NATS 1760 Lecture : NATS 1760(DURANT)-CLIMATE 2.docx
Document Summary
Climate change 2: the failure of the kyoto approach. A question to ponder (spurred by prins & rayner s discussion about incompetence at singapore; warnings of potential financial crashes in 1929): Scientists (and many rational people often assume that if they just present the facts about an impending problem, then people/policymakers will take action. Unfortunately, climate change etc. shows this isn t the case. Don t want to talk about tax, alternatives when resources become expensive. Cap-and-trade program; restricting amount of material being able to be produced, monetized trade (company with cap able to buy material to continue producing resource) Reduction of greenhouse gases (focus was on mitigation; adaption; geoengineering) Options to deal with climate change- adaptation vs. mitigation. It depends on how you see relationship of nature and civilization, human resilience, cultural resilience. Ultimately a values issue: this is why climate-talk gets some people s backs up- mixing of technical detail with values, assumptions.