Stern Even Sterner on Climate Change Forecast

international | climate change | news report Thursday April 24, 2008 16:07 by reposted

You have most likely never heard of the 'Stern Review', a 700 page document that discusses the effect of climate change and global warming on the world economy which was published 18 months ago in Europe, and shook the establishment with its stark predictions of economic havoc that will be the result of climate change around the world.(1) He was widely criticised for painting such a grim picture of the future.

Well guess what, he has changed his tune.

Last week, Lord Stern updated his report saying: "We badly underestimated the degree of damages and the risks of climate change. All of the links in the chain are on average worse than we thought a couple of years ago."

"People who said this (the first report) was scaremongering are profoundly wrong. If anything, I was too reticent. What we are playing for is the transformation of the planet," he said.

"We need to have zero carbon electricity, or very close to it, by 2050. That means carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) in electricity by 2050, it means nuclear, it means renewables," he said.

This new analysis is quite commensurate with what Dr. James Hansen, the chief US climatologist, has been saying lately. "Dr. James Hansen is one of the few scientists who have consistently warned that the impact that humans have on the climate is bringing about changes that are faster than we ever believed and may be irreversible if action is not taken now." He recently spoke in Houston on the subject. (2)

The Independent Newspaper of England published this report on Lord Stern's re-evaluation:
Stern warns that climate change is far worse than 2006 estimate
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/stern-w....html

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1) Stern Review,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stern_Review

2) Hansen in Huston audio: free on-line, 60 min.
THE THREAT TO THE PLANET

Part 1
http://www.tucradio.org/A305PODhansenone.mp3

Part 2
http://www.tucradio.org/A305PODhansentwo.mp3

Q and A
http://www.tucradio.org/A305HansenQ_A.mp3