> There is very little we can state as being true with 100% probability.
> I think there's a spectrum of possibilities/opinions as to how bad
> climate change can/will be, and I think that Alastair's take on this
> goes well beyond the IPCC consensus or most climate scientists' own
> opinions.
>
It seems to me it's always important to remember in these "how doomed
are we" discussions that it makes no sense to consider the impacts of
climate change in isolation. Everything else is not equal.
While climate change is having its impacts, whatever they may be, we're
also going to be experiencing the end of cheap oil and natural gas.
We're also going to be experiencing massive species and habitat loss.
And -- though this is more contentious, obviously -- we're also going
to be experiencing the decay of the American Empire, which is likely to
be accompanied by gnashing of teeth, irrational military campaigns, and
the coarsening of public dialogue to a degree that makes concerted
long-term action on climate change all but impossible.
Of course, there are more hopeful trends as well, particularly at the
level of local and regional change.
The point is, "how bad will climate change be" is the wrong question.
The question is, how will the effects of climate change interact with
the other changes and trends underway? That's much more difficult to
answer, obviously, but anyone who claims easy clarity on this question
probably isn't worth listening to anyway.
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
Global Change ("globalchange") newsgroup. Global Change is a public, moderated
venue for discussion of science, technology, economics and policy dimensions of
global environmental change.
Posts will be admitted to the list if and only if any moderator finds the
submission to be constructive and/or interesting, on topic, and not
gratuitously rude.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/globalchange
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
