Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of

introduction S 5
have household, auto, and health insurance for protection against
vastly smaller risks at an infi nitesimally smaller scale, and most did
not dismiss health warnings from their doctors as a liberal plot.
When it is merely the future of the Earth, however, they have
been willing to risk irrevocable and irreversible changes.
On the positive side, polls indicate that public awareness about
climate change is increasing rapidly. After years of inaction and
denial, a new president of the United States supports serious action
on climate change. Markets for carbon are coming into existence.
Large amounts of capital are shifting toward low-carbon investments.
Deployment of solar and wind energy is advancing rapidly
worldwide. Billionaires like T. Boone Pickens are investing heavily
in wind farms, not necessarily to save the Earth but to make
money. Promising technologies are emerging from laboratories.
And nongovernmental organizations, colleges and universities, and
corporations are shifting priorities to accommodate and facilitate
low- or zero-carbon futures. Led by California and Florida, states
and regional coalitions are creating climate policy innovations.
Hundreds of cities and local governments are developing policies
to reduce carbon emissions and to adapt to changing climate.
Hundreds of college and university presidents have committed to
“climate neutrality.” Polls show that the public is awakening and
becoming increasingly supportive of action on climate change,
energy effi ciency, and solar power. A revolution has begun. There
is a great temptation to stop here and accommodate the desire
for happy news and the hope that we will not have to sacrifi ce
economic growth, convenience, or comfort to avoid the worst
possibilities ahead. Doing so is misleading, however, and sooner or
later we will have to reckon with a less agreeable reality.
The challenges ahead will be far more diffi cult than the public
has been led to believe and than most of our present leadership
apparently understands. Despite the considerable progress in
raising awareness of climate change, we are still in a “consensus
trance,” oblivious to the full scope, scale, severity, and duration of