Michael Tobis wrote:
> On 11/29/06, Jim Torson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> At 11:33 PM 11/28/2006, James Annan wrote:
>>
>>> James Annan wrote:
>>>
>>>> Even if one assumes the premise that we are "optimally adapted" to the
>>>> present climate (which I think would be difficult to rationally defend),
>>>> it does not follow that changes to the climate would result in net costs.
>
> It is not difficult to assert that we and our fellow terrestrial
> species are optimally adapted as biological organisms to rates of
> climate change that are typical on evolutionary timescales; that our
> infrastructure is adapted to the even smaller rates of change typical
> on historical timescales; that we are already at least verging on
> exceeding the normal range of variability,
One can of course assert what one likes, but without any clear idea as
to what it even means to be optimally adapted to a particular climate,
let alone to a particular rate of climate change, it seems like a fairly
vacuous exercise.
I reiterate: for people who axiomatically assert that "change=bad", it
is hardly a surprise when they look for a range of changes (either
observed, or projected) and conclude that lots of bad things are going
on. This is not a scientific result, but merely circular reasoning. Of
course, a certain amount of mental contortion is required to argue that
it is only the anthropogenic changes that are bad, natural changes are
benign. That doesn't stop some people...
James
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