Harvard economist Robert Stavins says a major disaster is needed for the U.S. to act on climate change ›

If the name looks familiar, it’s because Nobelist Stavins was lead author of the IPCC’s 2nd and 3rd reports. He’s is current lead author on the section covering international negotiations for the IPCC’s forthcoming 5th assessment. (emphasis below are not mine).

“It’s unlikely that the U.S. is going to take serious action on climate change until there are observable, dramatic events, almost catastrophic in nature, that drive public opinion and drive the political process in that direction,” Stavins, director of Harvard’s Environmental Economics Program in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said today in an interview in Bloomberg’s Boston office.

President Barack Obama failed to get legislation through Congress that would have established a cap-and-trade system of pollution allowances to control greenhouse-gas emissions blamed for global warming. Instead, the administration is pushing regulations for carbon pollution through the Environmental Protection Agency, a far inferior approach, according to Stavins.

Source: Bloomberg

(via pizzaforbrunch)

#IPCC  #5th assessment  #disaster  #disaster planning  #climate  #climate change  #policy  #climate policy  #negotiations  #harvard  #economist  #cognitive dissonance  
∞  05/04/11 at 09:15am via bloomberg.com
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  2. thecrimsondusk reblogged this from realcleverscience and added:
    I hope it is not too late for all of us. Not only in the US.
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  6. realcleverscience reblogged this from mohandasgandhi and added:
    Does this seem horribly wrong to you? Then do something about it.
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    This is what I have been saying for some time: in general our political system is so broken that we won’t deal with...
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  12. climateadaptation reblogged this from pizzaforbrunch and added:
    If the name looks familiar, it’s because Nobelist Stavins was lead author of the IPCC’s 2nd and 3rd reports. He’s is...
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