Foresight, Hindsight and Climate

Posted by Shirley Siluk Gregory Oct 11, 2007

An emerging body of opinion lately is saying that it's too late (or too expensive) to stop global warming, so we should just prepare to adapt to it. Rather than being visionary, though, this philiosophy is dangerously short-sighted.

The cost of doing nothing except things that help us "get used to it" are incalculable, simply because we don't know how many tipping points or chain reactions we might be setting off in future.

What price could you put on an ever-widening reach of a warm-climate disease like malaria? How much do you think the people of New Orleans (and officials at every level) would have been willing to spend on proper levees and wetlands management, if they knew then what they know today?

Hindsight, as the saying goes, is 20/20. A little foresight should tell us that's the case with climate change as well.