Last month saw the publication of “unmistakeable” evidence of climate change by the British Meteorological Office and its US counterpart, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The annual report, called ‘State of the Climate’, draws on the work of over 100 scientists from more than 20 institutions and includes data from 10 key climate indicators that, says the Met Office, all point to the same finding: the world is warming.

The indicators – which include air temperature over land, sea-surface temperature, marine air temperature, ocean heat, humidity – found that the Earth’s temperature has increased by one degree Fahrenheit over the past 50 years, with evidence that the oceans have absorbed 90% of this warming.

Of course, there is no conclusive proof that this climate change has been manmade, although one can see that industries which pump significant amounts of carbon into the atmosphere while others chop down our tropical rainforests are hardly helping matters.

What can be agreed is that the report is yet further evidence that climate change is one of the major issues facing mankind at the moment. But another is the world’s economy.

The last time the world economy was in such a precarious state was during the 1930s. As well as Keynesian-style grand public projects, one of the ultimate reasons why the US managed to emerge from the Depression was thanks to the Second World War, as defence industries significantly geared up manufacturing in order to out-produce both Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

Back then, according to people from the US, the UK and Commonwealth countries who lived through those times, being part of the war effort not only provided work but also gave a grander purpose to the lives of young people.

In the modern world, particularly in Continental Europe, unemployment among people under the age of 30 is at staggering rates. There has also been the rise of what is known on the Continent as the mileuristas – a term deriving from Spanish used to describe young graduates who, despite being highly educated, are unable to find work paying more than €1,000 per month.

Just as politicians in the Western democracies and elsewhere managed to galvanise young people during WWII to fight the forces of fascism, our modern leaders need to clearly articulate the consequences of climate change in order to encourage today’s youth to take up the cause. They also need to invest more money into tackling climate change so that industries like cleantech can employ more young people. That way, two birds can be killed with one stone.

The question, as ever, is - where does the money come from after years of profligacy in the West?
Jon Mainwaring