On 8/12/07, Robert Holmes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > The Copenhagen Consensus is a Danish think-tank that gets economists and > politicians to address the question "in a world of limited resources, if we > cannot do everything at once what should we do first?". The top-4 ratings > from their 2006 meeting are:
The Copenhagen Consensus is a centre of the Copenhagen Danish Business School which brings together economists and subject matter experts to do cost-benefit analysis on problems and proposed solutions and rank the proposed solutions. As they say: If the world would come together and be willing to spend, say, $50 billion EXTRA over the next five years on improving the state of the world, which projects would yield the greatest net benefits? Well, they obviously have to stay within their budget. Googling "climate change cost" popped up a CNN article which estimated $60 billion in natural disaster costs for the year 2003, up 10% from the previous year. The UNEP issued a report in 2002 estimating that costs for natural disasters could reach $150 billion per year by 2012. The maligned Stern report of last fall estimated costs of climate change at 3.68 trillion pounds. Kim Stanley Robinson has a three book series, 40 days of rain, 50 degrees below, 60 days and counting, set in a near future that includes some lovely science fiction estimates of the cost of climate remediation. How much salt do you need to throw into the North Atlantic to restart the Gulf Stream? How much water do you have to pump out of the oceans to keep sea level from flooding the major population centers on the coasts? The deniers have an undeniable interest in maintaining status quo, they do well at what they do, it makes them the most powerful people in the world, the moment they admit there is a problem, they're bankrupt. Capitalism works by dumping external costs until forced to account for them, then they have to redo the spreadsheets, what a bother. -- rec --
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