A few days ago the Prez made his big climate change speech…….it was hailed as an impressive speech and it was belittled by the deniers as a “chicken Little” moment…….but was the speech all that or was there holes in it?
We all know that something must be done…..well anyone with an IQ larger than their shoe size…….but is this going to be the cure all that we all search for?
Personally, I think not……anytime you look for reform then the opponents have won…….you either do it or go home!
Clean Power Plan Hailed as Ambitious, Insufficient | Al Jazeera America.
Well the one thing you don’t hear President Obama mention is how much his proposed emissions reductions will reduce global warming. Judith Curry’s recent Congressional testimony cited the following numbers for President Obama’s commitment to the UN: It has been estimated that the U.S. INDC of 28% emissions reduction by 2025 will prevent 0.03C in warming by 2100. It has been estimated that the U.S. INDC of 80% emissions reduction by 2025 will prevent 0.11C warming by 2100. And these estimates assume that climate model projections are correct; if the climate models are over sensitive to CO2, then amount of warming prevented will be even smaller.
The economic argument is rather dicey; economic impact models are far more uncertain even than climate models. The social cost of carbon estimates made by the White House require assumptions out to the year 2300 for drastic CO2 reductions to be cost effective.
The public health arguments are even weaker. CO2 has absolutely nothing to do with asthma. Extreme weather events are not increasing with increased CO2; extreme weather events are dominated by natural climate variability. Particularly in the U.S., extreme weather was substantially worse in the 1930’s and 1950’s.