"But there is plenty of land at higher levels. So no real worries."
It's Friday night, so I'll bite.
Depends what you mean by real worries. Most of the world's population lives close to sea level, so it could be pretty inconvenient. A study suggested Britain might become part of the habitat for the Xenophelise (Spp?) mosquito - the one that carries malaria. May be New Zealand too - I didn't check, but you've got the rain - all you need is some more warmth. Worse and more frequent hurricanes are likely too.
No question, the Human Race will survive. Some will probably profit and others will die. Overall, though, the dislocation is likely to expensive.
Isn't "User Pays" part of your philosophy? In which case, shouldn't the ticket that I bought to fly to New Zealand include a charge for the dislocation that the burning of jet fuel is likely to cause?
Now, I know it would be very difficult to assign a fair cost for this likely disruption. We're not sure how much C02 we could get away with scot-free, how long we'll have to wait for the consequences, or how bad those consequences would be. A start, though, has been made on all those issues.
The US has won, against the efforts of Europe, acceptance of trade, at a national level, in the right to pollute. I think that concept should extend within nations. That is, if I want to cause more than my fair share of CO2 to be emitted, then I should be allowed to pay someone else to use less. How do we keep score? Taxes on fuels would be straightforward. I know taxes are an anathema to some, but it's better than rationing fuel or banning certain vehicles. There may be fairer ways. Any ideas?
One could say that Co2 levels are nowhere close to being a problem. That is a technical argument that does not seem to have much currency amongst professionals. Even if it were so, we cannot burn all the sequestered carbon with impunity - we'd return the atmosphere to how it was before animals evolved. There'd be no oxygen to breath.
Scientists work on finding out how much change has already been set in motion by past emissions, how fast that change will occur, and how much more change will occur with more emissions. We need to think about whether those changes (of uncertain magnitude and time-scale) are worth the cheap gas we buy.
Not me though! I'm going for a beer! Have a good weekend.
Ashley |
