Climate-Change Induced Catastrophes

Greg Easterbrook, in the April issue of the Atlantic Monthly, sketched out a pretty grim picture of what would happen if everything they say about climate change and global warming comes to pass.

The world’s economic geography, which is “organized according to a climate that ahs largely prevailed since the Middle Ages,” will be turned topsy-turvy.

Global power balances, real estate values and everything else as it exists in the prevailing order will undergo a sea change.

What struck me as most interesting in Easterbrook’s analysis is the fact that “low-latitude” countries like Indonesia and Nigeria will suffer terribly. Further, developing countries, whose contribution to the global economy has been increasing, will see themselves set back by more than just a few steps.

In other words, generally speaking the rich may get richer, and the poor may get poorer.

I like to be optimistic about this. Easterbrook refers to Malthusian predictions. Those did not come about because food production outstripped population growth.

Maybe climate-change-induced global catastrophes will not happen either, only because everything may not stay constant, technology for example. However, the message seems fairly clear – do something.