Is it too late to do something about climate change?

If you listen to different scientific opinions and predictions about climate change you can definitely conclude that there is really not much time left to do anything about it. Any plan with decent chance to avoid the worst of climate change in years to come requires massive cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, and by the current looks of it world leaders are still not ready to do this step because they fear what this could do to their economies.

Industry, especially heavy industry fired with fossil fuels is the main force behind economy and many countries around the globe are reluctant to do anything that would significantly hurt their industry because this would mean loss of economic competitiveness on global level, and this is definitely one thing that any political leader tries to avoid.

But if we are to believe different scientific reports and estimations we should much more fear what climate change could do to us in years to come than fearing about what is going to happen to our economies because if climate change shows its true face damage to economy would also be enormous. Frequent extreme weather events, floods, drought, potential new diseases are likely to cause billions and billions of dollar damage and this is something that politics should have in mind when deciding upon new climate deal.

Yes, if world decides to go for drastic greenhouse gas reductions industry will suffer, but only in short term because such scenario would give much more boost to development of clean renewable energy sector that could be most important ally in fight against climate change. Energy demand of the modern world most be satisfied to enable us our way of life but we definitely need to rely more on renewables. If we continue to stick with fossil fuels in years ahead we will make climate change impact much more powerful, and it will only be matter of time before humanity enters the path of no coming back.

Even now many scientists believe that we cannot stop global warming but they all agree that we can do something to avoid seeing the worst of what climate change has to offer. Without the radical new climate deal the world as we know it could become nothing more than a fond memory even before the end of this century. Are we really gonna leave this legacy to our children? Do they really have to pay for our mistakes? It is still not too late to do something about climate change, something that would prevent climate change impact from becoming bigger in years to come. The good part is that we know the solution for this problem, namely reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the bad part is that we still hesitate to do so.