Today, over 8000 blogs in 140 countries are taking part in Blog Action Day 2009 raising awareness and challenging people to act on climate change. This is my little part.

To be living in the year 2050 isn’t science fiction. In fact, it’s more than likely that anyone reading this now still be alive to see it. Our children certainly will.

But forget monorails, living on the moon and personal spaceships, the way we are going 2050 wont be utopian dream but a dystopian nightmare, as by 2050 there will be over 500,000 deaths a year attributed to climate change, 120 million people starving to death and 25 million refugees looking for a home.

By 2050, a large percentage of our planet will have become hazardous to live on.

And there will be no space ships to rescue us either. Living on the moon just won’t be economically feasible; think we are in a recession now? Just a 1 degree rise in temperature would cut world gross domestic product by 1% and the worst case scenario of temperatures rising by up to 7 degrees means that some small economies – let alone being flooded out, would be totally wiped out of existance.

Still think this doesn’t affect you? Our current recession has been brought on by a 0.5% loss in our gross domestic product. Try getting a job when we have lost 4%. That’s what might happen if there is just a 1 degree rise in average temperature.

This isn’t science fiction; this isn’t Baxter, Clarke or Wells. This is science fact.

But this doesn’t have to be our future; luckily this could all still be science fiction yet to be written. If we start now, we are still able to stop climate change happening. Today the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stands at 430 parts per million. To stop climate change impacting upon us in such a devastating way we need to keep this below 500 parts per million.

Today that should cost the government about 1% of our GDP. To put this in context, we annually spend 18% of our GDP on health care and 15% on welfare. Imagine the costs of health and welfare in the future if we don’t. In this context 1% is not much for our future.

Every day we wait, every day that politicians spend arguing in Copenhagen next month on delivering a solution to climate change, the more it will cost us. Not the governments, us. 1% right now might equal about £14bn, but next year it is predicted that this we will need to spend 2%, then 4% and at some point soon we wont be able to afford to stop the dystopian future from happening.

I for one prefer reading about it, not living in it.

So please take action:

Sign the Tck Tck Tck campaign’s “I am ready” pledge supporting an ambitious, fair and binding climate agreement in Copenhagen this Autumn.

Register for the 350.org International Day of Climate Action October 24

Join the UK Government’s “Act on Copenhagen” effort to promote a global deal on climate change

Kx

P.S you can also check out some of my favourite blogs have also given their tuppence worth too..

LizSara of If Music Be who points out that if climate change happens there will be NO MORE WINE. arghhh.

Paul at Blog on the Motorway writes a letter to his daughter

SoMi who posts 10 scary things about climate change and 12 steps she cant take…

The Solitary Panda talks about Buying Local

Crazy Brit Heaven talks about finding out more about climate change and what can be done about it

… go on, check them out!

(If you have also blogged about this please let me know!)