Bryan Gould: Climate change v economy

Pictures from the wider area of Mati and Neos Voutsas in eastern Attica near Athens after the fire. The fire that took place on July 23 was one of the worsts in the century. Photo / Getty Images

As I write this at the height of the British summer, the sun is shining and the thermometer is well above 30s degree centigrade - lovely for us for tourists and visitors generally, but bad news for farmers, who have had no rain for a couple of months and whose fields are parched and whose crops and animals are dying for want of water.

At the same time, the news bulletins on television are showing terrible pictures of destructive fires burning in European countries - countries like Sweden and Greece that are not usually prone to such disasters; in Greece, more than 100 people have lost their lives in a vain attempt to escape the fires raging out of control.

There can be no more dramatic evidence of the fact that something very unusual and worrying is happening to the climate across the globe. Climate change sceptics - whether in New Zealand or in the White House - should sit up and take notice. A failure to acknowledge the problem and to act promptly to address it can only make matters worse.

Our own Prime Minister has correctly identified the issue as one of the great challenges of our age; but even as the need to act becomes more obvious, the relevant authorities, in Britain and elsewhere, continue to take decisions that are likely to make matters worse.

In Britain, for example, permission has just been given, against the advice of environmental experts, to allow fracking on a large scale. In New Zealand, the new government's decision to suspend further exploration in search of gas and oil reserves so as to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels has been widely attacked as damaging to our economic prospects and as a factor in producing a loss of confidence on the part of business.

And we continue to support more irrigation schemes to make possible further conversion to dairy farming, despite the clear evidence that putting all our eggs into the economic basket is detrimental to both our economic and environmental future.

The notion that we have to choose between economic prosperity and grappling with global warming is, in any case, quite mistaken. Nothing could more certainly jeopardise our economic future than to sit on our hands and do nothing about climate change.

Nor should we continue to accept the argument that the interests of business must always take priority over any other consideration. We cannot contemplate our future with any confidence if we cannot give up the notion that business must always prevail over, rather than adapt to, the factors that will determine the future of our planet.

As the temperatures rise and the Antarctic melts, time is running out. As the planet's dominant species, and as the principal contributor to the risks we now face, we have a double responsibility.

We alone have the knowledge to identify what is causing the problems and to accept responsibility for ending the behaviours that have exacerbated them, and we must also use our superior knowledge to help the planet change course and avert the worst.

We would be truly culpable if we not only through our own irresponsibility, selfishness and short-sightedness, subjected our own planet to the risk that it might become no longer habitable and chose to put "the economy" - that is, our economy - ahead of all other considerations, but also failed to fulfil our leadership and custodial role by refusing to use the knowledge and power that we alone possess to change course before it is too late.