'Climate migrants' and 45 trillion more reasons to act now
This entry was posted on 7/13/2008 11:11 PM and is filed under Tax Shifting,Human Rights,Global Warming,Costs of INACTION.
The sooner we take significant action to reduce greenhouse gases, increase energy conservation and stimulate the renewable energy industry the better. A phased-in, federal tax shift from income to non-renewable energy is the best action we can take.
From the Los Angeles Times a couple of weeks ago - Climate change likely to trigger global destabilization, report says Excerpts:
"Global warming is likely to have a series of destabilizing effects around the world, causing humanitarian crises as well as surges in ethnic violence and illegal immigration, according to an assessment released Wednesday by U.S. intelligence agencies.
'We judge that economic refugees will perceive additional reasons to flee their homes because of harsher climates,' Fingar said. 'Many likely receiving nations will have neither the resources nor interest to host these climate migrants'.... Overall, as many as 50 million additional people could be at risk of hunger by 2020, and as many as 1.2 billion people could suffer from 'water stress.'
Fingar also said the U.S. infrastructure is in many ways ill-prepared for climate change and the prospect of intense storms and flooding. 'Two dozen nuclear facilities and numerous refineries along U.S. coastlines are at risk and may be severely impacted by storms,' he said.
The report does not address global warming's potential effect on terrorism. A privately funded study completed by the Center for Naval Analyses last year concluded that climate change could 'foster the conditions for internal conflicts, extremism and movement toward increased authoritarianism and radical ideologies.'"
And, from the AP on The Huffington Post in early June 2008 - Study: $45 Trillion Investment Needed To Fight Global Warming
Excerpt:
"The world needs to invest $45 trillion in energy in coming decades, build some 1,400 nuclear power plants and vastly expand wind power in order to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, according to an energy study released Friday."
