Another day, another climate expert explains the deadly combination of inaction and faster-than-expected impacts.

Lord Nicholas Stern, Member of GGGI Council

This time the man ringing the bell is Lord Nicholas Stern, the author of the famousStern Review on the Economics of Climate Change. The UK Guardian reports:

Stern … said: “Looking back, I underestimated the risks. The planet and the atmosphere seem to be absorbing less carbon than we expected, and emissions are rising pretty strongly. Some of the effects are coming through more quickly than we thought then.”

 The Stern review, published in 2006, pointed to a 75% chance that global temperatures would rise by between two and three degrees above the long-term average; he now believes we are “on track for something like four “. Had he known the way the situation would evolve, he says, “I think I would have been a bit more blunt. I would have been much more strong about the risks of a four- or five-degree rise.”

Read the full article at Think Progress