A Stern Talking To

What about that Stern Report, eh? Threat from global warming reduced to a profit and loss analysis. It really is a sad reflection of our society that in order to try and get the message across, the potential damage climate change could cause has to be laid out in economic terms. Apparently, the fact that there could be mass extinctions, famines, melting icecaps and that, basically, we could all die horribly, isn't as important as the fact that it could hit the profits of big business and might just cause a budget deficit resulting in higher taxes. Hey, now we're talking - higher taxes! If that thought doesn't start panicking people, I don't know what will!

But that, of course, is the whole point of the Stern Report - it is addressing itself to the capitalists in their own language, in the hope that the message might get through that way. After all, global warming is effectively driven by our western consumer lifestyles. The more goods we buy, the more the factories make, and the more they churn out their emissions. At the moment, all big business can see is that restrictions on emissions will cut into their profits in the short term. The Stern Report is obviously trying to impress upon them that failure to act will dent those profits even more in the long term. Will the message get through? Sadly, business rarely looks that far ahead - long term planning really isn't its strong suit. This is especially true in economies like the UK, where everything seems to be driven by investors, who want a rapid return on their capital.

So maybe it is going to take more than just an economic argument to get the message through. Perhaps an appeal to the spiritual is in order? I'm sure the best way to get Bush on side with climate change would be to convince him that it was the Devil's work - another scheme by Satan to undermine God's divine creation. If you could also convince him that the war on climate change was a literal war which could be fought with bombs and bullets, I'm sure he'd come aboard like a shot! (Such is the theme of The Greening of Bush over on The Sleaze). Mind you, I don't think it is likely to happen anytime soon. Sadly, I strongly suspect that it is going to take more than just a Stern talking to for our industries to change direction.