Posted on 01/15/2018 7:38:31 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
Climate change is first and foremost a threat to human society.
That fact has been somewhat obscured in regular discourse, in favor of a false dichotomy portraying climate policy as an upper-middle-class noblesse oblige idea for anxious birders and other environmentalist types, and hardheaded economists who think building up yet more wealth is more important.
In reality, one obvious way that threat to humanity is going to be expressed is through economic damage. In other words, unchecked climate change is going to be terrifically expensive.
It drives home the fact that dawdling on climate policy, as Democrats did when they had majorities in 2009-10 or denying it's even necessary, as virtually every person of consequence in the Republican Party does is not going to be some profitable venture. Poor countries will be hit worse, but American cities will be wrecked, much critical infrastructure will be destroyed, and many insurance companies and programs will be bankrupted. It will require endless expensive bailouts and reconstruction packages simply to stay ahead of the damage.
Conversely, the faster we move on climate policy, the cheaper it will be. The International Energy Agency has roughly estimated that every year of delay adds $500 billion to the world total of necessary investment to head off climate change. (A stitch in time saves nine, as the saying goes.)
On the most important issue facing humanity, the United States is becoming dangerously close to a rogue state. Let us hope we can soon rejoin the world community and start acting like sensible, moral adults again.
(Excerpt) Read more at theweek.com ...
Thank you.
Yeah!!! It’s already cost me 5 bags of rock salt and a half cord of wood!
Really?Al Gore says otherwise.
$500 billion a year to fix it or maybe someone can make an App ,LOL
Forgot...~Extreme sarc
I stopped reading here. Hasnt this clown ever of jihad or heroin??
A new Ice Age would be a real problem.
Let’s say the situation was reversed, and we were faced with Global Cooling instead.
What would these weather wizards do to stop it?...................
Ryan Cooper is an idiot...................
Why should adaptation to climate change be “Stupendously expensive”? Is this a rationalization for making taxes exorbitantly high?
So we are screwed either way? What would be the excuse for levying the taxes in the first place, as there is no practical way to alter weather and climate on either the short range or the longer range, and we shall STILL have to adapt.
Checked climate change will be way more expensive.
So is unchecked immigration.
These people are maniacs, lining their pockets with other peoples money, it will never end as the public has been hoodwinked into lala land.
There is no doubt that MAN MADE warming is affecting the local weather and therefore climate.
The real problem is that no matter how much HEAT we throw into the equation we cannot possibly stop it from ‘on average’ from getting COLDER in the mid latitudes.
Unchecked leftist boobs are stupendously expensive.
I’m gonna have to go with the infantile and morally vacuous assessment of the “noblesse oblige idea”. But thanks for playing!
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.