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It’s not in Al Gore’s PowerPoint presentation, but there are some upsides to global warming.
Northern homes could save on heating fuel. Rust Belt cities might stop losing snowbirds to the South. Canadian farmers could harvest bumper crops. Greenland may become awash in cod and oil riches. Shippers could count on an Arctic shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific. Forests may expand. Mongolia could see a go-go economy.
This is all speculative, even a little facetious, and any gains are not likely to make up for predicted frightening upheavals elsewhere. But still ... might there be a silver lining for the frigid regions of Canada and Russia?
“It’s not that there won’t be bad things happening in those countries. There will be — things like you’ll lose polar bears,” said economic professor Robert O. Mendelsohn of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. “But the idea is that they will get such large gains, especially in agriculture, that they will be bigger than the losses...”
The future may have arrived already in icy Greenland, where fishermen are thrilled by the return of cod and farmers are reporting higher yields.
“Maybe the turnips get a little bit bigger, and the potatoes get a little bit bigger, but that’s important,” said Kenneth Hoegh, a government agricultural adviser. “We are right on the edge here for agriculture.”
Jesper Madsen, who directs Arctic research at the National Environmental Research Institute in Denmark, said Greenland’s agricultural gains would seem like small potatoes economically if the retreating ice there clears the way for more oil drilling.
But don't get excited...
Quote:
Some researchers stress there aren’t really any winners in global warming because the planet will be such a big loser. Marginal gains in limited areas can’t be stacked up on one side of the ledger, they say, when the negatives can include planet-wide food and water shortages, mass flooding and extinction.
Like the scientists I'm still trying to figure this out. We could see both increased agricultural production and "planet-wide food" shortages, and both "mass flooding" with "planet-wide" water shortages. I wish someone would make up their mind.
Here's the question that I have: how do we know what the OPTIMAL temperature of the planet is supposed to be? How do we know that the temperature shouldn't be, say, 5 degrees higher than it is in order to maximize the natural potential of the planet? Or 5 degrees lower? Or exactly what it is now?
All the doom and gloom environ-mental-ists have assumed that they know what's best for the planet, and that they can accurately measure the earth's potential. These are the same guys who can't get the 5-day forcast right with any regularity, but we're supposed to assume that they have such a good read on the planet that they know what the opitmal temperature is?
Reid Bryson, known as the father of scientific climatology, considers global warming a bunch of hooey.
The UW-Madison professor emeritus, who stands against the scientific consensus on this issue, is referred to as a global warming skeptic. But he is not skeptical that global warming exists, he is just doubtful that humans are the cause of it.
There is no question the earth has been warming. It is coming out of the "Little Ice Age," he said in an interview this week.
"However, there is no credible evidence that it is due to mankind and carbon dioxide. We've been coming out of a Little Ice Age for 300 years. We have not been making very much carbon dioxide for 300 years. It's been warming up for a long time," Bryson said.
The Little Ice Age was driven by volcanic activity. That settled down so it is getting warmer, he said.local
I did not see this article. But I will say that my family and I try and do everything that we can to conserve energy and to reuse and recycle. Global warming is scary! If there is a chance I can help I am all for it. However, I am not so crazy on Al Gore's presentation. Usely everything has an upside and a downside . While on the subject google up *freeycycle* and join, help rid the landfills of trash. peace
Whether Global warming is a fact or not. We need to stop being so wasteful. Instead of opening more landfills we could have more green spaces and money and.....
Nothing like striving for accuracy on an issue as "hot" as global warming. "NOAA didn't say whether it had adjusted for uncertainties caused by nearby burn barrels."
peace
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