Most likely, ten years from now nothing major will have changed in how we deal with carbon, and sea level will not have risen 20 m, as many people have the impression we are claiming, and as Gore and Hansen habitually imply without stating. The "scary scenario" thing definitely cuts both ways.
The fact that we are quite likely committting the next four centuries to relentless sea level rise, possibly with some rather spectacular surges thrown in, is indeed a moral question as Al Gpre says. Implicitly, it is not an economic one, at least not in conventional economic terms, since in economic terms what happens two centuries out is not a matter that we should concern ourselves with.
It is entirely plausible that Hansen's intuition is correct that the tipping point for the ice sheets is upon us, and that we have a short time to act, and that therefore we should act. (Unfortunately, it's at least as likely that it is either too late already, or that we have plenty of time. We just don't know.) It's also the case that the consequences of this particular tipping point will accrue to our distant descendants.
There are plausibly other tipping points though. I saw a talk by a mild-mannered Alaskan ecologist today. He showed some stunning pictures of very large scale environmental disruption. Much of Alaska has already tipped, sea level or otherwise.
I am not sure how to convey the nature of the threat so the public will understand it. What will happen really is outside our historical experience.
I very much dislike the sly way people are being led to expect meters of sea level rise on a short time scale. On the other hand, I share Hansen's impression that we do not have many decades to delay taking the matter seriously before its consequences start to limit our ability to act. I would be very pleased to find a convincing argument to the contrary. It's a quandary, to say the least.
mt
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