECONOMIST’S GRIM WARNING TO BLAIR’S CABINET
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1932727.ece

Global warming could cost the world's economies up to 20 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) if urgent action is not taken to stop floods, storms and natural catastrophes.

That stark warning was given to Tony Blair and his cabinet yesterday by Sir Nicholas Stern, a former World Bank economist, and is said to have left cabinet ministers chastened by the magnitude of the threat posed by climate change. In a preview of a report he is to deliver next Monday, Sir Nicholas told the Cabinet the world would have to pay 1 per cent of its annual GDP to avert catastrophe. But doing nothing could cost 5 to 20 times that amount.

He told them: "Business- as-usual will derail growth." The massive 700-page report - commissioned by the Chancellor, Gordon Brown - was described as "hard-headed" and "frighteningly convincing". It focused on the economic peril now confronting the world, unless action was taken to combat harmful CO2 emissions that contribute to global warming.

(SNIP

His review could be a watershed in overcoming scepticism about the existence of global warming. "It was hard-headed," said another source. "It didn't deal in sandals and brown rice. It stuck to the economics." Mr Brown believes it could force the oil-dominated White House of George Bush to concede the importance of action to curb climate change. One minister who was present said it destroyed the US government's well known argument that cutting carbon emissions was bad for business.

His report, covering the period up to 2100, warns that climate change could cause the biggest recession since the Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression. A downturn of that magnitude would have "catastrophic consequences" around the globe, with the poorest countries hit first and hardest, Sir Nicholas told the Cabinet. Insurance analysts, who submitted their evidence for his report, said they feared insurance claims could exceed the world's GDP.

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[pitohui]

1. i for one agree w this

i'm tired of the freckin storms, how many cities and towns do we have to lose before we notice the economic harm?

[autorank]

2. This is well known to everyone except bLIAR and Bush...

The Pentagon did a similar study in 2002-03. Worlds greatest security threat to the US- ecocatastrophes. These leaders are COMPLETE IDIOTS.