Read Darren’s writeup on the Copenhagen Consensus Conference.
Earlier this week I wrote about the Copenhagen Consensus Conference, and its attempt to determine the most effective way to expend limited resources (money) to solve the world’s biggest problems. The results are in.
The Reason article is here. If you’re from Boulder, you must wonder where global warming (whoops climate change) is in the ranking. Here’s your answer…
At number 30, the lowest priority is a proposal to mitigate man-made global warming by cutting the emissions of greenhouse gases.
Yes Boulder, you read that right, the LOWEST PRIORITY!
Of course, just yesterday Erika Stutzman of the Daily Camera editorialized about global warming (whoops climate change). In an editorial titled “The Time is Now” she claims “now” is the time to pass “The Climate Security Act” (Warner-Lieberman bill). She finds this quotation from Tufts University professor Frank Ackerman…
Tufts University senior economist Frank Ackerman says the costs of failing to address climate change will be great. Excluding “priceless” things like the loss of habitat and wildlife, he says the actual dollar figures would be $1.9 trillion by the end of the century. His estimation includes things like the loss of residential real estate due to rising sea levels and the increased cost to cool houses across the nation — which will far outweigh reductions in heating costs, he says.
Obviously Frank, err Professor Ackerman was NOT at the Copenhagen Concensus Conference, or had no influence on his fellow economists.
Also from the Stutzman editorial…
On Thursday — years late and only after a court order — the Bush administration produced a document that lists threats to the United States due to climate change. The report was required by a 1990 law that requires the federal government to produce a comprehensive scientific assessment of global warming every four years. It had not been done since 2000. One of the conclusions in the 271-page report is that there will be more death and damage from wildfires, hurricanes and other natural disasters. In the last three decades, wildfire season in the West has increased by 78 days.
Hmmm, there hasn’t been any global warming since 1998, but a greatly improved ability to fantasize about potential disasters.
