Hold the phone! Global warming has been canceled! A new study by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee could cause President Obama to re-think Cap and Trade legislation that aims to reduce carbon emissions through a new "carbon" tax.The article about the global warming study states:
Synchronized chaos? Now that's some funky science. Sounds like something from Star Trek if you ask me. Scientists are going to examine the study to see if there is indeed some validity. If proven accurate, then maybe all that talk about humans causing Global Warming is wrong? We can all agree that Global Warming exists, as does Global Cooling. The question is whether it's a natural cycle or if human activity is having an adverse effect on the climate.The climate is known to be variable and, in recent years, more scientific thought and research has been focused on the global temperature and how humanity might be influencing it.
However, a new study by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee could turn the climate change world upside down.
Scientists at the university used a math application known as synchronized chaos and applied it to climate data taken over the past 100 years...
"In climate, when this happens, the climate state changes. You go from a cooling regime to a warming regime or a warming regime to a cooling regime. This way we were able to explain all the fluctuations in the global temperature trend in the past century," Tsonis said. "The research team has found the warming trend of the past 30 years has stopped and in fact global temperatures have leveled off since 2001."
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As for me, I'm all for less carbon pollution, including less carbon dioxide, a by-product of human breathing. Not sure I agree that a cap and trade tax is the way to do it though. Seems like just another government scam to come up with a new tax. The U.S. electric companies, which burn coal to produce 57% of U.S.'s electricity, will be hammered hard with this tax. But guess who pays for it? You the consumer. The cap and trade "sin" tax might work if it forced the electric companies to build "clean" power from nuclear power, but the U.S. hasn't built a nuclear plant since Tennessee Valley Authority's Watts Bar 1 reactor was built in 1973. The NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) mentality and political wrangling has forestalled any nuclear power plants being built. So we stuck between a rock (cap and trade) and a hard place (no new nuclear plans) for America's future electricity needs. With more people using electricity-guzzling large screen TVs, multiple home PCs/laptops, gadgets, and mobile phones, America's insatiable demand for electricity is only going to get worse.
So for me, this cap and trade is just a smokescreen for the government to raise billions of dollars. Also, when
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Combating climate change may not be a question of who will carry the burden but could instead be a rush for the benefits, according to new economic modeling presented at “Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges & Decisions” hosted by the University of Copenhagen.
Contrary to current cost models for lowering greenhouse gas emissions and fighting climate change, a group of researchers from the University of Cambridge conclude that even very stringent reductions of can create a macroeconomic benefit, if governments go about it the right way.
“Where many current calculations get it wrong is in the assumption that more stringent measures will necessarily raise the overall cost, especially when there is substantial unemployment and underuse of capacity as there is today”, explains Terry Barker, Director of Cambridge Centre for Climate Change Mitigation Research (4CMR), Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge and a member of the Scientific Steering Committee of the Congress.
We've got to be united to save earth! Earth Hour is practiced at large scale in all developed and developing countries but there has been more publicity and awareness this year, as well as participation from large corporations like http://www.commit21.com/ which is a good sign - that there is still hope and that people still care!
Let's all do this, no matter where you are! Saturday, 28 March 2009. Lights off from 8.30pm to 9.30pm!
>>“Where many current calculations get it wrong is in the assumption that more stringent measures will necessarily raise the overall cost, especially when there is substantial unemployment and underuse of capacity as there is today”
I'm not buying it. You don't get something for nothing. If you impose a carbon tax, there will be increased costs. I also don't see how adding more bureaucratic red tape and a new tax is going to help unemployment. Yeah, I suppose we'll be bankrolling more bureaucrats to monitor the cap & trade system. More government officials has never solved unemployment. Small businesses create new jobs not governments. As for "underuse of capacity", what on God's green earth are you talking about? If Terry Barker is referring to 'energy', which I assume he is then he must be living under a rock. America has a need for MORE energy. We certainly are not underusing it.
I'd like to see more energy source come online, including nuclear, wind, and solar, which are cleaner than coal. But unless we get China on-board, which is building a electricity-generating coal plant every week, whatever the U.S. does will be pointless to reducing worldwide carbon emissions. Electrical power affects everything that is manufactured since you need electricity to build and package products. If you think China already makes products more cheaply from cheap labor, just imagine how much of a competitive advantage they will have if they can use cheap & dirty electrical power and the U.S. is forced to generate electricity more expensively.
Would I like to stop using coal plants? Sure. Do I think their high CO2 emissions are vastly impacting the weather? I'm not sure. Studies show higher CO2 causes faster plant growth, so there are benefits to high CO2. But regardless of the science, unless China (1/5th) of the world's population, as well as India (another 1/5th?) has similar CO2 regulations, all the U.S. will be doing is to outsource American jobs for a negligible impact on total CO2 emissions.
Can we please stick to applicable technology here? Yes, "global climate change" (*NOT* "global warming") is "science", but right now it's much more politics than science driving the discourse.
If I want to read about this kind of stuff, especially from a bunch of non-climatologists, I can go to DailyKos or FoxNews to get my fix for lots of heat and little light, thank you very much.
That's funny, I thought this post was about American's insatiable appetite for energy/electricity fueled by technology, including gadgets, VoIP, etc.
My blog rarely enters into the political space. However, I'm not going to censor a little opinion where politics meets technology. Cap and trade will increase the costs of all products and services, and cost me more to charge my gadgets, VoIP WiFi phones, etc.
>>Yes, "global climate change" (*NOT* "global warming") is "science"
No argument here. "global climate change" has been happening for billions of years causing by everything from asteroids to volcanoes. Whether human activity can cause dramatic global climate change is still debated by climatologists and scientists. Anyone who claims to be right on either side of the issue is fooling themselves. Nobody truly knows.
Funny how global warming or global climate change has become a cult religion that if you question the very premise of it you will be ostracized.
Sorry, Tom, but I call BS on your not entering the political space. Let's do a little snipping from your article:
Seems like just another government scam to come up with a new tax.
this cap and trade is just a smokescreen for the government to raise billions of dollars.
when I we start to get taxed for breathing carbon dioxide, then by golly, you will see revolts and protests that will make the Boston Tea Party look like a slumber party.
the cap and trade legislation may not target human breathing, but once precedent is set for taxing carbon dioxide, we're one step closer to that end.
Just imagine a future 1040 IRS tax form where you have to fill out the number of TVs, PCs, mobile phones, DVD players, gaming consoles so they can calculate your "carbon footprint"?
Not political, Tom? Please.
You are a great technology journalist, so please stick with that. Again, I know what sites to go to get politics and this isn't (or shouldn't be) one of 'em.
Like I said, I'm not going to censor myself from having a little bit of opinion when politics meets technology. I try and keep the articles themselves as apolitical as possible. Certainly, the comments are a free-for-all discussion. So if politics, religion, or some other controversial topic comes up with some sort of technology slant, then I'm very apt to express my views. Sorry if you disagree with this. All I can promise you is that 99.999% of my articles have no politics.
quote:
So for me, this cap and trade is just a smokescreen for the government to raise billions of dollars.
Bingo! You get the Kewpie doll. This is all about totalitarian control of the world's population in which the people agree that they are their own worst enemy. Think Hitler youth ratting on parents writ large. For man to presume to be able to corrupt God's creation by his mere living is nihilistic on an unprecedented scale. Remember the Kuwaiti oil fires? Nature is not servant to man. Kyoto et al is no more than the tyranny of the collective.