Posted on 02/22/2005 9:37:41 AM PST by SierraWasp
Cold response to warming issue
Commentary: U.S. stance on emissions shortsighted
By Thomas Kostigen, MarketWatch Last Update: 12:14 PM ET Feb. 22, 2005
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- President Bush is using the exact opposite rationale for staging war in Iraq by rejecting the Kyoto global-warming agreement, which calls for nations to drastically reduce their carbon-dioxide emissions.
Bush says the long-term results aren't worth the short-term economic costs the Kyoto agreement would entail. It seems spending hundreds of billions of dollars to wage war, however, is worth the money. Save a country? Save the world? Who's begging the questions?
Of course, the United States is in a position to abide by the Kyoto protocol and still stand by its foreign/defense policy.
The Bush administration is concerned that mandated reductions in carbon-dioxide emissions would unduly hurt U.S. manufacturers, such as automakers and utility plants. The United States is the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide.
The benefits of abiding by the Kyoto protocol, besides saving the earth from overheating and destroying all life as we know it, are many, including increased employment, economic savings and higher GDP.
And then there's the preventive side: warmer oceans mean more frequent and intense El Niños, a warmer climate means dry vegetation and less moisture means more deforestation. In short, our food supply, climate and air supply are in jeopardy from global warming.
In a speech this week before the European Union in Brussels, Bush confronted the Kyoto disagreement: "All of us expressed our views on the Kyoto protocol, and now we must work together on the way forward." He further suggested: "Emerging technologies, such as hydrogen-powered vehicles, electricity from renewable energy sources (and) clean coal technology will encourage economic growth that is environmentally responsible."
The costs of those initiatives are also prohibitive. Last month, Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn soberly explained to an audience of automobile dealers in New Orleans: "The cost to build one [hydrogen] fuel cell car is about $800,000. Do the math and you figure out that we will have to reduce the cost of that car by more than 95 percent in order to gain widespread marketplace acceptance."
No environmental-protection initiative comes cheap. Meanwhile, Bush is counting on "the power of human ingenuity to improve the environment for generations to come."
In his latest book, "Collapse," Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jared Diamond says ignorance and arrogance have historically led to the extinction of civilizations. He writes: "What did the last Easter Islander say as he chopped down the last tree?" The answer is rhetorical but indicative of societies that believe another tree will grow in its place.
At a recent book reading and talk in Los Angeles, Diamond told a small group that there is always the belief technology and other advances will overcome nature's destructive force, and the world will not succumb. One need only look at current events to see that isn't true -- and the cost of repair incalculable.
To be sure, Bush said he is willing to further explore solutions to the Kyoto protocol, and is widely believed to be holding private talks on the subject this week with European leaders.
Domestically, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., this session reintroduced a bill imposing emission curbs. The same bill was introduced two years ago, but was shot down by a majority of Republicans in the Senate. And with a Republican-controlled Congress, any bill mandating emissions is unlikely to pass.
The Kyoto agreement, negotiated in 1997, requires countries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases in five years -- from 2008 to 2012 -- to below 1990 levels. Companies are allocated credits, which they can buy and sell, based on their emission efficiency. The credit system was introduced to ease the cost of emission control and to help finance "cleaner" power plants and manufacturing facilities.
The credit system has spawned its own financial market, with more-efficient companies selling off credits to less-efficient manufacturers. Interestingly, the parity of the exchange equals world good: as one country's gas emissions are the same as another's when mixed in the atmosphere, the overall level is still reduced by credit trades.
The United States has opted out of this exchange system. Rather, just like in Iraq, we are pretty much going it alone -- world be damned. The only problem is with this issue that declaration may turn out to be true.
"Rather, just like in Iraq, we are pretty much going it alone -- world be damned."
Never underestimate the power of GOP Circus Tent to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Oh! Some "free speech" is worth just exactly what you paid for it! Some, no one can afford to listen to even if it came with a price as it usually does.
