Monday, March 12, 2007

Turning up the heat on the AGW debate

My Way News - Warming Report to Warn of Coming Drought:
"... by 2080, hundreds of millions of people could face starvation, according to the report, which is still being revised."

The tone of this article is in line with a documentary I saw on HBO entitled "Too Hot Not To Handle." Both make the case for imminent and disastrous effects from climate change caused by human release of CO2.

The other thing the two presentations have in common is a distinct lack of clarity. For example, much is made of the absolute levels of carbon dioxide emissions in the US and Europe and the need to reduce them, but there is seldom any mention of the rising energy demand of fast-growing economies in places like China, India or Brazil. Nor do they point out what a tiny part of the total greenhouse effect is due to anthropogenic sources of global warming.

One of the most clever bits in the documentary is to point out that projected melting of glaciers in Alaska would raise sea level by a matter of inches. then to say that if all the glaciers of Greenland disappeared, sea level would rise a few feet, but if all the Antartic ice sheet melts, sea levels would rise over 400 feet. What is conveniently left out is any mention of the likelihood or timeframe for any of these eventualities.

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