Good News: Global Warming as Likely to be Helpful as Harmful
Matt Ridley gives us a preview of the coming Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report:
Most experts believe
that warming of less than 2 degrees Celsius from preindustrial levels will result in no net economic and ecological damage. Therefore, the new report is effectively saying (based on the middle of the range of the IPCC’s emissions scenarios) that there is a better than 50-50 chance that by 2083, the benefits of climate change will still outweigh the harm.
Warming of up to 1.2 degrees Celsius over the next 70 years (0.8 degrees have already occurred), most of which is predicted to happen in cold areas in winter and at night, would extend the range of farming further north, improve crop yields, slightly increase rainfall (especially in arid areas), enhance forest growth and cut winter deaths (which far exceed summer deaths in most places). Increased carbon dioxide levels also have caused and will continue to cause an increase in the growth rates of crops and the greening of the Earth—because plants grow faster and need less water when carbon dioxide concentrations are higher.
Up to two degrees of warming, these benefits will generally outweigh the harmful effects, such as more extreme weather or rising sea levels, which even the IPCC concedes will be only about 1 to 3 feet during this period.
Finally, someone sees the glass as half full!
As long as we keep nuclear war from happening, I don’t see us humans being able to harm earth by any significant mean.
Exactly! Maybe the polar bears enjoy warmer climates.
Actually, I just read the Global Warming Primer authored by NCPA’s Sterling Burnett, and he states that the ice sheets have grown in size.
So hopefully polar bears are enjoying the new square footage!
Now coca-cola can shoot more commercials
I am in the process of getting those for my middle school kids
The books that is*
http://healthblog.ncpathinktank.org/countdown-to-obamacare-2/
This would most likely be a good read for you, Carter.
A great overview of the mess we are about to be facing.
Thank you very much. I will look through it and possibly make a donation.
It is important to see the bright side of things. Think of all the wave energy technology that we could explore.
“Good News: Global Warming as Likely to be Helpful as Harmful”
On the other hand, global cooling is definitely not likely to be helpful. There was a “little ice age” during the 1300’s to the 1800’s. It had material effects on the earth and on its denizens including humans. Beware the return of a real ice age like the one that ended only about 14,000 years ago – the blink of an eye in geological time.
The earth has warmed and cooled for hundreds of millions of years. There is no reason to believe that earth’s cyclical history will not continue to repeat. The earth is apparently in a warming cycle at present. There is no doubt that the earth will revert to a cooling cycle. The only question is when. Again, there is nothing in the earth’s geological history to suggest that either a warming cycle or a cooling cycle happens because of human activity or will be triggered or halted because of human activity.
I agree with you John.
We must thank the “little ice age” for halting Napoleon in his quest for taking this land.
Furthermore, we are just a grain of sand compared to the causes of “mother nature”. Worrying about it is questionable, implementing tax policy on it is just absurd.
Looks like they’re applying Nassau Senior to ecology…
Don’t let this fool you, we still need to combat humanity’s effect on the environment.