A change in the climate ?

Will the recent global market rout mean less money for the climate change fighting efforts ? At least this question was felt to be important enough that Messr. Sarkozy felt needed to be laid to rest at Thursday's announcement in Brussels.

The impact of the rout should not be understated. A recent special report suggested that a staggering USD 10 trillion of value could be wiped out between now and 2009. For comparison, this is 10 % of the annual US ' Gross Domestic Product.

There is a temptation to focus on wealth maintenance rather than health maintenance. Indeed your correspondent felt compelled to understand the answer to this question.

Though Mr. Sarkozy have confirmed that the funds earmarked to save the laissez fare economy will not result in less fund available to fight climate change, the details have not been immediately available. It is difficult though to comprehend that there won't be an impact. By now, the US have added USD 700 billion to their USD 435 trillion budget deficit, all in the name of saving the US economy. The UK have confirmed that it will spend GBP 250 billion to nationalize household names such as Lloyd's TSB and HBOS. The EU - old and new - does not want to be left behind and have pledged EUR 350 billion, also to nationalise troubled banks.

Our dear government meanwhile have indeed taken some steps. However at the time this newspaper went to press, there has been no discussion with regards to if less funds will be made available to fend off climate change. Upon closer inspection however - given the very low number of projects planned-the impact appreared to be unsurprisingly negligible.

The crux of the activities have not been expected to be funded or coming by the government. They have been expected to be a result of a change in the behaviour of each and every individual's. Plenty of these also did not require investment.

Therefore please continue to
* B2W (less pollution)
* Switch off the lights when you leave the room (less coal being burnt)
* Convert those energy guzzler light bulbs (ditto)
* Be as paperless at work as possible (be a tree hugger)
* Continue to print on used paper
* Don't send unnecessarily large attachments with your email (less use of your bandwidth, therefore less energy consumed)
* Design those houses who are easy on the sunlights
* Set those aircons on timers

Keep those ideas flowing in ...