Month 10, Day 25: Real Journalism?

The Arizona Daily Sun reports on a talk given by a UN Climate Panel representative, and does a surprisingly good job of it.

Chris Field is entirely accurate, both in his assessment of the risks and dangers posed by runaway global heating and in his understanding of the obstacles and complications that make concerted action difficult. If we are to move forward in coping with this threat, it’s essential that all of us realize that the costs of action, while large, are a tiny fraction of the costs of apathy. Measuring the impact of climate change in human terms gives us terrifying numbers: of drought refugees, lives lost to flooding and fires, of millions of acres of dessicated cropland. Measuring it in monetary terms is equally scary: the long-term economic impacts of global climate change will easily amount to many trillions of dollars. In this context, it’s clear that those who resist action on the grounds of cost are terribly short-sighted. When floodwaters are rising, only a fool claims sandbags are too expensive.

Warren Senders