Huzzah for Sir Nicholas Stern

An economist who gets it...

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6096084.stm

Unfortunately, the Bush administration and various corporate influencers are willing to cloud the issue of global warming as much as they can to create, as Chris Mooney says in his article "Some Like It Hot," a "rhetoric of scientific uncertainty" (Mother Jones May/June 2005, p. 48) . Or they offer up a novelist's dreamings about an environmental conspiracy theory (Crichton's State of Fear) as a suitable piece of support why global warming needs to be studied further, which is simply a ploy to delay needed action on this issue. They don't take into account that the overwhelming majority of the "science" referenced in Crichton's novel (which means that it's fiction, remember?) comes from sources that haven't been peer-reviewed or "research" that is funded through ExxonMobil in particular or various think tanks tied to petro-corporate interests. Thankfully, at least the head honchos at BP and Shell have admitted that global warming is a serious problem and have taken steps, albeit small, toward action on this issue.

As Donald Kennedy, the editor-in-chief of the prestigious and peer-reviewed Science, related back in 2001, "Consensus as strong as the one that has developed around this topic [global warming] is rare in science."

Here's the link to the full report by Stern: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/Independent_Reviews/stern_review_economics_climate_change/sternreview_index.cfm