Hi KLP. Good post, but In the end it may not matter.
North Pole could be ice-free this summer:
news.yahoo.com
So even if natural processes are driving things (not the scientific consensus, as all the points you listed were addressed in the IPCC report, but it's probably pointless for us to argue this), we're going to have to make some plans on how to adapt. Things are clearly changing. What are the economic and political ramifications?
Case in point. I was in a VC conference in the PRC a couple months ago. Increased warmth and dryness are radically affecting North Chinese agriculture. Water table dropping, deserts increasing, yields falling. Those are simple facts, not theories, and the Chinese are really scrambling.
They're making massive investment in GMO and alternative energy. Of course, at the same time, the Chinese are contributing to CO2 probably more than anyone. So they're hardly angels. But the climate changes are already hitting them hard and so they're being forced into action. (Solar, to take one example, is really taking off there). But the Chinese really feeling under threat, both in terms of energy and food supply. Same dynamic holds true across Asia.
The implications for us and the rest of the world are pretty obvious. |
