Are They Talking to Me?
The NYTimes has published another of those articles about the IPCC saying that we - the US and China especially - have got to do something about global warming by 2012 or the penalties for our inaction will greatly exceed the costs of our taking action as individuals and nations, changing our personal and national lifestyles. President Bush has joined the chorus of national leaders because his opposition to the Kyoto Accords up to now has been the fact that it gave developing countries a free ride, placing the burden on developed countries only. That is no longer so.
I tend to agree with scientists though I don't trust their predictions totally. 2012 could be 2008 or 2019 for all I know. It could be 2005. But it is growing harder and harder to find credible scientists or politicians who will strongly dispute Global Warming (but Sen. Inhofe still appears in the media).
What does all this have to do with you, dear reader? Well, by your reading this far you are part of the technically savvy, younger, educated demographic. You are the early adopters, the trend setters, the persons others ask about their personal transportation decisions. After all, this is AutoblogGreen. In my case, thinking and acting green is not a hobby or a sideline, it is what I have been doing since 1980.
Back in the 1980s or 1990s, there was a TV ad featuring an experienced auto technician. His refrain about auto maintenance was pretty clear: "You can pay me now (to maintain your car properly), or you can pay me later (to repair some major failure.") Seems the stakes are much higher these days. The voice we are hearing is no longer the savvy technician. Perhaps the IPCC is channeling Mother Nature. Back in the same time period, there was another TV ad featuring this symbol of our total world. It said, "Don't mess with Mother Nature." Can you hear it too?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
why not the LS2/LS7? 4:27PM (11/18/2007)
It may seem odd, but the main impediment to wider public acceptance of CO2 emissions control isn't to hammer on the risks side more.
It's to do a better job of getting the message out that CO2 emissions control doesn't have to mean losing jobs or destroying the economy. "A Convenient Truth" explained this well, but many people won't view it because of their preconceived notions. We need to get the word out more widely that CO2 control is doable with huge sacrifices.
And then it'll be easier to convince people that we should control CO2, even if we're wrong about the long term-effects of a rise in atmospheric CO2.
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RJN 11:14AM (11/20/2007)
There is definetely a political consensus about the climate change but there is still some unexplained science. I don't think anybody disagrees about the man made CO2 warming the climate but the question is more about how much. But to me this isn't necessarily the main point. The recorded history knows great changes in climate for example the Roman times when they had vineyards in Northern England or what happened to the last northern hemiphere Ice age that ended just 10,000 years ago. The human race and animals have migrated acccording to the seasons and climate changes and adapted and survived and will continue to do so. That is natural evolution.
Now you are thinking that I am an oil lobbyist, but no I actually think a lot about the environment, drive a Smart car, buy wind power and put a few pounds in to the carbon offsetting box every time I fly, so I have some eco-credentials, heh! But, I do think that there are more pressing issues with good old fashioned pollution. We have two nations with a combined population of 2,5 billion experiencing unprecedented economic growth, which is based on is based on Western world's NIMBY attitude to dirty industrial production and labour costs. Just the idea of how much pollution they will create unless we get the alternative technologies into mass production soon is mind boggling! In the next ten years we could be facing a situation where China and India will have 500 million new cars on the road and who are we in the west to say you can't have them. Electric, hybrid, fuel cell, bio fuels which ever the combination of solutions we will have we need them quickly, we need them to perform and be reliable because there quicker ways to make this planet uninhabitable than global warming.
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