>> Changes around global warming and sustainability are happening at a dizzying pace. Momentum is building.>>

Long after the horse has bolted.

>> I suspect that five years from now, on these issues at least, we'll live in a political landscape that none of us today would even recognize. >>

I suspect you won't know this world in five years time.  Ever heard of chaos ?
Politically ?, The goddess, Mahdi will rule.

Well, gee, now that Katrina and the Waves have left for a while there's nothing to drive up oil prices.

Wait a minute -- Global Warming is now the perfect marketing vehicle for business...it's year long, has a constant rate of increase (and return).   It's worldwide, and available in all markets.

So instead of these "local disasters", we can now offer a truly long-term, internationalized disaster, that can "interface" into a wide variety of Green Products (sold to you by Al "Mr. Haney" Gore).

Mankind only emits 3% the CO2 nature does.  Nature now reabsorbs all of its CO2, and about half of mankind's.  It is estimated that nature will only absorb 70% of the CO2 by 2030 that it does today.

Dr Hansen of NASA estimates that a further warming of about 1C will rapidly melt permafrost, starting a runaway global warming chain reaction.  The earth has warmed .2 C each of the last 3 decades.  Due to the greenhouse gas in the air, we are committed to 30 years of further melting even if we stopped emitting CO2 today.

Frankly, I think only a hopeless optimist would think that lowering human emissions can prevent a climate catastrophe.  Unfortunately, those that prescribe reduced emissions as the strategy to prevent global warming think that being a hopeless optimist is a necessary part of being a Public Policy Advocate.

"Changes around global warming and sustainability are happening at a dizzying pace. Momentum is building. I suspect that five years from now, on these issues at least, we'll live in a political landscape that none of us today would even recognize."

Don't you see that a changed political landscape is mute?  Solutions won't come from people changing their behavior, because caps on emissions is only a mitigation strategy (and a poor one at that, since it is unrealistic that a growing population and growing per capita energy demand will result in dramatic enough cuts fast enough to stop runaway global warming).

What is needed is a program to remove the CO2 from the air after it has been emitted.  This isn't a political landscape, it is a technological landscape.  If the CO2 isn't removed from the air soon, the earth will have less than one billion people on it by the end of the century.

Damn, David finally puts up a positive piece and you people rip him a new one!  Lighten up people, it's Friday.

Firstly, I don't know who the goddess Mahdi is (our voice on all things religious and historical, Canis, probably does), but what kind of goddess is she if chaos will reign?  

Secondly, seriously - Al Gore has invented global warming to sell us shit?  I mean, wouldn't it have just been easier to go the book tour route?

Thirdly, rarely have I seen a better oxymoron than "hopeless optimist."  Thank you for that, dobermanmacleod.  Other than that, however, your post is riddled with "facts" that are presented as such, yet with no links to support your statements.  Hence, even if there is a nugget of truth in there, it will tend to be ignored.

Kaela

p.s. "Mute" means "cannot speak."  "Moot" means the point is no longer valid, an issue, etc.  

Allianz is a German company, so your comparison between U.S. and European insurance companies doesn't work in this case.

McLeod 06 Oct (above) urges us to remove CO2 from the air now!  OK, large metal intakes leading to large compressors leading to large centrifugal seperators leading to large pumps to force CO2 in the deep earth where it will not seep back out.  Sounds like a a lot steel (CO2) and electricity (CO2) to me.  If McLeod has a carbon neutral way of doing this, bring it on.

"If not, then please admit that you are talking completely out of your ass and you have no academic evidence whatsoever for numbers which you are making up as you go along, all for the sake of your "environmental" agenda. And then, for good measure, you can withdraw your assertions until you learn what true knowledge is composed of.

We are waiting.

by d41295 at 4:18 PM on 25 Jan 2007"

I have a real problem with an annomious posting this crude directed at a person with Andrew Dessler's stature.  Has d41295 read The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change.  Why doesn't he just go home and bury his head in the sand?

Bob Aegerter Pacific Northwest