Climate change and social order

17 May 2010. “The scientific basis for concern over climate change has emerged from a period of intense scrutiny and it is now clear that we are performing a very dangerous experiment with the one planet we have”, said Professor Sir Brian Hoskins, Director of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change during the opening session of the event. He continued, “Impacts on human society and on the natural world can be expected to be very significant, even in the case of strongly mitigated emissions. Major adaption will be required”.

During the debate, Nobel Prize Winners and the students discussed their different approaches to the topic, however the Organisational Committee started from the scientifically substantiated assumption that climate change is a reality. The winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1991), Professor Richard R. Ernst, emphasized the importance to attack the root of the problems:

“The potential economic opportunities are very last concerns that should be addressed. A more honest question would be ’How can we increase world society’s ability to PREVENT further climate change in order to moderate potential societal damage?’ Stop climate change before it changes you”, said Richard R. Ernst.