LONDON -- There can be no doubt that the film "An Inconvenient Truth," compiled by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, has struck a chord worldwide. Checking potential climate chaos and saving the planet from destruction are causes that have gripped the minds of people, especially young people, everywhere.
Unfortunately, while the Gore message provides plenty of material about which to worry deeply, it is not so good at telling nations, governments or individuals what they should actually do to prevent disaster. It leaves open the question as to what incentives are actually required to make people change their lifestyles radically, to change the whole path of industrialization and development and to reshape economic growth -- and all for a very long-term objective that is by no means certain.
The reality is that change on a scale involving nothing less than controlling and altering the globe's weather is going to require an even more compelling agenda than the Gore message if anything is to happen. If much less carbon is to be pumped into the already poisoned atmosphere above us, full cooperation will be required not just of the already industrialized world -- which created the problem in the first place in past generations --but also of the developing countries struggling to lift their billions out of poverty and follow the path of economic growth.