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Facing the Climate Challenge of the 21st Century

This blog is hosted by the Climate Change Team of the Environment Department of the World Bank. It is a forum to discuss challenges and solutions, stories, action on the ground, and to hear the voices of those most impacted by development and climate change.

Michael MacCracken's blog

Geoengineering: A Possible Climate Change Insurance Policy?

Submitted by Michael MacCracken on Mon, 06/15/2009 - 17:24
A possible Climate Change Insurance Policy

   Photo © ochus b at Flickr under a
   Creative Commons license.

Even if all emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosol precursors ended today, more warming would occur in coming decades than the 0.8°C that has occurred to date, greatly intensifying climate change and its associated impacts. Already, sea level is rising, sea ice and mountain glaciers are retreating, the ranges of plant and animal species are shifting poleward and upward, and the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are both losing mass. Each round of the assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has found that change is occurring more rapidly than previously projected.