The naive would have thought that these disciples of Mammon would pull back their punches, at least temporarily, after the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report made it clear that, among other things, there is a limit to the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) we can dump into the atmosphere, and at the present rate of GHG emission we would have crossed the limit by 2029. But big business, which finances climate skeptics and controls a good part of the so-called independent media worldwide, responds by saying that the IPCC report has allayed fears over climate change. One example from a leading Western media outlet: the IPCC is "more confident that no warming-induced catastrophe will occur during the 21st century".

Adelie penguins walk on the ice at Cape Denison in Antarctica, in this December 12, 2009 file photo. Sea levels could rise by 2.3 metres for each degree Celsius that global temperatures increase and they will remain high for centuries to come, according to a new study by the leading climate research institute, released on July 15, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

What the IPCC report says is, the world has seen the warmest 30 years on record and it can handle an increase in temperature only up to a certain degree (and definitely not above 2 Centigrade). The media group, perhaps the largest in the world, which unashamedly declared that "no warming-induced catastrophe" will occur in the 21st century, twisted the IPCC warning into a slogan for indulgence.

The tragedy is that multinationals, and the economists and media they control, will continue to lead the people astray to keep on earning profits. They will continue to propagate that unbridled economic growth even at the cost of the environment is what the world needs to survive. They will continue to defend their policies, even if it means that we continue to waste one-third of the food we produce, to keep counting the dollars.

It is time people woke up to the reality of an impending catastrophe if business as usual continues, because things will change only if people agree to a different lifestyle than what the mainstream economists prescribe.

The author is a senior editor with China Daily. oprana@hotmail.com

(China Daily 10/15/2013 page8)