FReepmail me to get on or off
Click graphic for full GW rundown
~ naah - just blow up the sun.
Posted on 02/10/2007 1:48:29 PM PST by rellimpank
There are no solutions in the realm of the politically possible.
Public policy is all about trade-offs. Economists understand this better than politicians because voters want to have their cake and eat it too, and politicians think whatever is popular must also be true.
Economists understand that if we put a chicken in every pot, it might cost us an aircraft carrier or a hospital. We can build a hospital, but it might come at the expense of a little patch of forest. We can protect a wetland, but that will make a new school more expensive.
You get it already. But in the history of trade-offs, never has there been a better one than trading a tiny amount of global warming for a massive amount of global prosperity.
Earth got about 0.7 degrees Celsius warmer in the 20th century while it increased its GDP by 1,800 percent, by one estimate. How much of that 0.7 degrees can be laid at the feet of that 1,800 percent is unknowable, but let’s stipulate that all of the warming was the result of our prosperity and that this warming is in fact indisputably bad (which is hardly obvious).
That’s still an amazing bargain. Life expectancies in the United States increased from about 47 years to about 77 years. Literacy, medicine, leisure and even, in many respects, the environment have improved mightily over the course of the 20th century, at least in the prosperous West.
(Excerpt) Read more at article.nationalreview.com ...
To fix any of these problems, we just follow this 4-step solution (which could be used for any similarly little problem like world hunger, disease and the like):
1. Get a bunch of hollyweird writers together to figure out the solution.
2. The producer and studio creates a 100-million dollar movie, generates 1-billion in revenue in tickets, DVDs, tee-shirts, and trinkets.
3. Take all that revenue, give 80% to the top-billing star/starlet (or stars in more than one) and 20% to the remainder of the production.
4. Then, the rest of hollyweird, and their cohorts in the broadcast media, dinasaurus media, democratick party, liberal "pundits" and think tanks lobby the world (mostly thru the UN) to do the solution found in the movie (at United States expense, of course).
There's no mystery about solving excess atmospheric carbon problems. One for-profit firm with both conventional (forestry) and unconventional solutions (plankton bloom seedings, using nanopowdered iron) is already selling carbon credits. Their solutions are explained at http://www.planktos.com/index.php
The best way to stop global warming is to fine ALGORE for all his hotair.
Global warming costs too much--you betcha! No one knows what causes the problem. A solution becomes impossible. For all the experts know, this could be a recurrence every 65 million years or so. So why "fix it" if it's not broken.
He has got to mean per capita GPA. Otherwise most of the increase would disappear in the population growth.
Even the UN's IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) estimates that stabilizing CO2 emmissions could cost nearly $US 18 trillion (present value). By comparision the total capitalization of all companies listed on the NYSE is just over $17 trillion.
Here's a graph with more info:
http://www.ipcc.ch/pub/correctionfig73.pdf
--noting that the "investors page" is undergoing reconstruction, I think I'll hold off any purchase--
Because they want to play God, thats why
BUMP
Known causes or “drivers” of past climate change include:
Changes in the Earth's orbit: Changes in the shape of the Earth's orbit (or eccentricity) as well as the Earth's tilt and precession affect the amount of sunlight received on the Earth's surface. These orbital processes -- which function in cycles of 100,000 (eccentricity), 41,000 (tilt), and 19,000 to 23,000 (precession) years -- are thought to be the most significant drivers of ice ages according to the theory of Mulitin Milankovitch, a Serbian mathematician (1879-1958). The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Earth Observatory offers additional information about orbital variations and the Milankovitch Theory.
Changes in the sun's intensity: Changes occurring within (or inside) the sun can affect the intensity of the sunlight that reaches the Earth's surface. The intensity of the sunlight can cause either warming (for stronger solar intensity) or cooling (for weaker solar intensity). According to NASA research, reduced solar activity from the 1400s to the 1700s was likely a key factor in the “Little Ice Age” which resulted in a slight cooling of North America, Europe and probably other areas around the globe.
Volcanic eruptions: Volcanoes can affect the climate because they can emit aerosols and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Aerosol emissions: Volcanic aerosols tend to block sunlight and contribute to short term cooling. Aerosols do not produce long-term change because they leave the atmosphere not long after they are emitted. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the eruption of the Tambora Volcano in Indonesia in 1815 lowered global temperatures by as much as 5ºF and historical accounts in New England describe 1815 as “the year without a summer.”
Carbon dioxide emissions: Volcanoes also emit carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas, which has a warming effect. For about two-thirds of the last 400 million years, geologic evidence suggests CO2 levels and temperatures were considerably higher than present. One theory is that volcanic eruptions from rapid sea floor spreading elevated CO2 concentrations, enhancing the greenhouse effect and raising temperatures. However, the evidence for this theory is not conclusive and there are alternative explanations for historic CO2 levels (NRC, 2005). While volcanoes may have raised pre-historic CO2 levels and temperatures, according to the USGS Volcano Hazards Program, human activities now emit 150 times as much CO2 as volcanoes (whose emissions are relatively modest compared to some earlier times).
