One uncomfortable truth too much, or…?
The author, Sir Nicholas Stern, of the Government’s report on climate change is to quit the Treasury after friends said that he was frozen out of Gordon Brown’s inner circle. This was to read in the Times last Friday.
“Sir Nicholas, 60, one of the Chancellor’s most senior officials as Second Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, is to leave in March to return to academic life, taking a chair at the London School of Economics in June. Sir Nicholas’s conclusions did have a global focus, saying that the economic costs of failing to act would, over time, far outweigh those of action now. He proposed carbon taxes or carbon trading schemes and investment in low-carbon technology. But his stark warnings of overwhelming evidence of global warming highlighted differences between Mr Brown — who wanted to avoid unpopular tax rises — and David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, who pressed for green taxes, including a big rise in tax on gas-guzzling vehicles.”
It’s not easy to tackle the global warming problem. It’s not easy to convince the machinery of power where ever. “An uncomfortable truth” is a good description of the phenomenon.