Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Global Warming

I'm posting this now to make sure I remember to write about it later.

The lesson from our expedition is not that global warming is a trivial problem. Although Dr. Lomborg believes its dangers have been hyped, he agrees that global warming is real and will do more harm than good. He advocates a carbon tax and a treaty forcing nations to budget hefty increases for research into low-carbon energy technologies.

But the best strategy, he says, is to make the rest of the world as rich as New York, so that people elsewhere can afford to do things like shore up their coastlines and buy air conditioners. He calls Kyoto-style treaties to cut greenhouse-gas emissions a mistake because they cost too much and do too little too late. Even if the United States were to join in the Kyoto treaty, he notes, the cuts in emissions would merely postpone the projected rise in sea level by four years: from 2100 to 2104.


From the NY Times Science section today.

1 comment:

  1. I'm really intrigued to see where you will go with this excerpt . . . but I also wanted to commend your French entry. c'etait superbe! comme toi :)

    I miss you so much it's simply ridiculous. I am also seriously considering being in NYC next year (that was not as related to the previous sentence as it might have appeared. Although not completely unrelated). On verra!!

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