The tem­per­a­ture is ris­ing every­where on Earth; like­wise, the sci­en­tif­ic ev­i­dence con­firm­ing the re­al­i­ty and the dan­ger of hu­man-caused cli­mate change. And yet, the world's rich­est na­tions are seem­ing­ly para-lysed, un­able to utilise their eco­nom­ic pow­er to help avert cat­a­stro­phe. Why? There are many an­swers, but many of them boil down to a fa­tal com­bi­na­tion of two fac­tors: short-sight­ed­ness and greed.

In most of the in­dus­tri­alised world, the prof­it cy­cle reigns supreme. Pro­grammes or projects that do not of­fer im­me­di­ate re­turns on in­vest­ment are au­to­mat­i­cal­ly ex­clud­ed from the pol­i­cy-mak­ing process of na­tions whose economies are dom­i­nat­ed by multi­na­tion­al cor­po­ra­tions. The in­abil­i­ty of the US to ad­dress the dis­as­ter it has in large part cre­at­ed is a symp­tom of the con­trol of gov­ern­ment by these cor­po­rate forces. Un­til their pow­er and in­flu­ence are checked, none of the world's na­tions will be able to of­fer gen­uine so­lu­tions to the cli­mate cri­sis.

War­ren Senders

Med­ford, Mass­a­chu­setts