[auctionlover]

1) Duh indeed, although we’re running the risk of entering the realm where positive feedbacks kick in. Already the permafrost around the world is beginning to melt, giving off ever increasing quantities of methane, which is 20 times more potent!
4) At least! The sea level rise figures are constantly being adjusted upwards. It has to be noted that sea level rise during the 20th Century was approximately 20cm. Also the effects of isostasy have to be taken into account – for example, in the UK we have the curious situation where in Scotland the land is rising, whilst in southern England it is sinking.
5) Already happening across the world!

a) Extreme weather events (floods, hurricanes, droughts, fires etc.) are already killing thousands of people globally each year and this is the tip of the iceberg. Also imagine the socio-economic effects of mass displacement, competition for dwindling resources (water, fish stocks, viable land for farming, peak oil, raw materials etc.) – riots will be triggered (witness the food riots of last year), wars will be fought…
b) This is a no brainer – or at least was. I think we may have already passed a point where it would have been relatively affordable to do something about it. Mitigating stuff from a) above is going to be hugely costly and spiral ever upwards. How much has it cost so far dealing with New Orleans?
c) They already are! Too much or too little rain for an area is a significant negative effect. I’ve seen first hand the ongoing droughts affecting Australia – droughts and their severity are on the increase wherever there is a susceptibility to them. The converse is also true of floods. In the UK again, 2 out of the last 3 years have seen extreme localised flooding events – costly ones too (see b)).

As for i) and ii), I am fairly ambivalent about their potentials for success, with the potential to give rich countries carte blanche to continue their polluting ways for a small premium. However something does need to be done, the UK govt is taking the wrong approach by using climate change as an opportunity to fleece people left and right for additional taxes. There should be positive incentives as well to actually stimulate the creation of green jobs – instead of setting the population against the whole concept.

iii) Education on climate change on the positive effects. Clearly lacking here in the UK as the prevailing opinion is the fact that all the measures required are actually a BAD THING that are going to adversely affect people's standard of living. I’ve taken a series of steps to reduce my carbon footprint quite drastically around the house and the result of this small amount of effort (I am a lazy person!) is the saving of hundreds of pounds! Our government has us believing this is going to COST MONEY, when in actual fact most of the things in your power to change should actually be saving you money! My car died in August and, as an experiment I have yet to replace it. I guess I am lucky as I live in the middle of town and work is only a ten minute bike ride away – however I have found that I have almost completely not missed having a car at all! When I do need one, I hire one – which I have only done twice so far. I figure again I have already saved hundreds of pounds. I have also lost about half a stone and am much fitter! People need to be engaged via the positive benefits – not beaten with the evil tax stick!

iv) A virtual declaration of ‘war’ on the climate (America should be good at this: ‘war on drugs’, ‘war on terror’ etc.). In the UK for example, the entire population had to conserve energy and resources during WWII because of Hitler’s (crap, have I Godwinised this thread!?) U-Boat blockade. Our population was exhorted to ‘Dig for Victory’ with virtually every available piece of land being used to grow food. Meat was rationed, public transport encouraged, things were mended etc. Of course, Nazi Germany was a clear existential threat, as opposed to climate change where even now 40% of UK citizens aren’t convinced. A good bit of martial law helped as well. Currently I believe we are in the ‘phoney war’ stage, a bit like before Germany unleashed her armies and overran France in 1940… We can start small on this one...