The World in 2030

The World in 2030 23
2. Climate Change
Recently, public concern over climate change has become
so fashionable in Europe and some other parts of the world
that it may soon run the risk of suffering the contempt that
often follows over-familiarity. This would be a grave mistake
and must not be allowed to happen. I propose that we
should re-name this atmospheric malady ‘Climate Disease’
or ‘Climate Catastrophe’ to underline the seriousness of the
problem.
The changes to our climate are palpable for all to feel and
increasingly easy for scientists to measure. The evidence 29
that such an abrupt change is anthropogenic (caused by
humankind) is overwhelming but a few die-hard sceptics 30
still insist it might be a natural phenomenon. However, the
argument about whether humankind is responsible for these
changes is irrelevant. It is clear that an abrupt alteration to
the planet’s normal weather patterns is occurring and this
poses a great danger for many of our societies.
If storms worsen, sea levels rise, flooding increases,
droughts lengthen and heat waves intensify, millions of
humans will be killed, millions will be displaced and society
will begin to break down. There will be refugees at all of our
doors. We may even become refugees ourselves.
We do know that so-called greenhouse gases 31 trap heat
in our atmosphere – principally carbon dioxide, methane
and nitrous oxide – and, leaving aside the debate as to the
root cause of climate change, it is our clear duty now to