When Will It Be Too Expensive?

In Libya a damn breech kills thousands.  Libya, one of the countries most susceptible to climate change, is a war torn country so dysfunctional that it couldn’t warn its citizens to evacuate.  The costs of climate change will be high for this nation, which is unable to exploit its vast natural resources because it is so beset by conflict.  Libya, and a lot of places like it, are beginning to pay the price of climate change.  Soon, the West will also be paying the price for this damn breach.  In a country that is the staging point for many migrants and asylum seekers, tens of thousands are now displaced.  The costs of inaction on climate change are beginning to add up.

Yet, at the same time, there are those who still claim they have an economic interest in delaying action on climate change.   Some complain about the costs of jobs and livelihood and potential electricity rate hikes. We will lose jobs here, it will negatively affect a certain sector in a certain way.  After all, inflation is out of control.  The immediate price of crude oil on today’s market is of paramount importance.  The grid isn’t ready yet.      They claim we cannot afford to switch to clean energy now, that we will have to wait, that it will take time to implement, that in the meantime we still need fossil fuels.  The excuses abound. 

But when faced with a tragedy like the one in Libya all those excuses lose meaning. Let the people of Derna ask Joe Manchin about the impact on the local community.    What damage has been done to their local economy, how many jobs have been lost? 

 Unfortunately, it may take climate change becoming too expensive for the world to decide to act. As the costs mount all over the world, climate change is becoming harder and harder to ignore.  Very soon the costs of climate change are going to become so real that no amount trying to deny it is going to make it go away.  When there are too many disasters like Libya, the world will tire of sending aid. It is unfortunate that the world is choosing to wait for such tragedies to wake up to what is going wrong with Mother Nature, and how our disrespect of Her is going to be impacting us for many generations to come.   

As the cost of inaction mounts, more and more voices call for change; this is our moment.  Those who care about climate change have to step up.  At last our voices cannot simply be ignored.   It is sad we have waited, this long, until climate change is upon us. But at last it is clear that we cannot simply wait until later. 

Climate change, unfortunately, may begin to be acted on now simply because it has become too expensive.  What is tragic is the costs of climate change borne by one Libyan–his infant and seven of his family members drowned in the flood.