[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] : rare common sense in mitigating global warming..please see opinion piece from wsj.
Jerry Harris
jerryharri at gmail.com
Mon Jul 25 11:11:22 PDT 2022
Marvin,
I think you've proven my point with Lomborg. It's not just the media that
has called out his shifting and inaccurate claims, but real climate
scientists have as well. He has long discounted the cost and severity of
climate change, striving to spin a silver lining whenever possible:
- his claims that rising CO2 levels will increase crop yields
- his statement that since more people die in winter months, a warming
planet will be good - ignoring that the data includes indirect influenza
deaths and that a warming planet will increase malaria deaths
- illogically claiming that the elites' "obsession" with climate change
lead Germany to become solely reliant on Russian gas pipeline
I think Lomborg is the human version of the young woman/old woman optical
illusion. Some of what he says is sensible and reasonable, and some of what
he says is selective and contradictory. With his constant shifts he can
always cherry-pick those claims that turn out "right".
Jerry
On Sat, Jul 23, 2022 at 8:40 PM Marvin Menzin <mmenzin at icloud.com> wrote:
> Fyi.. more on the remedies for warming..
> Lomberg does not deny warming.. but he advocates a serious cost benefit
> analysis on remedies before going whole hog
>
> He favors nuclear power, and also believes it is a mistake to push green
> power so fast that it disrupts poorer nations from getting richer.
>
> he is one of the few who challenges rapid disruptive approaches that
> harm the prospects for a better life for the worlds poor nations in the
> name of rapidly saving the planet..no matter what the bad side effects .
>
> Lomberg has written lots of articles on this theme and is considered
> controversial in most media.
>
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> *From:* Marvin Menzin <mmenzin at icloud.com>
> *Date:* July 23, 2022 at 9:52:33 AM EDT
> *To:* Isaac Menzin <isaacmenzin at gmail.com>, sammy hepner <
> sammyhepner at gmail.com>, Joseph Menzin <joemenzin at gmail.com>, Abe Menzin <
> abemenzin at hotmail.com>, jon menzin <jon.menzin at gmail.com>, sally tyszka <
> smtyszka at comcast.net>, abby hepner <abbyhepner at gmail.com>, Orly Shitrit <
> shitrit.orly at gmail.com>, daniel menzin <dmenzin at gmail.com>, Larry Menzin <
> lmenzin at american-tech.com>, ari menzin <arimenzin at gmail.com>, Marit
> Menzin <mmenzin at verizon.net>, hannah hepner <hehepner at gmail.com>, adam
> menzin <menzin24 at yahoo.com>, Marion Menzin <marionmenzin at gmail.com>,
> Eleanor Menzin <eleanormenzin at hotmail.com>, Roberta Menzin <
> rmenzin57 at gmail.com>, tara rosenthal <trosenthal429 at yahoo.com>, kobi
> shitrit <shitrit.kobi at gmail.com>, lev menzin <levmenzin at gmail.com>, David
> Hepner <dlhepner67 at gmail.com>, jordan menzin <jamenzin at gmail.com>, talia
> menzin <tjmenzin at gmail.com>, Julie Menzin <julie.a.menzin at gmail.com>,
> MARGARET MENZIN <menzin at comcast.net>
> *Subject:* *rare common sense in mitigating global warming..*
>
>
> A sidewalk in London, July 20.
> By
>
> Bjorn Lomborg
> July 21, 2022 6:36 pm ET
> Photo: andy rain/Shutterstock
>
> Such arguments are misleading. It’s true that as temperatures rise the
> world will experience more heat waves, but humans also adapt to such
> things. In Spain, for example
> <https://enveurope.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12302-021-00542-7>,
> rising temperatures have actually led to fewer heat deaths, because people
> have adapted faster than temperatures have gone up. It simply took air
> conditioning, public cooling centers and better treatment of maladies that
> are caused or aggravated by heat, such as heatstroke and heart disease.
>
> The exclusive focus on heat deaths is also misleading. Across the world,
> low temperatures are much more dangerous
> <https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00081-4/fulltext> than
> high ones: Half a million people die each year from heat, but more than 4.5
> million die from cold. While rising temperatures will increase heat deaths,
> they will also decrease cold deaths. A recent Lancet study found
> <https://twitter.com/BjornLomborg/status/1548650946544209920> that rising
> temperatures since 2000 have on net reduced the number of
> temperature-related deaths. Researchers concluded that by the end of the
> 2010s, rising temperatures globally were causing 116,000 more heat deaths
> annually, but also leading to 283,000 fewer cold deaths a year.
>
> Moreover, politicians’ singular focus on climate change ignores that
> people are much more worried about rampant inflation, especially rising
> food and energy prices. And climate policies are making those problems
> worse.
