Climate Suggestions For The G8 From Tyndall

This week I got a report in the mail from the Tyndall Institute. The Institute is a respected scientific center for climate change research located in the UK. The report was titled Key8 for G8 and contained eight suggested areas that should be concentrated on in preparing for and dealing with the effects of global warming. In this story I would like to share those suggestions with you. Without you, the public, being aware of the scope of the problems that face us and the steps that need to be taken to at least lessen the damage done by climate change there will never be enough political pressure/support to enact the necessary measures until after it is too late.

The Institute believes that the G8 must work together to come up with policies for adressing climate change that are both politically acceptable and based on sound scientific evidence. The reason that this is important is very well illustrated in my last post which was about the Bush Administration's attempts to cover up or alter such evidence.

The Institue feels that the Gleneagles Plan of Action is a landmark on the road to managing Climate Change. Now there can be serious discussions about a future world, post 2012. It is obvious that the G8 Nations are the one's who must shoulder the lions share of the cost of Climate Change remediation since they are also the nations that contributed most of the greenhouse gas pollution to the atmosphere in the first place. Third World nations must be lent the support of richer nations to adapt to the changing enviornment.

Leaders of the G8 Nations. Image SOURCE.

The first suggestion was that "Climate Change solutions must be fair and just". This is of course an important consideration. Consider Africa, with a huge population and rampant poverty it is hard to imagine that they could shoulder as much responsibility financially as North America could. But yet they will feel the effects of Climate Change just the same if not perhaps more simply because they dont have the modern convieniences (such as air conditioning or even electricity and clean, running water) that the G8 nations do in as widespread use. But by the same token these nations should have a voice in the plans that are being enacted to save the world as it is as much their world as anyone else's.

Article Author: Mike Johnston

Covering mainstream music, the New York City indie rock scene and off-Broadway theater productions. Also articles on science, the ongoing effects of climate change, and alternative energy.

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