These climate change “drivers” often trigger additional changes or “feedbacks” within the climate system that can amplify or dampen the climate's initial response to them (whether the response is warming or cooling). For example:
Changes in greenhouse gas concentrations: The heating or cooling of the Earth's surface can cause changes in greenhouse gas concentrations. For example, when global temperatures become warmer, carbon dioxide is released from the oceans. When changes in the Earth's orbit trigger a warm (or interglacial) period, increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide may amplify the warming by enhancing the greenhouse effect. When temperatures become cooler, CO2 enters the ocean and contributes to additional cooling. During at least the last 420,000 years, CO2 levels have tended to track the glacial cycles (IPCC, 2001). That is, during warm interglacial periods, CO2 levels have been high and during cool glacial periods, CO2 levels have been low.
Changes in ocean currents: The heating or cooling of the Earth's surface can cause changes in ocean currents. Because ocean currents play a significant role in distributing heat around the Earth, changes in these currents can bring about significant changes in climate from region to region.
Studies of the Earth's previous climate suggest periods of stability as well as periods of rapid change. Recent climate research suggests: Interglacial climates (such as the present) tend to be more stable than cooler, glacial climates. For example, the climate during the current and previous interglacials (known as the Holocene and Eemian interglacials) has been more stable than the most recent glacial period (known as the Last Glacial Maximum). This glacial period was characterized by a long string of widespread, large and abrupt climate changes (NRC, 2002).
Abrupt or rapid climate changes tend to frequently accompany transitions between glacial and interglacial periods (and vice versa). For example, a significant part of the Northern Hemisphere (particularly around Greenland ) may have experienced warming rates as large as 16ºF in 50 years at the end of the Younger Dryas event 11,500 years ago as the planet was emerging from the last ice age (IPCC, 2001).
While abrupt climate changes have occurred throughout the Earth's history, human civilization arose during a period of relative climate stability.
During the last 2,000 years, the climate has been relatively stable. Scientists have identified two minor departures from this stability, known as the Medieval Climate Anomaly (also referred to as the Medieval Warm Period) and the Little Ice Age:
The Medieval Climate Anomaly: Between roughly 900 and 1300 AD, evidence suggests Europe, Greenland and Asia experienced relative warmth. While historical accounts and other evidence document the warmth that occurred in some regions, the geographical extent, magnitude and timing of the warmth during this period is uncertain (NRC, 2006). The American West experienced very dry conditions around this time.
The Little Ice Age: A wide variety of evidence supports the global existence of a "Little Ice Age" (this was not a true "ice age" since major ice sheets did not develop) between about 1500 and 1850 (NRC, 2006). Average temperatures were possibly up to 2ºF colder than today, but varied by region. Together, these two periods define the upper and lower boundaries of the climate's recent natural variability and are a reflection of changes in climate drivers (the sun's variability and volcanic activity) and the climate's internal variability (referring to random changes in the circulation of the atmosphere and oceans). The issue of whether the temperature rise of the 20th century crossed over the warm limit of the boundary has been a controversial topic in the science community. The National Academy of Sciences recently completed a study to assess the efforts to reconstruct temperatures of the past one to two millennia and place the Earth's current warming in historical context (NRC, 2006).
(NRC, 2006): While it is true that there is a high level of confidence that the global average temperature during the last few decades was warmer than any comparable period during the last 400 years, and present evidence suggests that temperatures at many, but not all, individual locations were higher during the past 25 years than any period of comparable length since A.D. 900; uncertainties associated with this statement increase substantially backward in time.
Very little confidence can be assigned to estimates of hemisphere average or global average temperature prior to A.D. 900 due to limited data coverage and challenges in analyzing older data.
References
IPCC, 2001: Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Houghton, J.T., Y. Ding, D.J. Griggs, M. Noguer, P.J. van der Linden, X. Dai, K. Maskell, and C.A. Johnson (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge , United Kingdom and New York , NY , USA , 881pp.
National Research Council (NRC), 2002: Abrupt Climate Change, Inevitable Surprises. National Academy Press, Washington , DC . National Academy Press, Washington , DC
National Research Council (NRC), 2005: Radiative Forcing of Climate Change. National Academy Press, Washington , DC . National Academy Press, Washington , DC
National Research Council (NRC), 2006. Surface Temperature Reconstructions For the Last 2,000 Years. National Academy Press, Washington , DC .
"Known causes or “drivers” of past climate change include: ..."
Nice run down of the causes of Global Warming and cooling.
I get all my Global Warming info at this fine site:
"Hunter Jeremiah Johnson comforts a polar bear that had collapsed from heat exhaustion before he could shoot it."
http://www.ecoenquirer.com/polar-bear-heat.htm
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Global warming cause by CO2 forcing is a con job by the UN. Can you say "OPEC" Of CO2 Nations.
If CO2 was such a great retainer of heat, we would have been useing CO2 heat exchanger to heat our homes 25 years ago.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.