CO2 levels recently reached 200 parts per million, the level scientists have termed the 'point of no return' for greenhouse climate change. Based on what we've been able discern from geologic patterns, we're technically in a lull between ice ages right now anyway, and it appears humans are making it worse. While the overall rise in temperature might not seem that big of a deal, it translates to a far more energetic atmosphere and then you get what we have: more extreme weather. Folks don't appreciate the magnitude of the problem because we cannot properly contextualize it and it doesn't make for snappy soundbites. Television/video, our most common informative medium worldwide, has only existed since the onset of manmade climate change, and because of that, the weather disasters caused by climate change have become accepted as normal, when in the greater historical context, they're anything but. Like any other problem of humanity, climate change will NEVER be taken seriously until it impacts the people with most of the money, and for the forseeable future, they're able to afford to move away from flooding coasts or build higher or live in the shrinking areas of relatively calm weather.
The global recession has had the largest impact on greenhouse gas emission from firstworld countries, and China's unabated use of coal and oil will likewise fall off when their real estate bubble finally implodes. Unlike the US, the Chinese government has continued building, even when there's no demand, and they have huge cities built for millions with barely tens of thousands living in them. Construction accounts for 50% of their GDP. The US, at it's 2005 peak, was only 16%. Economically, this is an even worse global depression in the making, but ecologically, it may give the planet a chance to at least stabilize climatically.
