Time to Get Serious

Nature, the preeminent British science journal, has dedicated a section of its latest issue to the climate change crisis, with emphasis on the latest IPCC assessment and what comes next. Most but not all of the content is behind the pay wall, but the editorial introduction is available here. Here's an excerpt:

The policy choices that lie ahead are more daunting than political leaders (or the media) have thus far been ready to acknowledge. In a sense, twenty years of frustrating trench-warfare with the sceptics has prevented a rational discussion about what needs to be done from even taking place.

At present, the political response to the situation is, in large part, incongruous. ...

Even the most progressive governments continue to put the issue of climate change on the back seat behind their fundamental commitment to strong economic growth, which is needed to ensure political survival (in developed countries) and to enable human dignity (in developing countries). So in a typical European nation, for example, governments are calling for strenuous emissions cuts while also planning airport expansions that anticipate a further tripling over the next twenty years of air travel — the fastest-growing source of emissions, and one not capped by the Kyoto Protocol.

The time has come, say the editors, to get down to brass tacks. The controversy may have ended, but the hard part is just beginning.