Could climate change be a good thing?
A changing climate isn't inherently bad, and commentators who are sceptical about the risks posed by global warming often point to the benefits that higher temperatures could bring such as longer growing seasons in cool countries and more efficient shipping routes through an ice-free Arctic. Even some of those who are concerned about climate change occasionally highlight opportunities that it presents, whether that's a boost to UK tourism or a shake-up of global politics . Certainly it's true that a warmer world could benefit certain people, species, regions and industries at least for a period. However, any such benefits need to be seen in the context of a number of serious and widespread negative consequences that scientists have warned the world to expect: things such as rising sea levels , an increase in the number of people exposed to devastating droughts and floods, and a potentially massive increase in extinction rates. That explains why world's most prestigious scientific bodies stated in 2009 that: "It is essential that world leaders agree on the emission reductions needed to combat negative consequences of anthropogenic climate change". Of course, any comparison of specific positive and negative impacts is complicated by the fact that the effects of climate change will vary according to both location and time. For example, the science suggests that global agricultural productivity may increase during the first three degrees Celsius of warming, driven by gains in relatively wealthy high-latitude regions. During that time, however, productivity looks likely to fall in the poorer tropical areas, followed by a drop in global food production if the temperature warms by more than 3C something that could be expected to put a huge strain on a world population expected to exceed nine billion by the end of the century. This example reflects a few wider themes: that a positive benefits can give way to negative ones as the climate continues to warm; that some of the possible longer-term impacts are potentially catastrophic, compared to fairly insubstantial short-term benefits; and that the regions most exposed to the risks of climate change are very often the ones that are least responsible for causing them and least equipped to deal with them. This latter point explains why the most prominent groups campaigning on global poverty and equality see climate change as a major threat. Ultimately, however, terms such as "good" and "bad" are subjective, so there can never be a single definitive answer to this question. This answer last updated: 05.05.2011 Read about the project and suggest a question Report an error in this answer Related questions Is the world really getting warmer? Are humans definitely causing the warming? What are climate change feedback loops? This post by The Guardian is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License . Based on a work at theguardian.com