A simple plan to save the world

When the issue of global warming emerged nearly 20 years ago, it offered the environmental movement -- perversely -- a kind of hope, or at the least, a much tighter focus. This was because its implications were wide-ranging in a way that those of whaling, say, or industrial pollution, were not.

The threat of the warming atmosphere was a threat us all; the imperative to do something drastic about it therefore a universal one.

For the idealists of the green movement, this meant change, which was what they had always wanted -- change in human behavior, to a more caring, less exploitative and less wasteful way of life. The climate threat seemed to mean that this would have to happen, now. People would be obliged to live in respectful harmony with the Earth. They would be obliged to alter their ways: swap their cars for bikes and public transport; substitute renewable energy systems for coal-fired electricity; and consume less of everything.

The alternative was catastrophe. It was go green, or die.

It has gradually become clear that this dream is not going to be realized, which is a sad recognition for anyone who sympathizes with the environment movement to have to make. The world is going to tackle climate change, in so far as it does at all, with a bit of behavior change, and a certain amount of renewable energy, but most of all with technological fixes...