This will not be the first time we have suffered from global warming. The end of the last ice was one such event, abiet not as warm but enough to traumatise human kind. There were massive rises in sea level many coastal towns perhaps even protocities would have been swamped. The battle between the survivors for arable land would have been desperate and brutal. Indeed there appears to be some relationship between sea level rise and the end of most matriarchies. Perhaps warrior cults arose in the chaos. Unfortunatly all this lies just before literacy or in some cases literacy may have died out. Stories of floods and the wrath of gods lie as myth on the edge of human memory.
If the Iceland ice cap and the Western Antartic Ice shelf melt the seas levels will dramatically rise and it will be our doing. In the chaos and suffering that will follow it may be that the living will envy the dead

"If climate change is human-induced, then the solutions can and must be found within our collective resources and wisdom." "--this is an issue that transcends the environment --."
Solutions can be found? There are damn few certainties in life, and this is not one of them. We should at least try to work within those that do exist.
Near-enough to certainty is the role of energy-consumption in maintenance of current society under its present economic system.
Absolute certainty exists for the mathematics which show the impossibility of ever-continuing growth in energy use, whatever the rate of increase: whether it is to cover the annual 1.3% rate of world population increase (doubling time every 54 years), or the 4% (preferred)rate of economic growth (doubling time every 17 years).
There is little indication that we have the wisdom to work within those established certainties. The article attempts to induce a warm fuzzy glow in readers by skirting around the necissity of addressing those essentials.
Another certainty is that the issue does not transcend the environment. The cold hard fact is that we are but passengers, part of the changing environment - which is being so thoroughly abused. Why such a fetish for this self-abuse, rather than productive interface with reality?

Excellent article and very sobering thoughts on the security aspect; “Unless carefully handled, tensions between the developed and developing worlds over responsibility for a deteriorating climate, already in evidence, may escalate” is a key statement.

I would have thought that the rise in world population would be the main cause of megadeath. The continuing disregard by the so-called environment community of the population issue makes me think that when they talk about climate change they are simply urinating into the breeze.

By crikey Wispering Ted you are a frightening soothsayer .

We should be evaluating what we have and seeking solutions to sustain it .

Australia has always been a drought racked country .

It would be fair to say we have done nothing towards water generation .

Given our continent is surrounded by water we have been pretty slack .

We could have a forrest industry from the Kimberleys to Adelaide .
The rest of the world could be paying us for Carbon Credits and Timber products if only we had persued Sea water de-salination .

Here is how we could do that :

http://bgonews.com/forum/index.php?topic=94.0

Cheers ideekay

I'm not so sure why anyone thinks that that is amazing. The human
species, with its slightly larger brain then other primates, is
smart enough to invent interesting new things, not smart enough
to use them wisely and sustainably.

If you read the "tragedy of the commons", which is an economic
theory, it gets it about right. People will act in their short
term self interest, before worrying about the common long term
good.

When societies have lived unsustainably and ignored the laws of
nature, the importance of biodiversity within ecosystems etc,
invariably they ended up crashing. No doubt the same thing will
happen again, only this time globally. Dear old mother nature
will have to sort it all out, as our species are not yet smart
enough to do so.