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| View from Club Akumal, Mexico |
I just don't think anything will come of more meetings on how to stop climate change.
The Economist agrees with me it would appear from the cover story in this week's issue.
"In the wake of the Copenhagen summit, there is a growing acceptance that the effort to avert serious climate change has run out of steam," the editors write before suggesting that we may be better focused on adapting to the inevitable changes that are already set in motion.
"Since the beginning of time, creatures have adapted to changes in their environment. Unfortunately, such adaptation has always meant large numbers of deaths. Evolution works that way," the Economist asserts. "But humankind is luckier than most species. It has the advantage of being able to think ahead, and to prepare for the changes to come. That's what needs to happen now."
Indeed, that is what we've been suggesting for some time here at The Green Skeptic, and we see adaptation as one of the three key focus areas, along with increases in energy efficiency and R&D into energy innovations that will help us deal with the changes that may come.
It is, as the Economist suggests, "the craziest experiment mankind has ever conducted. Maybe in the long run it will be brought under control. For the foreseeable future, though, the mercury will continue to rise, and the human race must live with the problem as best it can."
But first we need to stop focusing on solutions that will not work and meetings that only lead to more meetings. We need to shift our focus to pragmatic solutions by doing what we do best as a species: adapt and innovate.
