Actual Headline - "Global Warming May Take Economic Toll"

[hatrack]

Gee, ya think?

WASHINGTON - The White House's refusal to consider government caps on greenhouse gas emissions may save the US economy short-term pain, but experts warn unchecked global heat could exact a heavy long-run toll. "While there are costs associated with reducing emissions, there are certainly costs associated with not doing anything," said Kevin Forbes, head of Catholic University's economics department. "It would be, in my opinion, folly not to try to do something."
According to Ralph Cicerone, president of the National Academy of Sciences, earth surface temperatures could be up to 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit above 1990 levels by 2100, potentially worsening storms, raising sea levels and eating away ice caps.

After shunning the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases, which President George W. Bush said would have "wrecked" the economy, the United States last month joined Japan, Australia, China, India and South Korea in a pact focused on technology-sharing, without set targets. The world's richest economy is also its biggest carbon dioxide emitter, pushing out 5.8 billion metric tons in 2003. China, in second place, emitted 3.5 billion, with all of Western Europe at 3.9 billion.

EDIT

What is needed, they say, is a world-spanning deal with fair goals. "You will never be able to solve this problem without all of the major emitters being involved," said Katie Mandes of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. Experts say economic risks could be eased with a Kyoto-like allowance trading system so the regions best able to make affordable cuts can sell their achievement to those less able.

While the United States can't fix the problem alone, Reilly said it should lead the way with meaningful steps. "I think it's one of the great tragedies of our era that the administration hasn't risen to the occasion on this. It's committing future generations to extraordinary costs and problems," said James Gustave Speth, dean of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. "In the same breath, I have to say I wish the prior administration had done more itself."

The great unknown is the price of inaction. "There are real economic costs associated with not taking action, including changes to water supply infrastructure, industrial capital, like pipelines, and with human health," said Janet Peace, senior research fellow, economics at Pew.

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http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/32025/story.htm

[displacedtexan]

1. News from the land of DUH!

I'm speechless.

[lala_rawraw]

2. What I cannot wrap my mind around is that there is more evidence

For global warming than there is for the existence of god, yet, the wing nuts will change the law, reality, and anything they can get their hands on for ze "lord."

We are living in truly modern times

[mom cat]

3. I believe that the puppet Masters know the danger and see global

warming as a strategic plus for themselves in the the relative damage to the US will be less than in Europe and the Global South.I think they know the terrible human toll that will come from widespread desertification and a possible new ice age for Europe. The former would eliminate the nuisance of humans on resource rich lands and the latter would "freeze out" the main competitors for those resources...It is a geopolitical game and the human factor obviously does not matter to them!

[ironman202]

4. There isn't a problem on the planet that Americans,

when we really roll up our sleeves and try, can't completely ignore.

[madrchsod]

5. insurance underwriters are all ready

figuring rates well into this century. those rates are being based on global warming and it`s effects on the insurance market rates. it`s always nice to know that the insurance underwriters are well ahead of the curve...

[Vogon_Glory]

6. There Is No Such Thing As Global Warming, Ask Any Right-Winger

There is no such thing as global warming. If you don't believe me, ask any right wingie-dingie. They'll tell you.

:sarcasm:

Of course the denials I enjoy reading the most are the ones from Great Basin states where their water supply is based on the run-off from the snow melt.

Fools!

:argh: