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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (240020)	8/28/2007 3:41:09 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Nadine, I love a good panic. But I need something that I can get my teeth into. CO2 doesn't do it for me. I tried, 25 years ago, but couldn't work up a sweat. It was part of my job, so I was even paid to figure it out. Lead in petrol/gasoline was a huge blunder, still unrecognized. Same with lead all over the place. They were a bigger deal than CO2 seems likely to be. I really do think that CO2 emissions up to levels that we can achieve are actually a good thing. They make plants grow better and it avoids the catastrophic calamity of an ice age return. If a somewhat warmer climate is a problem, imagine what a kilometre of ice on top of Europe, North America, and Asia would do. That is very very problematic and downright scary as a LOT of food supplies would be buried. England would NOT be green and pleasant. The vast fields of Canada would be buried. Russians, Chinese, Koreans and others would find the cold very annoying. The four horses of the apocalypse are olde favourites. They have been around since Adam was a cowboy. en.wikipedia.org War, Famine, Pestilence and Death. I quite fancy our chances of those making a very good showing over the next century while CO2 emissions look somewhat irrelevant as a problem and are more likely desirable. War seems a metaphysical certitude. Confiscatory, territorial, alpha male tribal dominance hierarchy is still the norm nearly everywhere. People are imbued with their own grandiosity. Megalomaniacs are never in short supply. Stupidity is always available to stoke the fires. Famine goes nicely as a prelude to wars and during them. Famine in Zimbabwe, North Korea, and other places of conflict are normal. Europe was very hungry during WWII. Death is of course the outcome of those. Pestilence in the form of locusts isn't much of an issue these days. People are so far ahead of nature in controlling macro pests and even micro ones that they are nothing to worry about. They are just like a bit of organic entropy - dragging things a bit. But pestilence in the form of H5N1 or the like is very much a possibility. With kill rates near 100% in birds and 70% in humans, there are obviously some highly successful life styles out there waiting to breed among humans. Colds and flu continuously circulate. They are very far from beaten. If a good respiratory disease went on the rampage, the world's human population could drop by half, especially if wars and famines kicked in too. My favourite thing to panic about is an incoming bolide. One doesn't need to do a lot of statistics to know that those holes in the moon, Tunguska and "near misses" which are sometimes reported, would be undesirable if made in the Pacific Ocean. A hefty lump will arrive. The question is when?. I am suitably above sea level to handle 99% of problem ones if they aren't too close to shore. CO2 is excellent for government people, bureaucrats, doomsters and so on to worry about. They can have lots of meetings, studies, committees, taxes, regulations, controls, restrictions, laws, etc. Not to mention overseas trips, conferences, swanky hotels, business class flying, ... ooops... well, there are carbon credits to take care of that. Which is what they love. Thank goodness for CO2!! Without it, a lot of them would have to get a real job. Mqurice