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"You misunderstand me, Malachy. The way I see it, the threat from climate change is so great that Shetland's hills are doomed if we don't do something about our emissions. To say that Shetland's hills have an intrinsic value is fine as long as you also accept the fact that that value is depreciating all the time due to the changing climate.   It is the climate which we have had for the last several thousand years which created Shetland's hills as they are today.   That climate is changing, and the hills will change with it and unless we get control of our pollution then that change will alter Shetland and the rest of the world with it out of all recognition.   We have had 0.5 degrees of temperature rise already. There is another 1 degree already coming as the carbon to cause it is already in the atmosphere. That gives us 1.5 degrees by around 2030-2040. This is guaranteed.   If present emissions continue it will be more.   At between 2 and 3 degrees, the rainforests get hit with almost permanent drought. Which means they burn. All of them.   The burning of the rainforests will release enough carbon to raise the temperature another full degree, putting us between 3 and 4 degrees. This is enough to melt all of the permafrost.   There is ten times as much carbon locked up in the permafrost as there is in the rainforests. The melting of the permafrost will release this. This raises the temperature a further 1 degree or more putting us at between 4 and 5 degrees above pre-industrial.    5 degrees or more of warming will begin to destabilise the shallow water methane hydrates deposits in the Arctic. There is estimated to be ten times as much carbon locked up in the hydrates as there is in the permafrost, 100 times as much as all the rainforests combined.   This would lead to a temperature rise of 6, 7 or maybe even 8 degrees. That's more than the difference between the heart of the last ice age and today, and it could happen within the next 2 to 3 hundred years. The change at the end of the last ice age took 5 thousand years.   Or we could build the windfarm, and hundreds more like it and keep the temperature rise to around two degrees. There would be change even then, but it would be limited compared to what I have outlined above.   If we allow the temperature to rise by much more than 2 degrees, then nature takes over and all of the natural carbon sinks around the world begin to give up their carbon. At this point climate change becomes unstoppable, no matter what we do.   If you want more details on this, I recommend the book Six Degrees by Mark Lynas, it outlines the current state of the science clearly and concisely.   NortherXposure, I was referring to the kids of the economist who wrote the article you posted. If that wasn't clear, then I apologise for the confusion. "
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