When it comes to climate change, these seem to be desperate times, the sort of times when people will come up with desperate solutions. The sort of solutions that will transform society, business and economies.

Now we read that the British Government has received recommendations from its independent advisory body on sustainability which has, among other things, called for reduced consumption of intensively-produced meat and dairy foods, even if that devastates the UK food and drink industry. If implemented, the changes would also shake the water industry with recommendations for rules that would have people drinking tap water, not bottled water.

At the same time, Canada's national paper the Financial Post has called for the world to adopt China's one child policy. "For those who balk at the notion that governments should control family sizes, just wait until the growing human population turns twice as much pastureland into desert as is now the case, or when the Amazon is gone, the elephants disappear for good and wars erupt over water, scarce resources and spatial needs," Diane Francis writes. "The point is that Copenhagen's talking points are beside the point. The only fix is if all countries drastically reduce their populations, clean up their messes and impose mandatory conservation measures."

Whether nations adopt these strategies remains to be seen. But you can be sure there will be a lot more of these radical ideas in the years ahead as the world battles to revese climate change.