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The IPCC reports say pretty much the exact same thing, if you filter out the spin. In particular, the "impact" part of their reports says the next 1-3 degrees o

by glenra 13y ago

The IPCC reports say pretty much the exact same thing, if you filter out the spin. In particular, the "impact" part of their reports says the next 1-3 degrees of warming will on-net increase agricultural productivity - it'll be easier to feed the world. If you look at the underlying studies the biggest positive impacts seem to be: (1) In the northern regions that currently produce the most food, warming means longer growing seasons means more food. (2) Near the equator where it's too hot to grow most crops, extra CO2 makes growing trees much more productive.

lifeisstillgood 13y ago
great - now all we have to do is make sure we stop at 1-3 degrees,and we are all sorted :>
- glenra 13y ago
  The good news is that gives us about a century, and if we don't break the world economy today with our attempts at premature optimization, our technological capabilities then will be unimaginably greater than they are now. Roughly one century ago - around the year 1900 - cities of the world had a huge problem - horses. The problem of hauling away the horse manure and dead horses was a bigger and bigger job and throwing more horses at the problem was not doing the trick. The cities smelled and bred disease and there was just nowhere to put the stuff. The situation was unsustainable. People drew line charts with hockey sticks. There were conferences where people gnashed their teeth and wrung their hands over how horrible it was - and getting worse - and how would we ever survive? Then the problem went away. Not because the professional worriers came up with a solution, but because technology changed. That will happen this time too. The one thing we can be ABSOLUTELY SURE of is that our biggest problem a century from now will be something ELSE, probably something we haven't even encountered as an issue yet. It is an amazing luxury that we can afford to worry about such trivial matters. I think there must be a "conservation of worry" law - as the world gets safer, as fewer people are starving or dying of dysentery or whatever, we still need to worry the same amount, so we find new things to worry about - no matter how arcane and obscure they have to be - and invest them with undue importance.
  - lifeisstillgood 13y ago
    The glenra law of conservation of worry - loving it

by glenra 13y ago

lifeisstillgood 13y ago

great - now all we have to do is make sure we stop at 1-3 degrees,and we are all sorted :>

glenra 13y ago
The good news is that gives us about a century, and if we don't break the world economy today with our attempts at premature optimization, our technological capabilities then will be unimaginably greater than they are now. Roughly one century ago - around the year 1900 - cities of the world had a huge problem - horses. The problem of hauling away the horse manure and dead horses was a bigger and bigger job and throwing more horses at the problem was not doing the trick. The cities smelled and bred disease and there was just nowhere to put the stuff. The situation was unsustainable. People drew line charts with hockey sticks. There were conferences where people gnashed their teeth and wrung their hands over how horrible it was - and getting worse - and how would we ever survive? Then the problem went away. Not because the professional worriers came up with a solution, but because technology changed. That will happen this time too. The one thing we can be ABSOLUTELY SURE of is that our biggest problem a century from now will be something ELSE, probably something we haven't even encountered as an issue yet. It is an amazing luxury that we can afford to worry about such trivial matters. I think there must be a "conservation of worry" law - as the world gets safer, as fewer people are starving or dying of dysentery or whatever, we still need to worry the same amount, so we find new things to worry about - no matter how arcane and obscure they have to be - and invest them with undue importance.
- lifeisstillgood 13y ago
  The glenra law of conservation of worry - loving it