Well, as in most things, it is pennies invested now to diminish or eliminate dollars required to deal with the damages later. The damages already outweigh the expenses of changing our practices. A proper pricing of carbon can go a long way toward making a lot of the early transition relatively revenue neutral. There are a lot of ways to address the public policy issues, but that isn't going to happen until enough people decide to make addressing the issues a priority.
"Pennies"? 76 TRILLION dollars spent over a period of decades to possibly prevent the global temp increase of one degree in 100 years is far from pennies. And that according to the IPCC.
You need to get your facts straight....
Please provide a cite and reference for this assertion.
Here's the whole report. Knock yourself out. Below is an excerpt from the UN's press release. with link for it as well. I thought you were current on this, what have you been doing instead of keeping up with the plan?
UN report calls for major investments in new technologies in
developing countries to build green economies
Need for immediate gains in energy efficiency, agricultural
production and disaster reduction
Geneva, 5 July 2011 – Over the next three to four decades, humankind must bring about a fundamental
technological overhaul of production processes worldwide to end poverty and avert the likely
catastrophic impacts of climate change and environmental degradation, the United Nations said in a
report issued today.
Major investments will be needed worldwide in the development and scaling up of clean energy
technologies, sustainable farming and forestry techniques, climate-proofing of infrastructure, and in
technologies reducing non-biodegradable waste production, according to The World Economic and
Social Survey 2011: The Great Green Technological Transformation, published by the UN Department of
Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA).
The report says the technological overhaul will need to be on the scale of the first industrial revolution.
Over the next 40 years, $1.9 trillion per year will be needed for incremental investments in green
technologies. At least one-half, or $1.1 trillion per year, of the required investments will need to be made in
developing countries to meet their rapidly increasing food and energy demands through the application
of green technologies.
Since the first industrial revolution, world income and population have grown exponentially, but so
have energy demand and the production of waste and pollutants (see figures). As a result, the global
environment’s capacity to cope with human activity has reached its limits, according to the report.
About half of the earth’s forests are gone, groundwater resources are being depleted and contaminated,
enormous losses in biodiversity have already occurred, and climate change threatens the stability of all
ecosystems.
At the same time, about 40 per cent of humanity, or 2.7 billion people, rely on traditional biomass, such
as wood, dung and charcoal, for their energy needs. And 20 per cent have no access to electricity,
mainly in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
To achieve a decent living standard for people in developing countries, especially the 1.4 billion still
living in extreme poverty, and the additional 2 billion people expected worldwide by 2050, much greater
economic progress is needed, the report says.
http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/policy/wess/wess_current/2011wesspr_en.pdf
http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/policy/wess/wess_current/2011wess.pdf