Climate Capitalism

The White House released a key report on climate change this week. The report Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States, (Thomas R. Karl, Jerry M. Melillo, and Thomas C. Peterson, (eds.). Cambridge University Press, 2009.) was the work of multiple U.S. agencies including NOAA and the U.S. Global Change Research Program.

What a difference a new administration makes.  Rather than the Bush administration’s technique of downplaying hard science in lieu of industry interest this report was accompanied by a full White House press release by Obama advisor John Holdren.  The report itself paints a bleak, but honest picture of the challenges climate change poses for the 21 Century world.  It is written in fairly plain language complete with plenty of graphs, diagrams, and examples to make the results of the science that went into the report, accessible to the average reader.

You can view the official press release YouTube clip below.  If you are in a hurry, you can skip the first 5-10 minutes which is largely introductions.  It gets a little more interesting when the authors present some of the key findings of the report.  One comment I found very apt to “Climate Capitalism” was by lead author, Tom Karl,

“… we designed and built our infrastructure for the climate we’ve had, not the climate we will have.”

This statement is exactly the kind of pragmatic thinking this country needs if we are going to lead the world out of the climate crisis.  The status quo of industry and infrastructure will not hold up to the rate of change we are now experiencing.

I was lead the this report and the video clip by Lisa Moore’s post on the Environmental Defense Fund’s blog. Drawing from the report,  Moore’s post includes some nicely summarized highlights of what a warmer world might look like.