Re: OT: "Global Warming" again

John Larkin wrote:

But are the effects of additional CO2 all horrific?

Climate change (no matter what is causing it, or what form it takes) is
pretty horrific, as has been pointed out already. Individual humans are
pretty flexible when it comes to adapting to changing environments, but
entire nations, economies and societies are not. The fact that the climate
may favor some areas of the planet doesn't mean the people from areas that
are suffering can just migrate there. It's not like we can all sit down at a
round table 50 years from now and reorganize sizeable parts of the entire
civilization.

And, if climate change exists and is indeed leading to rising temperatures
(which nobody doubts), sea levels WILL rise and make many of the most
densely populated areas (the coastal ones) uninhabitable. We'll have New
Orleans a million times over - not all at once, but a hundred years still
isn't a long time.

And, realistically, can we do much about it?

I don't know. Some day we won't have any carbon left to burn anyway, so it
might pay off looking for alternatives today. Economists are already
attaching price tags to the effects of global warming; I think the only
viable way to change anything is that we stop seeing the atmosphere as
something that can be polluted at will for free. I like the idea of emission
certificates and letting market forces sort out the rest. But that requires
huge sessions at round tables as well, but a positive outcome is perhaps a
bit more likely if the nations that can afford it would start doing it.
Germany has made a start, but made a mess out of it so far. We'll see.

robert
.

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