ABSTRACT
Dealing with climate change is the ultimate test for environmental science in the round. Climate change is a truly global issue: one molecule of ‘greenhouse gas’ carries with it the same package of impacts irrespective of where or how it is emitted. And each additional molecule emitted today is not just everybody’s concern. It creates a cumulative headache for four generations to come. The likely effects of human-generated climate change will, however, be experienced almost in inverse proportion to innocence and blame. Those peoples and countries which contribute most to the emissions of radiative forcing gases are, for the most part, least likely to be most inconvenienced, impoverished or physically vulnerable to the consequences of their behaviour. The inhabitants of small island nation states and impoverished coastal areas of larger nations living barely a metre above present sea level will, on the other hand, suffer progressive deterioration of their freshwater resources, their coastal tourism industry and, ultimately, their physical existence. Yet their contribution to the cause of their plight is minuscule.
