Science writer Ronald Bailey, a longtime skeptic about whether global warming presents an apocalyptic threat, responds to charges that he and other climate "skeptics" are nothing more than paid stooges for evil corporations...
reason.com
volokh.com
See comments at the 2nd link. Some of them are worthwhile.
There is one comment that I would have responded to at that site but the comment period has expired so I'll do it here.
"Randy R. (mail):
One more thing: One of the reasons that the Kyoto Treaty was defeated was because of cost. The Senate said it would cost at least $500 billion to implement it, and the US just can't afford such costs.
Well, the Iraq War is costing us far more than $500 billion, and we seem to have to problem with spending that amount of money. And Dick Cheney was once quoted as saying that Reagan taught us that deficits don't matter. So obviously, we CAN afford Kyoto. And the cost would actually come back to us in increased savings, new technology, more jobs, and so on. the losers would be the oil-exporting states, especially those who support terrorism.
But I guess most conservatives view this as a bad thing. We must remain an oil and coal economy no matter what, and no matter what the cost to our environment or national security.
9.24.2006 2:39pm"
My response
The Iraq war hasn't cost us "far more than $500bil, at least not directly. Kyoto could have total world wide costs over time that are orders of magnitude higher than $500bill, ranging up in to the tens of quadrillions range. The 18 quadrillion figure is the highest estimate (that I know of) and it is world wide, over a very long time, includes indirect costs, and is not adjusted for inflation. The discounted current cost would be much lower, and the share paid by the US only a part of the lower figure, even if the figure is accurate. Such estimates really are only educated guesses, not solid figures that can be relied on. I'm not supporting the idea that Kyoto would cost us 36 million times as much as we have spent in Iraq. In fact even the people pushing the estimate wouldn't say that (again it isn't adjusted for inflation, and its over a long time so inflation is a major factor), but its reasonable to conclude that the total cost would be a lot more than Iraq.
The other concern is that Kyoto or something like it, might not be sufficient (and possibly might not be necessary) to deal with global warming. |
