krisg's Profile

Located in: Munising, MI

Current Status: (Offline)

Total Comments: 2

Latest Comments

• George Will: Global worriers are living in a bad climate

  Kind of ironic that GWill wrote this right before Hurricane Ida hit… but anyway, I’m not really interested in debating science with him. If someone doesn’t believe the countless peer-reviewed scientific reports out there saying that climate change is real, then I’m certainly not going to be able change their mind. But as for Will’s assertions about China… well, at best they’re misleading. China is striving to become to global leader in clean energy tech (already leads in hydrpower) and is doing everything it can to clinch the title. While they have not agreed to fixed emissions restrictions, they’ve invested billions in energy efficiency and lower emissions tech, and is actually making some concrete moves to reduce their carbon footprint. (Check out www.chinafaqs.org for more detailed info) That’s certainly more than I can say for the U.S. government at the moment. “Inaction” by China is no reason for us to stall on passing clean energy legislation. If anything, China’s actions should be motivating us to speed the legislative process up, before our country falls too far behind. 

  11/12/2009 10:40 AM
• Why we should care if Arctic ice melts

  As scary as the potential realities of climate change could be, I’m not sure it’s helpful as far as debate goes to try to warn skeptics of the consequences of inaction—attempts seem to earn responses like “OnlyTheTruth“‘s here.

  To OnlyTheTruth-- I don’t really see how looking at a single SAT image (instead of time series data) or the thaw data from a single year counts as a scientific analysis. And, honestly, how much does it matter if the ice is gone in 5 years or 30? We still have to deal with unprecedented sea level rise… or if you don’t have to, your children will.

  However, I don’t agree with the basic idea presented in this article that our actions thus far are irreversible—we can take action to seriously reduce our carbon emissions by finally passing climate legislation in the U.S., thus helping to secure a global agreement in Copenhagen.

  Transitioning away from an imported petro-based economy makes sense, both in environmental and economic terms. China is already rushing ahead to become the global leader in clean energy technology (tech WE invented) ... if we don’t act quickly, we’re going to be forced out of these global emerging markets. You still don’t think it makes sense to be investing in clean tech and reducing emissions? Check out this poll—94% of economists believe climate change is a serious threat to our economy. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/environment/2009-11-03-economist-climate_N.htm
  ... while you’re at it, maybe also read this letter from 18 leading U.S. science organizations in consensus about the reality of climate change. http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2009/media/1021climate_letter.pdf

  11/04/2009 12:15 PM

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