climate change and chaos

In this article, the writer asks:

"What if the secret behind civilization is that we've had really good weather? Humankind has prospered and multiplied during one of the most benign climate eras in the history of the planet. And the past two centuries - which witnessed the great expansion of the Industrial Revolution, a sixfold increase in human population, the triumph of the consumer society, and the rise of the integrated global economy - have been particularly stable. One would have to go back 115,000 years to find a time as tranquil and warm as the present."

The author calls for massive governmental intervention -- including an international agreement to cut carbon emissions -- to try to prevent rapid climate change from taking place. He questions whether we are ready to deal with even moderate climate change, and finishes by saying "By not taking action on greenhouse emissions, we are betting our well-being that climate change poses little threat. If we are wrong, we will meet our fate."

What miserable self-defeating anticapitalist rag would run such left-wing, paranoid environmentalist tree-hugging Al-Gore style hysteria?

Fortune.

Yep, Fortune Magazine. Businesses are starting to pay attention to climate change, finally twigging to the fact that massive climate change may not be good for them. Insurers and reinsurers in particular are concerned -- they've already seen the increase in payments due to hurricanes; researchers estimate hurricanes have doubled in intensity over the past 30 years, and the events of 2005 -- Katrina, Rita, and Wilma ALL rapidly expanding to Category 5 status in short order, the first-ever hurrican in the Southern Hemisphere, etc. -- doesn't reassure them.

Bush won't listen to treehuggers. Maybe he'll listen to big business. Even BP (an oil company) CEO John Browne is converted, and worried - he's advocating nuclear and solar power on a massive scale to try to fend off (maybe) climate change.

Hope it's not too late. Change now may make no difference -- but shouldn't we at least try?