> OpinionMorning Editorial Report
>
> All the day's Opinion headlines.
> ------------------------------
>
> Much of the extreme energy-price increase that normal people are dealing
> with is caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine. But things wouldn’t be nearly as
> bad if the West hadn’t thrown up green roadblocks to its own energy
> security, such as President Biden’s moratorium on gas leases or Europe’s
> refusal to dig into its substantial shale gas reserves. Climate policies
> also increase energy prices by subsidizing renewables like solar and wind.
> That makes it even harder to adapt to the extreme temperatures climate
> activists bemoan. You need cheap and reliable energy to afford air
> conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter.
>
> Rising fuel prices are also making food more expensive. Low-cost synthetic
> fertilizer is one of the greatest technologies humanity has invented for
> feeding the world, but it’s mostly made with natural gas. Even with almost
> a billion people at risk of starvation, climate-obsessed bureaucrats still
> object
> <https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-split-over-fertiliser-plants-poorer-nations-food-crisis-bites-2022-06-20/>to
> producing more fertilizer because of the fossil fuels required.
>
> The cost of green policies will become even harder to bear if politicians
> make good on their promises to hit net-zero emissions. Achieving this
> globally by 2050 would cost more than $5 trillion a year for the next three
> decades, according
> <https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/sustainability/our-insights/the-economic-transformation-what-would-change-in-the-net-zero-transition> to
> McKinsey. That would be one-third of total global tax revenue. If every
> American were to shell out more than $5,000 a year
> <https://twitter.com/BjornLomborg/status/1431599612616445958>, it would
> only get the U.S. 80% of the way there by midcentury. Hitting 100% would
> likely cost more than twice that. The European Union already pays €69
> billion
> <https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/76c57f2f-174c-11eb-b57e-01aa75ed71a1/language-en> a
> year in subsidies to support its renewables. But if the EU persists with
> its even stauncher promises of net-zero, that annual climate policy cost is
> likely to exceed $1 trillion.
>
> No wonder there’s political pushback to environmental grandstanding. The
> Netherlands has been roiled by protests since the government mandated in
> June that nitrogen-oxide and ammonia emissions, which are produced by
> livestock, must be slashed by 70% to 80% in some parts of the country. As
> many as 40,000 farmers demonstrated against the measure last month. Holland
> is among the world’s 10 largest food exporters, and these policies would
> decimate the country’s agriculture industry while global hunger is rising.
>
> Sri Lanka is the epitome of elite environmentalism gone wrong. Pushed to
> go organic by activists and the World Economic Forum, the government banned
> synthetic fertilizers in April 2021. Food production collapsed and the
> currency defaulted. Hungry and outraged citizens launched protests, overran
> the presidential palace, and forced the government to resign en masse and
> the president to flee the country.
>
> It’s entirely possible to help the climate and working families at the
> same time. The policies to do so are innovation-focused. Policy makers need
> to recognize that they simply can’t eliminate fossil fuels with current
> technologies. The world gets almost 80% of its energy from fossil fuels,
> and even if all current climate policies were fully implemented, by
> midcentury fossil fuels would still provide more than half of all energy
> used world-wide, according
> <https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/4ed140c1-c3f3-4fd9-acae-789a4e14a23c/WorldEnergyOutlook2021.pdf> to
> the International Energy Agency. Instead of sending energy prices sky-high
> by trying to force a transition to renewables prematurely, policy makers
> should focus on funding research to develop clean energy sources that are
> actually affordable and reliable. And instead of badgering farmers to go
> organic, governments should invest in research to develop varieties of
> crops and agricultural practices that deliver higher yields with a smaller
> environmental footprint.
>
> Some of these technologies are already in development. Greater funding
> could bring them to fruition more quickly and do a lot more to help limit
> emissions than the policies activists now hawk. These sorts of sensible
> measures would cost much less than policies like net-zero, leaving more
> money to meet the world’s many other challenges.
>
> It’s starting to dawn on some elites that their policies are creating
> political dangers. Frans Timmermans, the European Commission’s vice
> president, has said that many millions of Europeans may not be able to heat
> their homes this winter. This, he concludes, could lead to “very, very
> strong conflict and strife.”
>
> He’s right. When people are cold, hungry and broke, they rebel. If the
> elites continue pushing incredibly expensive policies that are disconnected
> from the urgent challenges facing most people, we need to brace for chaos.
>
> *Mr. Lomborg is president of the Copenhagen Consensus and visiting fellow
> at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. His latest book is “False
> Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and
> Fails to Fix the Planet.”*
>
> WSJ Opinion: Executive Beast Mode and the Democrats’ Apocalyptic Politics
> [image: WSJ Opinion: Executive Beast Mode and the Democrats’ Apocalyptic
> Politics]
>
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> ===============================================
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