ge may create opportunities for gain as well as for loss, but countries with different endowments of skills and capital will differ in their ability to exploit those opportunities. VII. CONCLUSIONAs has been advanced throughout this paper, there is a considerable degree of uncertainty surrounding the climatic future of the earth. This, according to Mannion, highlights the complexity of the climate system and the inadequacy of current scientific understanding. This vein of thought also ran through the Rio Earth Summit, which recognised the reality of global warming, but also the substantial scientific uncertainty with regard to its timing and magnitude. This lingering confusion has made the problem of global environmental change the largest single problem facing the world scientific community. But, while the precise impact of mans footprint on the earth cannot be measured with great accuracy, there is no reasonable man who will argue that current rates of consumption are either beneficial or wholly necessary. Indeed, it is quite intuitive to conclude that increasing industrialisation and increased economic output is a step in the wrong direction, at least in terms of the environments well being. Given the state of present day research, it has reasonably been estimated that under a business as usual scenario of continued growth of fossil fuel use, and hence of greenhouse gas emissions, the global average temperature is estimated to rise at a rate close to 0.3C per decadea rate which is probably greater than any that has occurred on earth since the end of the last ice age, some 10,000 years ago. Associated with the rise in global average temperature will be substantial changes in regional climate, especially in the intensity and frequency of droughts and floods. Though impossible to prove, in aggregate it has been argued that the change will be large and greater than the earth has seen since the last ice age. If this is even clo...
