Even if every government and business in the world made combating climate change a top priority, it would still take at least two decades, and an estimated $215 trillion, to make a full transition to an emissions-free world.

Doing so, the report said, would require the immediate adoption of what would essentially be a wartime approach to constructing renewable energy and subsidizing low-carbon technologies, and a set of strict regulatory measures designed to curb emissions-heavy modes of transportation, energy production and industry. For example, BloombergNEF projects that no new internal combustion engine vehicles could be sold after 2034.

That "wartime approach" is exactly what we should do, as $215 trillion is cheaper than the alternative of letting all our coastal cities flood and turning billions of people into climate refugees.

But we won't, because the rich sociopaths in charge would rather impose those costs on the people who can least afford them instead of the people who can most afford them.

Unless we force them to.