"Do we have a good plan to fight climate change that's as good as the plan we had for HIV?"

Jim Yong Kim, the former president of Dartmouth college and current leader of the World bank had an interview with the Guardian.  In the interview, he said that battles over water and food will erupt within the next five to ten years as a result of climate change.  He urged scientists to join together to come up with a solution to fight the climate change as activists and scientists did for 15 years to develop a treatment for HIV. He threw a question to the climate change community, " Do we have a plan that's as good as the plan we had for HIV? " The answer is no at current unfortunately. President Kim mentioned that there was not enough basic science research going into renewable energy. There have not been ways of taking discoveries made in universities and quickly moving them into industry. There have not been ways to test innovative ideas. He added that the climate change community kept saying what he meant by a plan. His answer was a plan that is equal to the challenge and will convince anyone that climate change community are really serious about the issue. President kim said that there were four fields that the World bank could help specifically regarding the fight against the global warming: Finding a stable price for carbon, removing fuel subsidies, investing in cleaner cities and developing climate-smart agriculture.  He also predicted that since the water issue was critically related to climate change and carbon is the currency of climate change, fights over water and food would be the most significant direct impacts of climate change in the next five to ten years. His interview with the Guardian reflects general people's disappointment over the climate change community's results over treating the issue. Though people are really committed on the issue, the slow change and the cooperation among the scientists overall lead the kind of interview the World bank president gave to the british paper. I hope his challenge and urge to the climate change community will refresh people's commitment over the issue and also remind ordinary people how the danger is close and imminent. Image: Google image Source: the Guardian, the climate change project, youtube etc.