Unlike many of the environmental pop pieces, the TR editors,
thankfully, were careful to present realistic views of dealing with
climate change technologically and economically. Wind and solar power
were treated with uncommon candor in admitting that in spite of
declining costs these intermittent energy sources are not sufficient at
affordable prices for a modern industrial society.
With a mature appreciation of the uncertainty in climate forecasts, one article described a policy alternative to the so-called “precautionary principle”—the politically popular idea that policy makers should focus on avoiding an imagined worst-case scenario at all costs. Instead, it described a pragmatic trial-and-error approach at far lower cost that deals with specific consequences of climate change as they actually occur, not as imagined by computer models.
However, omitted in these articles are discussions of climate change in the pre-industrial past, particularly in the last two millennia, for which there is significant source material. The reason this neglect is so critical is that it is commonly assumed that atmospheric CO2 is the only meaningful variable behind climate change. Since pre-industrial levels of CO2 appear to have consistently been below 300ppm with little variation, and levels since the mid-twentieth century have steadily risen to about 400ppm today, atmospheric CO2 is an obvious anthropogenic variable. And, the reasoning goes, since both CO2 levels and global temperature averages have increased together, man’s fossil fuel usage must be causing global warming. The science is settled. We can move on.
http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/charles-clough/climate-change-theorists-consistently-deceive-glaring-omission
With a mature appreciation of the uncertainty in climate forecasts, one article described a policy alternative to the so-called “precautionary principle”—the politically popular idea that policy makers should focus on avoiding an imagined worst-case scenario at all costs. Instead, it described a pragmatic trial-and-error approach at far lower cost that deals with specific consequences of climate change as they actually occur, not as imagined by computer models.
However, omitted in these articles are discussions of climate change in the pre-industrial past, particularly in the last two millennia, for which there is significant source material. The reason this neglect is so critical is that it is commonly assumed that atmospheric CO2 is the only meaningful variable behind climate change. Since pre-industrial levels of CO2 appear to have consistently been below 300ppm with little variation, and levels since the mid-twentieth century have steadily risen to about 400ppm today, atmospheric CO2 is an obvious anthropogenic variable. And, the reasoning goes, since both CO2 levels and global temperature averages have increased together, man’s fossil fuel usage must be causing global warming. The science is settled. We can move on.
http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/charles-clough/climate-change-theorists-consistently-deceive-glaring-omission
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