Where is the Earth's Thermostat? The North Pole?
Apparently the Germans think we can just adjust the Earth's temperature exactly how we want:
Secondly, even without Kyoto, we reduced carbon emissions last year, which is a good thing --climate change aside-- and the reason? "The 1.3 percent decline from 2005, the first drop in 11 years, was due to a mild winter followed by a cool summer."
I'll side with NASA Administrator Mike Griffin on this one:
Germany, which holds the European Union and Group of Eight presidencies, is proposing a so-called "2-degree" target, whereby global temperatures would be allowed to increase no more than 2 degrees Celsius - the equivalent of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit - before being brought back down.I think that's highly presumptuous of us. The Earth's climate is an incredibly complex system, and it doesn't seem to me that we have enough data to suggest that humans have an immediate impact on the overall climate and also that we can do anything about it.
Secondly, even without Kyoto, we reduced carbon emissions last year, which is a good thing --climate change aside-- and the reason? "The 1.3 percent decline from 2005, the first drop in 11 years, was due to a mild winter followed by a cool summer."
I'll side with NASA Administrator Mike Griffin on this one:
"I have no doubt that a trend of global warming exists," Griffin told Inskeep. "I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with."
"To assume that it is a problem is to assume that the state of Earth's climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn't change," Griffin said. "I guess I would ask which human beings — where and when — are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we have right here today, right now is the best climate for all other human beings. I think that's a rather arrogant position for people to take."
Labels: Climate Change
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