"....so is extinction."
This entry was posted on 1/9/2008 11:42 PM and is filed under Global Warming,Increased deaths among the poor.
Professor Jonathan Foley, Director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE) presented Living on a Shrinking Planet today at the Rotary Club of Madison. Sobering information and facts.
My notes -
1) By "Shrinking Planet", he means that we (the human population and our demands on the earth) are getting bigger. We are "pushing the planet to the limits." Some statistics: Between 1950 - 2000:
- world population doubled.
- the world economy grew seven-fold.
- fossil fuel use increased four-fold.
2) Global warming - the debate is over; the planet is warming and we're causing it. Fast fact: how thick is the atmosphere? Not very -- on a 19" globe, the atmosphere would be as thick as a sheet of paper.
3) Professor Foley showed a photo of intensive irrigation to grow iceberg lettuce in the desert and asked - (paraphrased) "why are we doing this? Is it sustainable? A good use of our water?" (my answer: companies are growing lettuce in the desert because it's profitable. (period) That's what businesses SHOULD be doing in a capitalistic society. Why is it profitable? Because energy is so inexpensive that pumping the water and trucking produce around the country are relatively small costs. Think eating locally is a good idea? Then raise the cost of non-renewable fuels to begin recognizing the external costs of their use.)
4) We face a litany of problems including: global warming, deforestation, and over drafting of water. The results of these problems could be catastrophic: trillions of $ lost in world economies and billions of lives are "on the line."
5) Increased deaths among the poor - an extremely conservative estimate (he said the actual number could be 10X this) is that CURRENTLY, 150,000 PEOPLE PER YEAR ARE DYING PREMATURELY AS A RESULT OF GLOBAL WARMING - CAUSES: INCREASED DISEASE, DROUGHT AND FLOOD. (my comments: it was reported this week that federal officials "will need a few more weeks to decide whether polar bears need protection under the Endangered Species Act because of global warming." Now, polar bears (and all animals) are as important to me as the next person, but who the HEL_ cares about polar bears when AT LEAST 150,000 people are dying each year ALREADY as a result of global warming!! We need to Stop the Madness.
(the "stupid" truth: by protecting polar bears under the Endangered Species Act we could help hundreds of thousands of people lead better lives. Bass-ackwards?? (this is just a bad dream - right?))
6) Professor Foley's suggestions to solve these problems included:
First, he likened our current course of action to that of the captain of the Titanic knowing that his ship was heading toward a huge iceberg, but keeping the throttle open anyway. The message: our first critical step is to stop our increases in greenhouse gas emissions. How:
1 - energy efficiency (e.g., buildings, manufacturing, electricity use)
2 - vehicle efficiency
3 - increase renewable energy generation
4 - carbon capture (coal will be a part of our energy portfolio for some time so we need to develop technologies to significantly reduce the amount of CO2 emitted when coal is burned)
- There is no 'Silver Bullet', but there is 'Silver Buckshot' (i.e., to solve our energy-related issues we need to make significant advances in each of the four areas above.) He suggested that he believed a carbon tax would be effective although CO2 Cap & Trade seemed to have the most political steam.
(my comments: there IS a Silver Bullet that will propel advances in all of the four areas --> recognize the external costs of non-renewable energy use by enacting a phased-in, federal tax shift from income to non-renewable energy. The tax shift to non-renewable energy should be a BTU tax. A carbon tax is not as effective as a BTU tax because a carbon tax would not increase prices on nuclear power - this is important because we're not paying the external costs of nuclear power (particularly long-term waste disposal) and we have no idea how much long-term disposal will cost because we're not doing it.)
During Q & A, Professor Foley was asked - (paraphrased) "isn't climate change and glacier development/melting cyclical" (casting doubt on whether global warming is caused by man). His response, "yes, climate change is cyclical; so is extinction."
