That means finally ending our addiction to oil, a source — if
not the source — of two recent wars. And that also means
avoiding centuries of strife and conflict from catastrophic
climate change. As reported in September: An intelligence
forecast being prepared for the next president on future global
risks envisions a steady decline in U.S. dominance in the coming
decades, as the world is reshaped by globalization, battered by
climate change, and destabilized by regional upheavals over
shortages of food, water and energy. The world beyond 450 ppm
atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, the world that
crosses carbon cycle tipping points that quickly take us to 1000
ppm, is a world not merely of endless regional resource wars
around the globe. It is a world with dozens of Darfurs. It is a
world of a hundred Katrinas, of countless environmental refugees
— at least a hundred million by the second half of this century
and more than a billion by the next century — all clamoring to
occupy the parts of the devel