By Juliette Laaka
ROME, Sept. 29 - The Earth is like a wild animal, Sir Anthony Giddens told a gathering on climate change at John Cabot University on Friday. "We’re prodding at it with sticks, and quite soon, the animal will react.”
Giddens chaired a lecture titled “The Politics of Climate Change” hosted by The Guarini Institute.
Giddens explained the the dire consequences of inaction. He also addressed political and social weaknesses that affect global interpretations of climate change. He expressed his concerns that only a massive event will propel people out of indifference. The ill effects of climate change is, he lamented, a back-of-mind issue that needs to become a more urgent issue if it is to be tackled. “This cataclysmic future affects the people I see here” Gibbens said, scanning the young faces in the audience.
Giddens believes that climate change cannot be viewed as a left or right issue. Giddens asserts that radical political strategies must be implemented now. It starts in the community. Resurgence of community and proactive universal plans are seen to be progressive. Re-introducing long-term political thinking is thought to stimulate technological innovation and government intervention in relation to the climate crisis, he adds.
Giddens is candid when speaking about the United States and China’s involvement in the fight against global warming. He insists on their involvement. There is little hope, he says, if the U.S. sits out of carbon-reducing guidelines set forth by the Kyoto Protocol. Giddens reiterates that developed countries will have to take significant steps, and developing countries, like China, will have follow suit.
Realizing that we are a global society is key in ensuring that there is a stable future for all.
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