Agreeing for another reason Options

[Removed_Member_cwhite_*]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060131/sc_nm/...HNlYwN5bmNhdA--

In this article the ongoing questionable assumption is that greenhouse gases (notably CO2) are causing the current global warming trend.

A rise of 3C -- just half of what scientists have warned is possible this century -- would see 400 million people going hungry, entire species being wiped out and killer diseases such as dengue fever reaching pandemic proportions.

"To prevent all of this needs global emissions to peak in 2025 and then come down by 2.6 percent a year," Warren said

I actually agree that we should drastically reduce global emissions of CO2, but not because I accept the premise that reducing emissions by "2.6 percent a year" will prevent the disastrous scenario painted in this article. This warming trend may well be caused by climate interactions that we still don't understand. The reason we need to reduce CO2 emissions is that we need to move away from fossil fuels as quickly as possible to
a. reduce the environmental damage we cause by extracting them from the ground and
b. increase the world's independence from the vagaries and whims of a few nations who control the bulk of the known fossil fuel reserves.

[Paul Cowan]

I assume we need to be considered as one of the few nations who control lange amounts of fossil fuel. Ours just happens to be one of the dirtiest...coal.

I fear we will begin to rely on coal more and more as we try to wean off oil based products. Not that we would power our cars with it but use it for electricity production since nuclear has become a no-no. The solar industry is laying off thousands because money is not being earmarked for development.

This country and it's people just don't except change easily. I know that coal burns much cleaner than it did several decades ago but I have not seen any recent studies as to the impact of more coal burning on global warming.

Just my 2 cents.

[Vergil83]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060131/sc_nm/...HNlYwN5bmNhdA--

In this article the ongoing questionable assumption is that greenhouse gases (notably CO2) are causing the current global warming trend.

A rise of 3C -- just half of what scientists have warned is possible this century -- would see 400 million people going hungry, entire species being wiped out and killer diseases such as dengue fever reaching pandemic proportions.

"To prevent all of this needs global emissions to peak in 2025 and then come down by 2.6 percent a year," Warren said

I actually agree that we should drastically reduce global emissions of CO2, but not because I accept the premise that reducing emissions by "2.6 percent a year" will prevent the disastrous scenario painted in this article. This warming trend may well be caused by climate interactions that we still don't understand. The reason we need to reduce CO2 emissions is that we need to move away from fossil fuels as quickly as possible to
a. reduce the environmental damage we cause by extracting them from the ground and
b. increase the world's independence from the vagaries and whims of a few nations who control the bulk of the known fossil fuel reserves.

the next line

But even then we would probably face a rise of 2 degrees because of the delay built into the climate system. So we have to start to plan to adapt," she added.