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The Climate Optimists
Slate ^ | July 9, 2014 | Will Oremus

Posted on 07/11/2014 1:46:19 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Conservatives have a new line on climate change: “It’s real, but it’s nothing to worry about!”

Las Vegas is parched. A 14-year drought has left Lake Mead, the local water source, dangerously low. It has dropped 100 feet in the past decade. If it drops 12 more feet, federal water rationing rules will kick in. Some climate scientists predict that will happen in the next year. And most believe the situation will only worsen over time.

The view from inside Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, however, is considerably rosier. That’s where scientists, activists, and bloggers have assembled this week for the Heartland Institute’s 9th International Conference on Climate Change, which I’ve been following via live stream. It’s the world’s largest gathering of “climate skeptics”—people who believe, for one reason or another, that the climate change crisis is overblown.

It’s tempting to find irony in the spectacle of hundreds of climate change deniers staging their convention amid a drought of historic proportions. But, as the conference organizers are quick to tell you, they aren’t actually climate change deniers. The majority of this year’s speakers readily acknowledge that the climate is changing. Some­ will even concede that human emissions are playing a role. They just think the solutions are likely to be far worse than the problem.

“I don’t think anybody in this room denies climate change,” the Heartland Institute’s James M. Taylor said in his opening remarks Monday. “We recognize it, but we’re looking more at the causes, and more importantly, the consequences.”(continued)

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Politics; Science
KEYWORDS: climatechange; globalwarming; obama; weather

1 posted on 07/11/2014 1:46:20 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Drop a city of two million people in a desert and add a couple million more tourists and then wonder why there isn’t enough water. Huh.


2 posted on 07/11/2014 2:18:39 AM PDT by SargeK
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Guess who has a “virtual water bank” in the Lake Mead Reservoir? Guess who, with their own drought, is thinking of making increased withdrawals?

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/california-will-tap-its-water-bank-even-lake-mead-shrinks


3 posted on 07/11/2014 2:25:18 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Water problems on the Colorado are mainly a water out issue, not a water in issue. Vast cities built in parched deserts tend to induce water shortages.


4 posted on 07/11/2014 3:22:19 AM PDT by SampleMan (Feral Humans are the refuse of socialism.)
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To: SargeK

Oh, but it gets better. People have lawns that must be watered twice a day or they’ll turn into something resembling tobacco.


5 posted on 07/11/2014 3:38:49 AM PDT by Gen.Blather
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

6 posted on 07/11/2014 4:17:18 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“Fossil-fuel advocates have been touting the advantages of climate change since at least 1992, when the Western Fuels Association put out a pro­–global warming video called “The Greening of Planet Earth.” (It was a big hit with key figures in the George W. Bush administration.) “

Uhn huh.

In the 70’s they were pushing global ice age...


7 posted on 07/11/2014 4:27:09 AM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: Vendome

I blame climate change on the unintended consequences caused by the left in the 70’s.

It was getting colder and the changes made to things such as CFC’s raised temperatures. Now scientists have no one to blame but themselves, so following the Obama and Goracle strategies, blame Republicans.

Two questions that have to be asked of scientists. One, how do you fix this? Two, what happens if you over compensate and create an ice age?


8 posted on 07/11/2014 5:04:57 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (GM is dead and Al Queada is alive.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I’m blaming global warming/ climate change on the SUN.


9 posted on 07/11/2014 5:35:58 AM PDT by ExCTCitizen (I'm ExCTCitizen and I approve this reply. If it does offend Libs, I'm NOT sorry...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
the majority of Americans who have no trouble believing that the climate is changing despite because of not being scientists themselves.
. . . and also because it is only in the past decade or two that there seems to be a pause in the recovery of global temperature from the Little Ice Age which was underway during the American Revolution.

10 posted on 07/11/2014 6:00:49 AM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion ("Liberalism” is a conspiracy against the public by wire-service journalism.)
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To: SargeK

I do take issue with conservatives being to quick to agree that we have warming issue. That is still not established. Seems to me that the data shows the temperature peaked in 1997. We should point to that.


11 posted on 07/11/2014 8:54:12 AM PDT by Sam Gamgee (May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't. - Patton)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet; 11B40; A Balrog of Morgoth; A message; ACelt; Aeronaut; AFPhys; AlexW; alrea; ...
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12 posted on 07/11/2014 10:31:25 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (They're not illegals, they're crimmigrants!)
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To: Sam Gamgee
Seems to me that the data shows the temperature peaked in 1997.

I wouldn't say it peaked but the rate has slowed to negligible

The 1997/98 El Nino was a record El Nino and probably contributed to the long term trend (i.e. we are still seeing the effects in the Arctic). But choosing the El Nino as a peak is not valid IMO.

13 posted on 07/14/2014 2:32:41 AM PDT by palmer (This comment is not approved or cleared by FDA)
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