Is Climate Change Irreversible? 

My third book (Renewable Energy—Following the Money)  featured an interview with Rajendra Pachauri (pictured), the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).  The fond respect I had maintained for Dr. Pachauri for the many years before I met him at his office at Yale University deepened even further during the course of our talk on energy policy and climate change.  I knew within seconds after I had sat down with him that “Raj” (as he insisted I call him) was a likable, passionate, and intensely intelligent man.  Yet it would come over the course of the next hour or so that he would have my sympathy, as well as my respect. 

Imagine holding an elaborate set of advanced degrees in the sciences surrounding the subject, then think about what it must be like to know that your work in climate change mitigation, at least to date, has been essentially fruitless.  Raj has one core mission: bringing the countries of the world together to agree on a set of policies that will benefit all seven billion citizens of Earth–policies that, admittedly, will require a certain level of sacrifice.  So far, no dice.

So here we have one of the top minds on Earth who understands how profoundly screwed we all are in terms of the progressive advancement of climate change—leading him (and his august body of scientists) to publish a piece like this one, that suggests that it’s quite possible that the effects of climate change may already be irreversible.

Obviously, there are other frustrating positions.  I sympathize deeply with parents of children who are intractable drug addicts, and with honest politicians who learn to their horror the depth of corruption that will not allow any recovery from the disease.  But my heart—and my most sincere support–goes out to Raj.