| ived and promoted by a team of journalists and | | | | levels, and a volatile climate. It is certainly possible |
| experts including Peter Myers, Dr. Victoria Johnson | | | | to argue that those problems are not real |
| and Andrew Simms, the 100 months problem is | | | | problems, or that perhaps those problems are |
| the idea that in roughly 8 years, our current | | | | less severe than environmentalists make out. But |
| lifestyles will have taken the earth beyond a | | | | what skeptics cannot deny is that CO2 emissions |
| revocable point when it comes to global warming | | | | are rising; the EIA reports show a steady annual |
| and climate change. The project is designed to | | | | rise since 1980. |
| give people a more systematic approach to the | | | | The 100 months program, then, need not limit |
| problem; the deadline gives an effective | | | | itself to environmental issues, even if its end goal |
| time-scale for the implementation of sustainable | | | | falls under that sphere. Outside of the stringently |
| infrastructures, so that global warming skeptics | | | | environmental effects of CO2 emissions, there |
| cannot claim the movement to be lacking in | | | | are economic effects; fossil fuels are a finite fuel |
| substance. | | | | source, and that - as we have seen - is likely to |
| Since its introduction, there have been many | | | | drive prices up. And that cannot be refuted as a |
| critics and many dissenters. Despite the program's | | | | natural cause; the U.S contributes to around 20% |
| attempts to pin down the global warming problem, | | | | of CO2 emissions worldwide each year, and it |
| many are not convinced by the original premise; | | | | occupies just 5% of the world population. That |
| that, in a relatively short time span, our current | | | | inconsistency in statistics can only be explained as |
| CO2 emissions habits will have driven us to a point | | | | a failure in lifestyle that has without doubt draining |
| where climate change and global warming have | | | | oil reserves quicker than is necessary. |
| spiraled out of our control. The problem, as has | | | | The 100 months concept, then, is not just |
| often been the case for global warming | | | | important for the environment. It gives a time |
| prevention activists, is that most skeptics still do | | | | scale for social reform, and - for economics as |
| not see the problem as something tangible. And | | | | well as the environment - social reform is needed; |
| even if they do, it is seen by so many critics as | | | | our current habits and our current paradigm are |
| paling in comparison to economic concerns. | | | | not sustainable. To many, the global warming |
| As a result, the 100 months project has been | | | | problem is very real indeed, and it is to those |
| called hyperbolic and unfounded. But the | | | | people as serious as the 100 months concept |
| importance of the 100 month deadline is not so | | | | suggests. But it is linked to the equally |
| much the validity of the claim, but the practical | | | | troublesome economic problem, and the 100 |
| and pragmatic approach it grants us towards | | | | month program - if we can subscribe to it, for |
| solving a number of problems at once; without a | | | | pragmatic or ideological reasons - will curb that |
| deadline, and without a potential 'tipping point', it | | | | issue through a break from our dependence on |
| would be difficult to justify a systematic approach | | | | fossil fuels. |
| to the problems of fossil fuel depletion, rising sea | | | | |