If Not Now, Then When?

was the first question Kumi Naidoo from Greenpeace International asked at the 18th U.N. Climate Change Conference in Doha after a typhoon struck the Southern Philippines killing more than 500 on Tuesday.

It is clear that climate change is long past the preparation and discussion stage so it unfortunately fitting that the conference takes place in the "shadow of a devastating typhoon".  Does it take the loss of human life for conservation and climate change management to have the necessary funding?  I would hope not.  Naidoo rallies

KUMI NAIDOO: ...they say they don’t have money.

KUMI NAIDOO: If you could have found trillions of dollars to bail out the banks...

KUMI NAIDOO: ...why can’t a country find $60 billion to bail out the poor and bail out the climate and bail out the planet?

These questions are beyond the scope of our class but as conservation ecology seeks to include humans, it may be more central than previously thought.  It would seem that a world effort is needed to confront climate change, and as Naidoo points out, big bucks. This argument is made in William Nordhous' paper The architecture of climate economics: Designing a global agreement on global warming see below.

It is unfortunate that we seem to care a heck of a lot more about something when it is directly affecting us.  Somehow in the process of saving our own lives, maybe we can save many other species as well.

http://www.democracynow.org/2012/12/7/if_not_now_then_when_filipino


The architecture of climate economics: Designing a global agreement on global warming. Nordhaus, William D. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Jan2011, Vol. 67 Issue 1, p9-18. 10p. 4 Graphs.

Post by Alex Jensen