NEW YORK -- If there was any remaining doubt about the urgent need to combat climate change, two reports issued last week should make the world sit up and take notice.
According to the latest data submitted to the United Nations, the greenhouse-gas emissions of the major industrialized countries continue to increase.
A study by the World Bank's former chief economist, Nicholas Stern of Britain, called climate change "the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen," with the potential to shrink the global economy by 20 percent and to cause economic and social disruption on a par with the two world wars and Great Depression.