Global warming: Act now

The message from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate is clear. Mankind is nearer the critical threshold of a two-degree Celsius rise in global warming and the consequent rise in sea levels and other disastrous, extreme weather phenomena. More than 200 lead scientists have concluded that human actions alone are to blame for this state of affairs. The developed world must take a lion’s share of the blame because the direct cause of greenhouse gas emissions and global warming is the rapid industrialisation of the last 110 or so years. Although China and, to a lesser extent, India have to chip in too to avert a catastrophe that can have very serious consequences for mankind, the fact remains that the world has to act together on this. The calculation of the “carbon budget” is tricky political arithmetic. Science says total emissions cannot exceed 1,000 gigatons of carbon, of which more than half is already up in the air. Can the developing world afford to leave its fossil fuels, like low-quality coal, in the ground when more energy is needed to sustain its peoples’ upward development curve Regardless of what the sceptics are saying in pointing to a warming plateau over the last 15 years, it is important to listen to science. There is very little else that mankind can go by as we assess the impact of what is happening to our planet. As UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “The heat is on. Now we must act.” The world has just two more years in which to hammer out a global agreement on emissions. Does mankind have the will