[Vision2020] An Inconvenient Price

[Ted Moffett]

All-

George F. Will, in the Newsweek article on economic cost/benefit of
substantive lowering of greenhouse gas emissions, misrepresents so many
aspects of the science of global warming, that only someone who had not
studied the peer reviewed science on this issue could take the article
seriously.  But even just his economic analysis, such as it is, ignores
reports from the Union of Concerned Scientists and the United Kingdom,
employing numerous scientists and economists, that indicate that lowering
greenhouse gas emissions can be substantively addressed without draconian
economic impacts.  In fact, the global economic costs of not significantly
slowing global warming are greater than the costs of lowering greenhouse gas
emissions.

The astonishing and short sighted assumption that George F. Will appears to
make, that is often made by the critics of action to address global
warming, is that projections of climate change by the end of this century
will not be followed by even more massive projections for change between
2100-2200, if we do not lower emissions.  If emissions of greenhouse gases
continue at current rates and/or with the increases expected, by 2100 the
projections for climate change will make the recent IPCC report look like
Mr. Rogers Neighborhood...A meter of sea level rise?  Don't worry about
that...Plan ahead for 50-100 feet...With wise real estate investments in the
new coastlines.

There are two reports at the web links below.  One that examines a global
approach to the costs of not addressing global warming, vs. addressing it,
and another focusing on these issues in the US Northeast with two different
emissions scenarios:
------------

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Britain sees a climate crisis
Britain issued a sweeping report Monday warning that the Earth faces a
calamity on the scale of the world wars and the Great Depression unless
urgent action is taken.

The 700-page report argues that environmentalism and economic growth can go
hand in hand in the battle against global warming. But it also says that if
no action is taken, rising sea levels, heavier floods and more intense
droughts could displace 200 million people by the middle of the century.

The report said unabated climate change would eventually cost the equivalent
of between 5 percent and 20 percent of global gross domestic product each
year.

Stern said acting now to cut greenhouse gas emissions would cost about 1
percent of global GDP each year. "The benefits of strong, early action
considerably outweigh the costs," he said. "We can grow and be green."

Blair, Stern and Treasury chief Gordon Brown, who commissioned the report,
emphasized that the battle against global warming can only succeed with the
cooperation of major countries such as the United States and China.
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/independent_reviews/stern_review_economics_climate_change/stern_review_report.cfm

--------

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (July 11, 2007)—If heat-trapping emissions are not
significantly curtailed, global warming will substantially change critical
aspects of the Northeast's character and economy, according to a new report
by the Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment (NECIA), a two-year
collaboration between the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and a team of
more than 50 scientists and economists. Near-term choices about energy,
transportation, and land-use will largely determine the extent and severity
of climate change.

One projected impact, that alone has massive economic implications:

More than 27 million people live in the bustling metropolitan areas of the
Northeast (including Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia), and everyone
feels the heat when summer temperatures soar into the 90s. The number of
days over 90°F is projected to increase until, by the end of the century,
some cities could experience nearly an entire summer with temperatures
greater than 90°F under a higher-emission scenario. These projections also
show a dramatic increase in the currently few but blisteringly hot days over
100°F.

States in the Northeast already have taken several important first steps.
For example, all the states in the report except Pennsylvania have joined
the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the first multistate,
market-based plan to reduce heat-trapping emissions from power plants. Most
states—Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New
York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island—also have renewable electricity
standards requiring utilities to obtain a certain percentage of their power
from clean, renewable sources such as wind, solar, and biomass. Connecticut,
Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and
Vermont have adopted California's law requiring vehicle tailpipe emissions
reductions of approximately 30 percent below 2002 levels by 2016, beginning
with the 2009 model year (with implementation contingent upon an EPA
ruling).
http://www.climatechoices.org/ne/resources_ne/nereport.html

http://www.climatechoices.org/ne/resources_ne/jump.jsp?path=/assets/documents/climatechoices/confronting-climate-change-in-the-u-s-northeast.pdf

------------------------
Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett

On 18 Oct 2007 17:55:36 -0400, lfalen at turbonet.com <lfalen at turbonet.com>
wrote:
>
>   Newsweek <http://www.newsweek.com/>
>  Sponsored by
> <http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/newsweek.emailthis/emailthis;ad=88x31;tile=1;sz=88x31;ord=1409468735?>
> Your friend, lfalen, wants you to check out this article: An Inconvenient
> Price <http://www.newsweek.com/id/43352> Personal MessageHere is an
> interesting article by George F. Will on glogal warming Roger
>
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