{"id":27888,"date":"2014-09-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-23T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ashleydev.com\/2014\/09\/23\/all-may-not-be-lost-on-global-heating\/"},"modified":"2020-08-27T11:41:13","modified_gmt":"2020-08-27T15:41:13","slug":"all-may-not-be-lost-on-global-heating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cna.ca\/fr\/2014\/09\/23\/all-may-not-be-lost-on-global-heating\/","title":{"rendered":"All may not be Lost on Global Heating"},"content":{"rendered":"

By John Stewart<\/b>
\nDirector, Policy and Research<\/em>
\nCanadian Nuclear Association<\/em><\/p>\n

The UN\u2019s 69th<\/sup> General Assembly<\/a> opened today in New York. On the agenda is \u201cstemming the existential threat of climate change,\u201d along with a litany of other crises from Ebola to ISIS.<\/p>\n

I commented<\/a> six months ago\u00a0that only a \u201cPoland moment\u201d \u2013 the arrival of real, widespread fear for our way of life \u2013 might get climate change recognized as an \u201cexistential threat.\u201d Let alone get it \u201cstemmed.\u201d I doubt that we are there yet.<\/p>\n

But as catastrophic as the outlook<\/a> seems on carbon emissions,\u00a0I am not completely pessimistic. Governments do face up to, and act to mitigate, grave threats, even at times when doing so is costly and defies electoral arithmetic. The record of improving air and water quality in developed areas of the globe since the 1960s attests to this. So do many other international efforts to improve human health and security.<\/p>\n

\"While

While it takes time, our governments have shown they can act to address environmental challenges. Source: Environment Canada<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

How hopeful can we dare to be that a child born today will not<\/em> witness hundreds of millions of people being displaced by rising seas and desertification due to climate change? Or at least, that he or she will live to see a substantial turnaround of this process?<\/p>\n

Here are what I see as the negatives that support a pessimistic view:<\/p>\n