The pressure on national governments to
formulate climate change policies and enact stringent environmental
legislation is on the rise. With extreme weather events increasing in
frequency and ferocity worldwide, nothing much is left for the
political class to skirt around the issue. However, the political
reaction to climate change seems to have missed out on a critical aspect
– to build public consensus so as to gain a wider acceptance among people who vote and participate in the change process.
The general lack of understanding of how
climate change and human activity are interrelated has only helped a
wayward section of the political class spread unfounded beliefs about
climate change and garner popular support to rally against initiatives
that would help protect environment. These are the people who have been
able to drive home the point that environmental protectionism is
antithetical to development and that it would result in loss of
livelihoods and would weaken economic growth. Read full post...
