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“The solution is basically simple”

“It’s quite bizarre when you look at the graphs,” says Reyer Gerlagh, Professor of Economics at the Tilburg School of Economics and Management. “In 1990, we already knew that our CO 2 emissions were a problem, but since then we have continued to increase them.” “The problem with tackling climate change is that people find it hard to imagine something they cannot see. Only now that the forests in Australia are on fire, they say: ‘Ah, that’s the climate change that scientists have been talking about for so long!’” “In the past, that’s the way it’s always been. Thirty, forty years ago we saw forests die and statues dissolve because of the acid rain. Then we took measures and that problem was solved. I expect that to happen with climate change. The annoying thing is that, whereas forests were able to recover fairly quickly after the acid rain stopped, the climate system will take hundreds or thousands of years to do the same.” “And to think that the solution is basically simple: we have to move away from fossil fuels. It really won’t destroy our economy, as naysayers claim. Over the past decades, we have learned that economic growth stems from the human need to develop new things. And we don’t need fossil fuels for that.” “One thing you shouldn’t do is make consumers responsible for their own emissions. That’s a spurious solution. I don’t want to have to think about the CO 2 emissions of every product. I want the government to make sure that when I buy something, I can trust that it is not very bad for the environment.” “What can work, for example, is a meat tax. But the population first has to understand that this is a good measure. And it takes a very long time before we realize something like that. People just want a piece of meat on their plate without thinking about it. We’re not going to change our minds until we are confronted with so much misery that we just have to face it.” –JPK