YOU DIDN’T KNOW?

Global Warming Could Devastate World Economy, Report Says
Juliet Eilperin, October 30, 2006 (Washington Post)

- Failing to curb the impact of climate change could damage the global economy on the scale of the Great Depression or either world war, according to a report issued today by the British government. The environmental devastation could cost between 5 and 20 percent of the world's gross domestic product…
- The report by Nicholas Stern, who heads Britain's Government Economic Service, calls for a new round of international collaboration to cut greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming…
- However, some economic experts questioned the British study's projections, noting that other analyses suggest developed countries will only suffer a modest economic hit…
- British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been trying to convince President Bush to take a more pro-active stance on global warming, and Britain announced it had hired former vice president Al Gore to advise it on lobbying the U.S. government…

- The issue of how to approach global warming has been a sticking point between the United States and some of its European allies since the Bush administration disavowed the Kyoto Protocol in 2001, saying it opposed requiring limits on carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels…Bush will continue putting the emphasis on research and technology rather than mandatory curbs on such carbon dioxide emissions…

- Last month, the Bush administration unveiled its "strategic plan" for using technology to curb global warming, asserting that basic scientific research and voluntary actions such as sequestering carbon dioxide before it enters the atmosphere and promoting hydrogen-powered cars, can curb the greenhouse gases…Environmentalists, however, said the British analysis highlights the merits of regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, automobiles and other sources…

Hope the Bush administration’s “strategic plan” works out better on this than…