Is Climate Change a Disaster Waiting to Happen?
Scientists are warning that record-breaking ice melt in the Arctic is part of a worrying trend – and the clearest sign yet that society needs to act to tackle climate change.
But is climate change a catastrophe waiting to happen or a technological challenge to be overcome?
It is a catastrophe happening and we have already broken one of the largest physical features on the planet, the Arctic, which has melted with horrifying speed and badly damaged the oceans.
Some changes to our climate are inevitable given the historic build-up of emissions in the atmosphere, but fortunately, many technological solutions exist for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
While these technologies come with a price, it is far outweighed by the cost of inaction. Financing these technologies, however, remains a challenge.
New sources of finance, such as the carbon markets, are required to mobilise the necessary investment and financial flows to address climate change.
The priority is, and must be, to tackle the root cause by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities and adapting to those impacts that are unavoidable.
Mitigation of climate change, by reducing emissions and protecting natural carbon sinks, remains the surest way of increasing our chances of avoiding dangerous climate change in the future.
Let us all do something to save Mother Nature before it is too late.
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