Originally posted @ 10:00 pm, Mon 31st Jan 2011
2010 was probably the earth's hottest years for a very, very long time.
2010 saw massive floods in Pakistan, Australia and Brazil and a heatwave in Russia. the heatwave in particular has had an impact on worldwide food prices which is contributing to the problems e face with the current economic slow-down.
And yet it's possible that it was also the year that our ambition to tackle climate change was diminished.
Opinion formers - not scientists - used a combination of events, including snow in Britain in January - to suggest that it isn't so bad or that we might be able to handle it all with technology.
We're taking solace from Cancun keeping international talks on tackling climate change going at all and we wonder if the greenest gov't Britain was ever going to see is really going to be that green.
There was a time when jobs were played off against sustainable development; such green initiatives would cost jobs. Now of course, it seems we can't afford green initiatives, jobs or public services.
So it was very welcome to attend a presentation on climate change at a meeting called by Derby Against Climate Change, by one of the authors of a pamphlet has been produced calling for a million climate change jobs to be created.
Given climate change is happening, and adaptation is necessary, the debate should really be how do we seek to mitigate it and adapt to what's already happening, in the most effective way.
- How can we get the British private sector to be more effective in embracing the challenge and providing the products, services and jobs that will be needed in the future?
- How can we get heat managed to mudh better effect in British homes, old and new?
- Have we got to get the price of carbon into products and services for the market to be more effective in meeting the challenge?
- How might workers transfer between sectors as the green sectors start to grow faster?
But the meeting was more upbeat than the challnges would suggest. Cos talking about green technologies emphasises the ambition we have for people and the planet.
And what we've lost most since the General Electon is that ambition.
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