Global Warming . . . Seriously
We have come to the point where the world’s great and good (hereinafter G&G) are engaged in adoration of a Swedish teenager because she is flogging global warming gloom and doom. The hope is that “deniers” will be drowned in a tsunami of youthful thrall. We will be saved by teenage demonstrators. That is not a sound basis for serious policy making.
Let us stipulate, for purposes of this thought experiment, that the earth is warming and the cause is human activity. What would we be doing if we were serious about it?
G&G want freeways full of electric cars and trucks and houses full of electric appliances (no natural gas need apply). That will require a lot more electricity to be generated. The most reliable source of carbon free energy is nuclear power generation. We should be building nuclear power plants as rapidly as possible.
G&G assert that wild fires are caused by global warming. Aggressive logging and forest management would greatly lessen the fuel load. Defensible fire breaks would allow for early control of fires. Embrace of genetically engineered crops, which use less water, fertilizer, and acreage would allow more land to be used for reforestation, creating more carbon sinks.
G&G tell us that sea levels will rise significantly. We should be building sea walls around low lying urban areas. They are a lot easier to build while the land is still above high tide levels.
G&G assert that global warming will cause more extreme weather events, including droughts and deluges. There will be less snow to store water. We should be building reservoirs and desalinization plants.
G&G assert that the cause of our woes is the level of CO2 in the atmosphere. We know how to isolate and extract CO2 from the atmosphere. We should have an aggressive plan to develop methods to do the removal in a cost effective fashion.
My conclusion is that the global warming alarmists cannot be regarded as serious until and unless they are prepared to seriously address the problem, and to seriously pursue courses of action that are at odds with their political ideology.