In the last 100 years global temperatures have supposedly increased 1 degree Celsius. What catastrophe has resulted? The world's population is 5 times larger, lifespan 10 years longer, infant mortality lower, huge improvement in standard of living - plus I skied in 6 inches of powder yesterday. Give me a break. Forget arguing, lets figure out a way to make some money off these insane people. Sell them liferafts? Fake CO2 extractors so they can "do their part"?
Just more proof that Market Watch is still infected with anti American Watermelons who hate capitalism.
What a bunch of whining lying posing as economic news.
http://www.allworth.com/Authors/Bio_TMK.htm
Thomas M. Kostigen
Thomas M. Kostigen is a columnist for CBS Market Watch. A former Bloomberg News editor, his work has appeared in numerous magazines, journals, and newspapers around the world, including the Financial Times, The Street.com, and Investors Business Daily, among others. Besides journalism, Mr. Kostigen is also a screenwriter and playwright. His film After Sex starring Brooke Shields, was recently released on DVD. And his stage plays have been performed in New York and Los Angeles. He lives in Santa Monica, CA."
His scientific background is missing here..I say "piffle" to his drama queen pronouncements.
I love the way these intellectual cretins simply gloss right over internal contradictions without batting an eye.
I'm no physicist, but I seem to recall that water tends to evaporate as the temperature increases. I'm also not a climatologist, but I do believe that more evaporation would lead to more rain, not a drier climate. The most arid climates on record were in the middle of ice ages.
Such lofty goals, and to think that the Kyoto protocol will only delay warming by 5 years, and yet that is enough to save the earth. And is this author in favor of nuclear power for increased employment and reduced fossil fuel consumption?
Oh ho ho brother!!! You'll never have to worry about this FReeper underestimating that undeniable tendancy!!! Especially out here in CA where, instead of backing conservatives, they keep praying for a partial victory with "moderates" that never will go down in history for ever really accomplishing very much, if anything... no matter how rich and famous they are!!!
"State of Fear"
Kyoto save the world! LOL, that is a good one. What parody site is this off of?
I am just glad the idiots who use to post their crap as news everyday are gone.
Let's just see how this vaults Canada into being an economic superpower.
I have a nice bridge to sell this fellow. If he buys this week, I will give him a 25% discount and throw in a set of Ginzu knives.
Jim Rob and the mods have removed most of the trolling moles, who delighted in posting the dismal left wing bs like this so called article.
However, this flu sure makes me cranky when I see this non-sense on stilts!!! (Now I'ma gonna go lie down!)
I was kind of surprised it took so long. They posted that stuff for over a year. The only thing I miss was proving them wrong when all their previous wild-ass doom predictions never came about. I won a couple bets with them, but needless to say, they never paid up.
Actually, they posted that bs and condemned our economy and GW since early 2002. In the fall of 2002, Southack and I got into several discussions that the German and French economies were the ones they should be worrying about, not ours.
Of course they avoided the realities of France and Germany and harped on our going to hell in a hand basket economy.
I miss seeing them like the fun of having a titanium implant put in my jaw to replace an old tooth.
I think you're on to something.
There is no substantiated evidence of global warming. There are mererly wildly inaccurate climate models that people who start with the assumption that there is global warming use to justify their theories.
If global warming is occurring, there is no evidence that human actions are a significant contribution. The world has gone through climate changes in the past where the climate has been both warmrer and cooler than it is now.
The contribution of greenhouse gasses by humans is a tiny portion for the total generated greenhouse gasses, and there is little evidence to justify a theory that our emmissions are tipping the scales toward a warmer climate.
The numbers they come up with for what we need to reduce our emissions by are complete bunk.
Just look through some magazines from 15, 20, or 25 years ago and you'll see different predictions of doom and gloom, including talks about a comming ice age that should be hitting us sometime soon.
The world is a self correcting environment that goes through fluxuations. The fluxuations we are seeing are tiny in the scheme of things, and while some larger fluxuations could have serious effects on mankind, there is little evidence that we might be causing them.
Climate change is a serious issue that needs to be taken seriously. However, these environmentalists aren't taking a serious, scientific approach. They're trying to incite fear based on bogus studies because they have a belief that global warming is real and manmade, and they aren't willing to approach it scientifically, because the evidence isn't compelling.
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