The 10 dumbest things climate-change deniers say

[pampango]

From Jared Diamond - "the world’s best evolutionary anthropologist and a visionary futurist."

1. Climate costs must be balanced against jobs and the economy

This is Big Oil’s favorite argument. In fact, the only “jobs and economy” the oil industry cares about are their own hundreds of thousands of jobs, over $100 billion in annual profits and trillions in revenues the last decade. Diamond warns: environmental solutions are not a “luxury” with just a cash outflow. “This one-liner puts the truth exactly backwards. ... Environmental messes cost us huge sums of money both in the short run and in the long run” and “cleaning up or preventing those messes saves us huge sums in the long run, and often in the short run as well.”

2 . Technology will solve all our climate problems

In Robert Gordon’s provocative National Bureau of Economic Research paper, “Is U.S. Economic Growth Over?” we learn that not only is America’s GDP dropping to under 1% by 2100, Silicon Valley innovations and new technologies will not be a new Industrial Revolution reversing the trajectory of this future. “This faith in the future is based on an unsubstantiated track record that technology has solved more problems than it created, and will solve existing problems without creating new problems,” says Diamond. “Actual experience is the opposite.”

7. The population crisis is solving itself

Critics dismiss overpopulation by arguing that “the rate of increase of the world’s population is decreasing,” meaning that “world population will level off at less than double its present level.” But Diamond warns that “even if it does, the world’s present population is already living at a nonsustainable level ... the bigger danger is the increase in human ‘impact’ as the Third World achieves First World living standards.” Why? Developed nations consume 32 times more resources, dump 32 times more waste than undeveloped nations.

10. If environmental problems get desperate, so what, it’ll happen after I die, so I can’t take them seriously today

Big Oil is narcissistic, focused on quarterly earnings. Meanwhile, Diamond’s focused on 2050, the next generation: “Most or all of these environmental problems will become acute within the lifetime of young adults now alive. Our goal [should be] helping the next generation enjoy good lives 50 years from now. It makes no sense for us to help our own children while simultaneously doing things undermining the world in which our children will be living 50 years from now.”

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-10-dumbest-things-climate-change-deniers-say-2013-11-20

[RobertEarl]

1. #11

Nothing I can do. I can't cut back and besides, I have no impact on the world: It's too big!

[AverageJoe90]

2. Okay article, but Diamond doesn't *always* know what he's talking about, though.

1, 6, 8, 9, and 10 actually do make perfect sense(or mostly), and decent points are made with 4 & 5. However, though, there's a problem with just about everything else(starting with the fact that *actual* climate deniers don't believe there ever was a problem in the first place).

In Robert Gordon’s provocative National Bureau of Economic Research paper, “Is U.S. Economic Growth Over?” we learn that not only is America’s GDP dropping to under 1% by 2100, Silicon Valley innovations and new technologies will not be a new Industrial Revolution reversing the trajectory of this future. “This faith in the future is based on an unsubstantiated track record that technology has solved more problems than it created, and will solve existing problems without creating new problems,” says Diamond. “Actual experience is the opposite.”

The problem isn't so much technology itself, it's how it, and the profits made from such, have been misused; most of these problems could be solved with adequate laws & regulations, as well as cleaning out the corruption in Western governments(not to mention that his implied claim that technology has created more problems than it's solved isn't quite based on reality).

Jeremy Grantham’s GMO firm manages $110 billion, warns that “we’re running out completely of potassium (potash) and phosphorus (phosphates), both essential in food production, and eroding our soils.” Worse, Grantham’s research indicates they “cannot be manufactured and cannot be substituted for.” Total depletion will make it impossible to feed the 10 billion people predicted on the planet by 2050.

Fearmongering and coming from a GMO firm? Two major signs of bullshit.....surprised he wasn't critical of Grantham.

Critics dismiss overpopulation by arguing that “the rate of increase of the world’s population is decreasing,” meaning that “world population will level off at less than double its present level.” But Diamond warns that “even if it does, the world’s present population is already living at a nonsustainable level ... the bigger danger is the increase in human ‘impact’ as the Third World achieves First World living standards.” Why? Developed nations consume 32 times more resources, dump 32 times more waste than undeveloped nations.

The only problem is, how do we know that they'll all go down the same paths we did, and make the same mistakes? Some could, maybe. But all? Not likely. Furthermore, this also seems to contradict the points he made in #9 as well.

This was a somewhat decent piece and good points were made.....but, TBH, he's still got a little work to do on climate change.

[Jim Lane]

6. Why do you dismiss the phosphorus problem as "fearmongering"?

I remember an essay that Isaac Asimov wrote a few decades ago in which he foresaw that phosphorus depletion would become an issue.

Of course, in one sense, it doesn't matter all that much. You could invent a machine that turned styrofoam into phosphorus and we'd still have a host of other problems arising from overpopulation. Still, that's no basis for blithely dismissing any particular problem.

[randome]

3. The #1 dumbest thing said about climate change is this:

We can't prove that Man is responsible. Which is completely irrelevant. That's like saying the asteroid about to wipe us out is not our fault.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]

[AverageJoe90]

5. Yep. True dat. nt

[Romulox]

4. By far the biggest problem is overpopulation, which is outside our control.