But the draft report on mitigation, by contrast, emphasises the uncertainties involved and the need not to decide policy without more information. This argues, in essence, that everyone in the world has an equal right to emit greenhouse gases, but that total emissions should be kept below the level where they intensify global warming. There's no drive, no sense of urgency that we have to get a move on. We know climate change is happening, but we won't know for about 20 years how serious it's going to be, and that's frightening. It means we just have to start taking decisions before we know the full position.
Climate change is like a boomerang.
You chuck it, nothing happens for a considerable time - and then it comes back and hits you.