What should be done about climate change?

So, what exactly should world governments be doing about climate change?

First, we must throw in a caveat for those who are going to say the answer is "nothing" because climate change either isn't happening or is part of some natural cycle that nobody understands. While somewhere around 95-97% of scientists disagree with you, polls suggest that around 40% of the American population think that climate change warnings are at least "exaggerated". I suggest that you guys either do some more research on climate change or start a new topic that actually debates the scientific theories.

For the rest of us, lets overview the main impacts of climate change. Of course, some of the details are still debatable (and of course will differ locally) but we can at least get an overview.

1. Impacts on ocean system: acidity of the ocean, rising sea levels, icecaps melting

2. Impacts on atmospheric system: change in weather patterns, shortened winters, relocation/enlargement of deserts, more extreme natural disasters

3. Impacts on animal species: polar bears, migrations, increase in extinctions

4. Impacts on humanity (generally based on 1-3): relocation of coastal areas, famines due to crop failures, relocation of people in deserts, increase in disease (tropical diseases reaching higher latitudes), and generally just the huge economic cost (trillions by 2100) of adaptation

So, based on this, what should we do about it? One option is to just fork out the trillions of dollars for adaptation. Most of the really bad problems won't start showing up until the second half of the 21st century anyway. Plus, there are some benefits to a warmer climate--there will be haves and have nots.

The second option is to try and do things to cover up the increased CO2 rather than to actually stop emitting it. This category has taken on the term "geoengineering" which refers to ideas like using oil slicks to stop hurricanes, using cloud seeding to increase precipition, or shooting lots of particulate matter into the stratosphere to send some of the sun's energy back into space. This would also cost trillions of dollars and could potentially have catastrophic side effects...but at least we already have the technology to do it.

Finally, there is the option of drastically reducing carbon emissions now. Like every other option, the cost will be in the trillions. So you can't really win in terms of not having an economic impact. In this global recession, it is a tough sell, since every household will pay thosands per year. However, this option does recognize that we are to blame for this problem and although the cost will be expensive initially, the savings will be tremendous especially in the late 2000s and the 2100s. This is the preferred option of most scientists and we don't have to switch to socialism to get it done.

For all options, we need to know who should pay the majority of the cost and how we should go about getting it done.