Journal: News & Comment

We're in a handbasket, but where is it going?

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There are good economic arguments for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and making other improvements to our effects on the environment, but until today I hadn't read about military ones:

The [leaked Pentagon] document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.

Will that be enough to convince governments—and us, the people who elect them—that we need to get the ball rolling? Maybe not. In a few decades, or maybe sooner, we'll find out how things have gone. By then, of course, it will likely be too late to change anything.

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