The Right kills Stern Review dead, has way with corpse

Tim Blair and and fan Andrew Bolt have critically maimed the Stern Review with just one incisive post. The sheer audacity of it is something to behold. I stared at my screen in awe upon reading that post for the first time. Without further ado, here it is in all its glory:

Page 23, chapter four of the Stern Report: Gender inequalities will likely worsen with climate change.

Not content with just this one devastating blow, Blair finished off the Stern Review for good:

UPDATE. Climate change will also cause forced marriage.

Now there's probably some silly context stuff, like that Stern was writing about women in agricultural regions of developing African countries, and, if agriculture did collapse in these areas, women would be disproportionately affected. Like that matters! Here's Stern's actual words anyway:

Gender inequalities will likely worsen with climate change. Workloads and responsibilities such as collecting water, fuel and food will grow and become more time consuming in light of greater resource scarcity. This will allow less time for education or participation in market-based work. A particular burden will be imposed on those households that are short of labour, further exacerbated if the men migrate in times of extreme stress leaving women vulnerable to impoverishment, forced marriage, labour exploitation and trafficking. Women are ‘over-represented’ in agriculture and the informal economy, sectors that will be hardest hit by climate change. This exposure is coupled with a low capacity to adapt given their unequal access to resources such as credit and transport. Women are also particularly vulnerable to the effects of natural disasters with women and children accounting for more than 75% of displaced persons following natural disasters.

On the strength their stunning rebuke, I say Blair to head the World Bank and Bolt for the new Secretary-General of the UN.