Posted on 03/20/2007 2:26:48 AM PDT by ricks_place
In a thought-provoking statistical analysis, Dr. Peter Tsigaris of Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, BC, Canada, concludes that whether or not climate change can be wholly attributed to human factors, it makes strong economic and environmental sense to treat it as human-caused and take action now.
Despite the fact that the hundreds of scientists and reviewers on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change announced Feb. 2 in Paris that global warming is "very likely" caused by human activity, governments and other policy-makers may still justify inaction because of naysayers like Danish weather scientist Henrik Svensmark, who maintains that global climate change can be attributed to the proportion of cosmic rays in our atmosphere, and atmospheric physicist S. Fred Singer, who asserts that “The whole question of anthropogenic, or human-caused, global warming is central to setting any policy of climate mitigation and therefore warrants closer examination.”
“These arguments are moot,” says Peter Tsigaris, an economist at Thompson Rivers University, in Kamloops, BC. He continues: “The important question is the cost of these opinions being wrong relative to the cost of the IPCC report being wrong in its assessment.” In a thought-provoking statistical analysis, Tsigaris has concluded that whether or not climate change can be wholly attributed to human factors, it makes strong business and environmental sense to take action and mitigate the effects of global warming beyond taking measures to adopt.
He arrived at this conclusion as a result of creating the solution for a question he posed to his statistics students.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Newswise 4/30/06 — Consumers who think the cost of gas is high now haven’t seen anything yet, says Dr. Peter Tsigaris of Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, BC, Canada.
The public-finance economist argues that supply-side economics is only a part of an overall equation that could, and should, see gas prices rise even further.
“Sooner, rather than later, society is going to have to factor in the cost of carbon dioxide (CO2) damage to our environment, particularly in the form of global warming. While we can’t really set a price on endangered species and threatened ecosystems, we are going to have to pay to mitigate effects like storm damage, rising sea levels and the like,” he says.
" whether or not climate change can be wholly attributed to human factors, it makes strong economic and environmental sense to treat it as human-caused and take action now. "
IOW --
"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!!"
Sophistry at its finest.....
A fundamental axiom in statistics is "there are lies, damn lies, and statistics.". I suspect we are witnessing a case of "garbage in, garbage out" a bit analogous to results of studies of non-thermal effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF).
[Tsigaris has concluded that whether or not climate change can be wholly attributed to human factors, it makes strong business and environmental sense to take action...]
Tell it to the starving, dying poor in Africa's developing countries, where oil and coal reserves are plentiful. I believe that they may have a different priority for their business and environmental interests. If this whole GW scam wasn't so dangerous, it would be laughable.
Huh?????????
A ha, this is my field of studies when I did my Masters degree. I was doing a statistical analysis of RF-range EMF and its effects on human health. You can produce a mathematical model that "proves" the existence of harmful effects, but some critical foundations of the model itself is based on numerous assumptions that may not have any scientific basis at all.
The budget for Near Earth Asteroid research is 3 Million maybe? We spend significant portions of the american GDP on gorebal warming political alarmism. If you were to divert a fraction of that budget towards Near Earth Asteroid Research and applying research to mitigating that risk we'd benefit on the environmental level just from the spinoff technology.
Sounds like his statistical conclusion is based on some speculation about evil Bush warming consequences. He assumes there are no good consequences. He swallows the rising sea levels tripe even though man will have no discernable effect on sea levels no matter what we do.
You have to get 3 paragraphs into the article to see that the esteemed professor is an economist.
It's only dangerous because the wrong people own this political horse.
If GW meant that we had to develope nuclear energy (e.g. fusion or smaller more decentralized nuclear powerstations)...
If it meant, that we would strive to be completely independent from the price of middle easts favorite products....
If it meant, that we had more high-tech products to sell and not to send caterpillars in rural areas....
If it meant we could have cheap ethanol...
... then GW would be quite a nice thing - as a bonus it's getting more comfortable and cosy, too - although we elimited fossile resources from beeing used as an energy source.
(That's if these measures would not reduce the warming because it's really cosmic rays casusing the heat to rise. -otherwise they might lead us to the next ice age ;-)
Yes, I watched the whole 75 minutes two days ago. It was excellent, and will convince any who don't have a GW ax to grind already.
'Treat it as human". ( Screw em, they're only sheep.)
The scam laid bare...
All in a Good Cause (Global Warming)
Rhinoceros Times of Greensboro ^ | March 2007 | By Orson Scott Card
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1800226/posts
If someone from University of Chicago made this statement, I would be more likley to believe it.
But notice that these people are from places like "Joe's University."
Given that interglacial periods are both rare and short, and that more warmth has always beget more prosperity, we should hope that we can effect the planet and do all we can to keep it warm, not cool it off.
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