Political Right's Favorite Policy, Deny Reality, Will be Tested
Climate change so far has been rather easy to deny. The melting is on the other side of the world. The huge rains and draught have not closed cities or states. But a new study tells us something is going to happen that will make more publicly funded housing the new reality. The sooner this gets started the better.
Coronavirus is giving us a hint about other disasters. All over the U. S. people living in apartments are not working and unable to pay rent. A lot of doubling up and moving around is delaying large scale evictions. Apartment owners need rent revenue to make loan payments and provide a return on their investments. If there were a huge government payment for rents the foreclosures might be avoidable. Until then there is denial.
Then there is the predicted higher water levels from melting ice. The small city of Miami Beach, FL has invested some $500 million in pumps, levies and higher streets trying to stay above water. There are many other coastal cities predicted to have permanent flood water. Most often, those now living in flood prone areas of cities are low income households. When they leave they will need other low income housing not now available.
Denial of higher coast water is much like President Trump's denial of a Coronavirus epidemic. To me, conservative politics is defensive policies, preparing for the worst but hoping for something better. In hurricane prone areas better building codes are helping. In areas facing floods and evictions solutions have not really started.
Events coming our way will make reality self evident. The reality is bigger government and higher taxes are in the cards and seemingly unavoidable. My guess is that when they arrive they will not cause nearly the problems denial brings us.
gotta love these throwaway studies that keep you awake at night contemplating this or that doomsday scenario. who the hell knows what the world will be like in 2100, climate wise or in any other way. of course,I know that we are living in a period of significant global warming. I have done extensive work with the long term Mn climate record, 200 years worth to be exact. I know that winters here are significantly warmer than they were during the ice ages of the 1850s and 1880s. and generally wetter as well. in addition I know that sea levels are rising at modest levels, that the Artic ice pack is thinning etc.. I also know that periods of warmth and cold come and go over centuries and millennia. I also know that there are a lot of nitwits roaming about these days predicting disaster within 12 years. etc. kinda like mountain top preachers predicting the end of the world. lesson to be learned? keep a sober, prudent attitude and stay clear of the crystal gazers who think that they can tell us all about 2100 (or some other point in the future)
ReplyDeleteSome of these alarmist scientists need to get back to basics again. Rather than having these metering stations have their data adjusted instead of taking the face value of the measurements, they really need to believe that science is real and upward adjustments of the temp data is really not necessary. Yes, we have had climate change for quite some time. Some previous settlements in Greenland where the settlers used to pasture livestock and grow grains have been frozen in time for quite awhile. You also have examples to the contrary of global warming. From the data we can take at face value, more harm is due to global cooling than global warming. The climate change alarmist scientists also need to get back to understanding that science is real and should study photosynthesis and its impact on CO2. CO2 is great stuff, nourishment to our entire ecosystem. None of it goes to waste. Without it, we would starve.
ReplyDeleteHenry Dec 7, 2020 at 7:03 AM. “CO2 is great stuff, nourishment to our entire ecosystem.”
DeleteCO2 is great stuff indeed. Plants remove it from the atmosphere as part of the biological carbon cycle. As you say CO2 nourishes plant life and is necessary for their existence and by extension ours. The problem is there is less and less plant life on earth to sequester the CO2 leaving more and more in the atmosphere along with other greenhouse gases like methane, nitrous oxide, several kinds of fluorocarbons, and others.
The world population in 1 C.E. is estimated at 255 million compared with the 2020 estimate of 7.8 billion humans. Humankind is a very industrious lot and our footprint on the ecosystem must be taken into account.
The folks in Iceland could use some of that global cooling you mentioned to chill out their huffing and puffing volcanoes. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/09/business/iceland-ice-melt-global-warming-climate-change.html
"The problem is there is less and less plant life on earth to sequester the CO2...."
DeleteReally? By what measure? Someone casually mentioned we are chopping down the rain forests everywhere. Now, less plant life, obviously, on a global scale due to this small example.
But how about mechanized agriculture? The ancient rotting grasses and vegetation emitting greenhouse gases is no longer as prevalent on the plains as during the times of the plains Indians. Or the mass burning of those same grasses by the plains Indians to concentrate buffalo into areas they could better hunt them. That kicked out a lot of CO2! Instead, you have fairly sterile black topsoil emitting very little greenhouse gas supporting very lush green crops often irrigated in previously arid zones that consume much CO2. Do we really have less plant life and less carbon sequestration? I have my doubts. Scientifically, if we believe in science, all of us should have doubt about the current CO2 arguments.
Henry Dec 8, 2020 at 8:26 AM. “Scientifically, if we believe in science, all of us should have doubt about the current CO2 arguments.”
ReplyDeleteAs with religion, skepticism when it comes to science is just as healthy and necessary. What sources have you used to come to your conclusions about CO2 and global cooling?
Here are a few I’ve been reading:
A list of the primary greenhouse gas culprits and some info on their primary sources. https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases
“It is estimated that about half of the world’s mature tropical forests have now been destroyed.” https://www.greenandgrowing.org/effects-deforestation-information/
“Scientists estimate that the Earth contained approximately 1,000 billion tons of carbon in living biomass 2,000 years ago. Since that time, humans have reduced that amount by almost half. It is estimated that just over 10 percent of that biomass was destroyed in just the last century.” https://phys.org/news/2015-07-destruction-earth-life-humans-jeopardy.html
“Before the Industrial Revolution started in the mid-1700s, the global average amount of carbon dioxide was about 280 ppm.” “If global energy demand continues to grow and to be met mostly with fossil fuels, atmospheric carbon dioxide is projected to exceed 900 ppm by the end of this century.” https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide
“By removing a forest, we eliminate plants that would otherwise take carbon out of the atmosphere as they grow. We tend to replace the dense growth with crops or pasture, which store less carbon. We also expose soil that vents carbon from decayed plant matter into the atmosphere. Humans are currently emitting just under a billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere per year through land use changes.” https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/CarbonCycle
You have quite a list. Here is also a source that can help climate change. In the UK alone, they can take 46,000 carbon contributors off the rolls a year through the new shrewd green regulation and laws.
Deletehttps://www.ageuk.org.uk/latest-press/articles/2018/november/response-to-new-excess-winter-death-figures/
Henry Dec 8, 2020 at 3:45 PM. “In the UK alone, they can take 46,000 carbon contributors off the rolls a year ...”
DeleteFrom your link: Age UK's Charity Director Caroline Abrahams, said: "Last winter there were nearly 46,000 EXCESS WINTER DEATHS amongst people aged 65 and over - a shocking 92 per cent of all excess deaths - equating to 379 older [carbon contributor] people a day.”
Add to that 1,000,000 miscarriages/year, 1 abortion every 96 seconds, and extraordinary high rates of contraception in the USA alone — we’re making real progress taking “carbon contributors off the rolls”. Although this effort in the U.S. is facing increasing headwinds from the pro-carbon anti-abortion crowd.
Shocking. Survival of the fittest. It must be right....all natural. If we do not allow this saving of the ozone hole to continue, we will all perish. {/sarcasm} (Sorry)
DeleteI do not listen to the climate scaremongers with all their statistics. (Think climategate.....CRU.) Some of their credibility is tarnished.
https://www.naturalnews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/91/2017/05/TIME-magazine-global-cooling-April-1977.jpg
We are so screwed.