This week’s series on climate change in The Royal Gazette will, it is hoped, be a wake up call to anyone who thinks that global warming can be ignored or somehow will not happen.

While the scientific world does not fully agree on its causes or its long term effects, there is a general consensus that the world is getting warmer and that there are real methods of deterring it, primarily by reducing carbon emissions.

This is roughly the equivalent of a smoker being told by a doctor that he or she has a 90 percent chance of cancer and that smoking is probably the cause. If those were the odds, wouldn’t the smoker give up the habit, even if the cause and the likelihood of cancer are not fully proven?

Any major changes in temperatures, and rising sea levels, would have a dramatic effect on Bermuda and the world. Thousands of waterfront homes would be threatened and climate changes could also reduce rainfall. It also seems likely that climate change is having an effect on weather patterns and in particular on hurricanes, which give every sign of increasing in frequency and intensity.

David Wingate noted earlier this week that Hurricane Fabian, as serious as it was, could turn out to be just a foreshadowing of what’s to come if the Island took a direct hit from a category four or five storm.

As it was, Fabian did severe damage to the foreshore, and the tourism industry was badly affected. Bermuda also depends on the reinsurance industry for much of its wealth. The industry barely survived the record 2005 hurricane season — and several companies went to the wall — and then was blessed with a benign 2006 season, allowing it to replenish its coffers and to take advantage of rising rates.

But what happens if the Americas are hit with several hurricane seasons on the scale of 2005? The picture may be much worse then, and with it, the Island’s economic mainstay may be less reliable.

So what can Bermuda do? Globally, Government, the reinsurance industry and the Bermuda Institute for Oceanographic Sciences (BIOS) can make their voices heard in urging action.

Locally, it may seem that whatever actions Bermuda takes will be mere pinpricks compared to the world’s industrial powerhouses. But that does not mean the Island should not try. Reducing the Island’s dependence on fossil fuels is one method, and assuming that oil prices are unlikely to fall and that the commodity may well be diminishing, the economic and environmental cases for alternative energy, from wind, sun and currents, becomes stronger.

To its credit, the Bermuda Electric Light Company has been working on this question for several years, and its pioneering work on getting power from ocean currents is encouraging. But it also needs to accelerate acceptance of power into its grid from people using solar power and wind turbines. This might well obviate the need to build further oil-generated power stations and would encourage more people to use alternative energy sources, which Bermuda has in abundance.

Encouraging vehicle owners to move to emission-free cars and bikes also seems to be a no-brainer. Government has introduced some incentives in terms of reducing Customs tariffs, but could do more in terms of reduced licence costs and in payroll tax incentives for employers.

Bermuda should also look seriously at restricting developments on the foreshore and in low-lying areas. This is likely to be highly unpalatable for landowners, hotel developers and the like, but the risks are potentially enormous, and Bermuda’s high building standards cannot be relied on as the only line of defence. The reality is that if a public policy is not put in place, then at some time, the insurance industry will act instead, either sending premiums for waterfront properties through the roof or refusing the insure them at all.

It is always possible that the scientists have got it wrong, and sceptics like to remind “believers” of a Newsweek cover story in the 1970s warning of a new ice age. But surely it is much more dangerous to ignore the warnings and do nothing, and then to reap the consequences.