End of the climate-change bubble?
06 Feb 2010
We live in the age of bubbles. Financial and economic bubbles have become so commonplace that we now readily give bubble status to even insignificant trends, which cannot be explained easily.
Most people enjoy a bubble while it lasts, only to moan when its gone. But, all bubbles have finite lives. Some expand at a fast rate, only to collapse spectacularly. Others may grow at a more measured pace and endure longer, but it is a "given" that they will all burst eventually. In the current decade, counting only the big ones, we saw the internet bubble, the real estate bubble, the commodities bubble, the derivatives bubble and the emerging markets bubble.
Now another one seems ready to join that list, the climate change bubble.
No, I don't intend to dismiss global warming and the resultant climate change. I don't work for the oil industry, do not hold any commodity derivatives linked to oil prices nor in any way stand to benefit from the continued prosperity of the hydrocarbon industry.
I am not even a global warming sceptic. I am convinced that carbon emissions can cause climate change in the long run, and we should take all reasonable steps to minimise the risk of bequeathing a messy future to our progeny.
Then again, back in the late '90s, I was a firm believer in the immense promises of the internet. There was nothing false about the potential of new technologies that emerged during those 'impossible is nothing' days.
