Will progress in climatology affect mitigation policy? Not very much, no.
“Steven Chu, the new secretary of energy, said Wednesday that solving the world’s energy and environment problems would require Nobel-level breakthroughs in three areas: electric batteries, solar power and the development of new crops that can be turned into fuel.”
according to a recent article in the New York Times. [more]
The NYTimes is featuring an article today on Bjorn Lomborg’s take on climate change.
While the content won’t be unfamiliar to most people who follow the issue, let me quote the gist of it:
“Wealth is a more important factor than sea-level rise in protecting you from the sea. You can draw maps showing 100 million people flooded out of their homes from global warming, but look at what’s happened here in New York. [more]
I couldn’t resist attending this talk. It wasn’t especially well-attended, and I think the audience that appeared was not entirely receptive. I enjoyed it though.
Corey King
President, Energetics Research and EngineeringDesign Synthesis of Multistable Equilibrium Systems and the World Development/Energy Path
Design synthesis can be thought of as picking a desired outcome and then figuring out how to achieve that outcome as well as determining if it is even possible. [more]
is here. Terrifying, huh? Lucky such unrealistic civilization-threatening foolishness will never gain any traction, huh? ( :-/ )
Thanks to the ever-perspicacious Atmoz for catching this one.
Westerners and especially Americans tend to fail to understand the seriousness of the international equity constraints on our future behavior. Here’s an article that spells it out.
Pradipto Ghosh, who retired last month as India’s environment secretary and now sits on a committee advising India’s prime minister on climate change, warned that the West must “get serious” about cutting its own emissions if it wanted progress on the issue. [more]
