August, 2008

Common Ground

I’d like to thank Cato Unbound for convening such an extended exchange of views on how to deal with climate change, and for giving me a platform for expressing my views on this subject.  I’d also like to thank Joseph Romm, Indur Goklany, Michael Shellenberger, and Ted Nordhaus for their extensive efforts in considering and [...]

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Romm’s Factually Challenged Smear of Conservatives

Joseph Romm asserts:
Goklany’s core point: the classic disingenuous conservative argument that there are better things to spend money on than climate mitigation. This argument assumes 1) there isn’t enough money to do everything whose benefits exceed their cost and 2) conservatives would actually support things like government-funded efforts to deal with “hunger, malaria, unsafe water, [...]

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The Earth is Okay with a 400-Foot Sea-Level Rise

Whether or not Goklany is OK with a 250-foot sea level rise (SLR) — thank you, Mr. Romm, for putting words in my mouth! — the earth is OK despite a 400-foot rise since the last ice age. This translates into an average SLR of 22 feet per 1,000 years. The peak rate of SLR [...]

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Only Inaction Is Costly

I think there is no point in further debunking the myth that unrestricted greenhouse gas emissions leads to tolerable impacts (or even a more optimal world). Even the incredibly centrist Brookings Institution now recognizes that:
The Earth is on a trajectory to warm more than 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit by around mid-century. Exceeding that threshold could trigger [...]

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Invest in America

Four years ago we argued in “The Death of Environmentalism” that greens didn’t need to win the debate over the relative seriousness of global warming in order to enact policies capable of dealing with it. At the time, that claim was viewed as paradoxical and even heretical. But further evidence has been provided here. While [...]

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Goklany Okay with 250-Foot Sea-Level Rise

Before I get to the classic disingenuous conservative argument that is the cornerstone of Goklany’s essay, I must first deal with one of the most astonishing statements ever seen in a serious climate debate. Goklany says:
… there is no guarantee that stabilizing CO2 at 450 ppm would optimize human or environmental well-being. For [...]

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Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Romm

I wrote an essay addressing the challenge of global warming. Joseph Romm subsequently raised four major objections in a response essay. I then reviewed why I believe that each of these four objections is misplaced. Mr. Romm has now responded by reiterating the first of these four objections. To review the bidding [...]

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Seven Points in Response to Romm

1. Romm’s faith in model results is not warranted, as noted in my previous post.
2. Romm’s argument is that in recent years annual emissions have been higher than assumed in the IPCC’s worst case (A1FI) scenario, and that we are on track to get to 1,000 ppm in 2100. However, [...]

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