The fact that the world is poorly prepared is not surprising

Findings that the world is poorly prepared for climate change are far from surprising, well not at least for those advocating that the world take action.

Climate change itself will be a surprise to many for while the reality of what we are doing to earth’s atmosphere has been clearly spelt out by the world’s scientists for more than a decade now, few people have been listening.

Not only have they not been listening, but most, it seems, thought it was a distant problem of little concern to them and about which they could do little.

The idea of doing little was discussed by Tatura’s Terry Court just last week at a climate change/community health forum Shepparton at which he quoted the Irish author, philosopher and statesman, Edmund Burke who said: “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little”.

However, doing what little he can, environmental editor with The Age, Tom Arup, has alerted that newspaper’s readers to the fact that “Climate change is here and the world is taking a turn for the worse”.

In discussing the prognosis of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Arup wrote, “It will be a less certain and more dangerous world, particularly for the world’s poor. Nor one we should look forward to.”