Climate change is about the future of our land, our resilience and our security

By all accounts the latest summary report released today from the climate change experts (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCC) paints a picture of a planet in peril. There were last minute attempts to soften what some considered activist or even alarmist language, arguing that the IPCC is a scientific body and as such should remain policy neutral.

However, its work is predicated on the assumption that we care about future generations otherwise why would we expend massive amounts of intellectual capital on this exercise.

While the threat of mass species extinctions has diminished since the 2007 report, we still face serious threats to our land, our resilience and our security. The report warns of the possibility of increased floods, drought, conflict and economic losses if carbon emissions continue unabated. Granted that the costs are often difficult to measure in terms of global GDP, events such as floods and hurricanes and processes such as drought and desertification do come with a price tag, not to mention untold human suffering. In 2012, when more than 80 percent of US agricultural land experienced drought, export losses were estimated at $20 billion and food prices rose significantly both in the US and abroad…