When It Comes to Saving the Earth, Little Things Mean a Lot

Is global catastrophe right around the corner?

Not necessarily, says Ron Prinn, co-director of MIT's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change and a co-author of a new study on climate change. According to an article in Science Daily, we still have a 50-50 shot at avoiding catastrophic climate change.

The problem: we'd need to take aggressive action to stem the growing problem of global warming. For example, we'd need to actually meet the emissions targets in current U.S. climate bills.

China and other developing countries would need to do the same. Soon.

Of course, that kind of change takes an awful lot of doing. But the probability of horrific outcomes is very high if we do nothing, while the likelihood of averting disaster is substantial if we take action. And even small changes can improve outcomes significantly.

According to the report, "even relatively loose constraints on emissions reduce greatly the chance of an extreme temperature increase, which is associated with the greatest damage."

So... can we save the world?

Apparently, all it would take is a decision to do so -- and relatively low-cost, low-risk, low-pain actions to make change.

Are you in?

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