The World in 2030

The World in 2030 107
And in 2007, Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany and
then President of the European Union told the Financial
Times why she had pushed for EU agreement 208 on significant
carbon reductions by 2020:
We made a choice: We could have muddled through
and looked away because it was not clear what the
cost (of climate change) was going to be. Instead, we
decided to act under the assumption that, whatever
happens, the cost of inaction will be higher. This, as
made clear by the Stern report, is the main paradigm
change. 209
The Fuzz on the Skin of a Peach
If you want to picture Earth’s atmosphere, think of the white
fuzz on the skin of a peach. In relative terms, that fuzz is the
same thickness as our planet’s atmosphere. To use another
simile, it is as thick as an onion’s outmost layer.
Yet, despite being so thin, this clinging strata of gases
is what makes Earth unique among all of the other planets
known to humankind. This thin coating of atmosphere 210
has brought life to Earth and all of our teaming, swarming
diversity of biology relies totally on this invisible, fragile and
threatened halo.
It is impossible to know for sure how much more heated
the planet’s atmosphere will have become in twenty-five
years, partly because so much depends on our actions over