Limits to Growth co-author says collapse due to climate possible

If climate change sparks a global collapse this century, future historians are unlikely to acknowledge what caused it, says Norwegian scholar Jorgen Randers.

Delivering the 2006 Templeton Lecture at Sydney University last night, Professor Randers said that when future generations look back over the century, they are unlikely to recognise climate change as the root cause of a resource-induced global collapse.

“Instead, historians will describe a collapse as caused by large scale mismanagement. The Iraq War is a case in point. Who will say it’s about scare oil? A climate change global collapse could remain fiction, even if it proved to be fact,” argued Professor Randers.
It is unlikely that oil scarcity will prove capable of triggering a global collapse, according to Professor Randers. “The period of high oil prices will give strong stimulus for increased energy efficiency,” he said.

However, the rapid increase in emissions of climate gases does have the potential to cause a collapse. This is because gases emitted decades ago will cause damage for another century or more, he explained.

Energy Bulletin