But as the climate warms, natural variability is altered, too. In a normal climate without global warming, two sides of the die would represent cooler-than-normal weather, two sides would be normal weather, and two sides would be warmer-than-normal weather. Rolling the die again and again, or season after season, you would get an equal variation of weather over time.
But loading the die with a warming climate changes the odds. You end up with only one side cooler than normal, one side average, and four sides warmer than normal. Even with climate change, you will occasionally see cooler-than-normal summers or a typically cold winter. Don’t let that fool you.
Our new peer-reviewed study, published by the National Academy of Sciences, makes clear that while average global temperature has been steadily rising due to a warming climate (up about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit in the past century), the extremes are actually becoming much more frequent and more intense worldwide.
When we plotted the world’s changing temperatures on a bell curve, the extremes of unusually cool and, even more, the extremes of unusually hot are being altered so they are becoming both more common and more severe.
The change is so dramatic that one face of the die must now represent extreme weather to illustrate the greater frequency of extremely hot weather events.Read it at Climate Progress
Must-Read Hansen: ‘Climate Change Is Here — And Worse Than We Thought’
Joe Romm
Joe Romm doesn't know anything about monetary economics tho. For example, Romm thinks that the tax should go toward paying down the deficit. Hansen would return it to the public, whatever he means by that.
Joe Romm
Joe Romm doesn't know anything about monetary economics tho. For example, Romm thinks that the tax should go toward paying down the deficit. Hansen would return it to the public, whatever he means by that.
the ironic and horrible thing is that the same people who worry about leaving a nonexistent crippling debt to their grandchildren chant drill baby drill, not giving two shits about the screwed up environment that they are leaving for their grandchildren. simply mind boggling
ReplyDeleteDave maybe they are morons (probably) and don't realize, but at least they are coherent in that creating a deflationary depression the environment would 'rest' a bit of their own shameful destruction.
ReplyDeleteNot that I agree that's the way to do things, but there is some twisted consistency in that.
I think what Hansen means by returning some sort GHG tax to the public is something like 'cap & rebate' (US). Or like the 'cap & share' scheme I believe was 1st proposed by Ireland's 'FEASTA' economist, the late (great, rip) Richard Douthwaite.
ReplyDeleteWhilst using slightly different details, both are essentially a hypothecated 'tax', albeit with an element intended to be granted as compensation to developing countries as part of a 'contraction & convergence' policy.