We have a buzzing global economy measured in dollars and cents, but our economic system has failed to account for the role a stable climate played in creating it.įor decades, scientists, activists and economists have warned of growth without concern for the consequences. The global population grew from fewer than 10 million people 10,000 years ago to more than 7.7 billion today. The basis for human civilization was laid roughly 10,000 years ago when, after tens of thousands of years of unpredictable weather, the earth’s climate stabilized: weather extremes became more manageable, and humans began to practice agriculture. It’s a moment of maximum hope it’s also a moment of high risk.” “That understanding is long overdue, but I don’t think we know exactly what it means yet. “We are at the point where climate change means systems change-and almost every system will change,” says Rachel Kyte, dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University and a longtime climate leader. Whether it leads to a more resilient world or exacerbates the worst elements of our society depends on whether we adjust or just stumble through. The course of climatization-the process by which climate change will transform society-will play out in the coming years in every corner of society. “We are seeing the beginning of a new era.” Vice President who won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his climate activism. “The world is crossing the long-awaited political tipping point on climate right now,” says Al Gore, a former U.S. has allocated hundreds of billions of euros to put climate at the center of its economic plans, seemingly unrelated activist groups have embraced environmental goals, and investors have flooded firms advancing the energy transition with trillions of dollars. It’s out of this recognition that the E.U. Now, spurred by alarming science, growing public fury and a deadly pandemic, government officials, corporate bosses and civil-society leaders are finally waking up to a simple idea whose time has come: climate is everything. And advocates and thinkers have proposed everything from a conscious move to economic degrowth to eco-capitalism to make climate the government’s driving force. Social scientists have crunched the data, illuminating how climate change will ripple across society, contributing to a surge in migration, reduced productivity and a spike in crime. Leaders from small island countries have pleaded with the rest of the world to notice how climate change has begun to uproot their lives, in areas from health care to schooling. For decades, the idea that climate change touches everything has grown behind the scenes.
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