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1. Comment - UN panel: Cows emit more greenhouse gases than cars

   (Dec 5, 2007 - 8:48 AM)

   Hmm ... anyone out there remember James Watt? He mentioned something about this back in 1982. So where's the surprise?
   
   Now I understand that the world is warming up - that's a given. The big question(s) are: How much of the trend is caused by human activity (I thought that the major glaciers started to melt about 15k years ago)? Is this activity economically necessary to sustain our way of life, and if so, what are the alternatives?
   
   Given we don't have a real good base-line and that our climate models are still VERY primitive, I'd say that any "BIG" moves would be premature (Kyoto). We worry about SUVs w/o thinking - hey - how much more CO2 is China dumping into the air? We worry about the average fuel economy of our cars w/o thinking that the boat used to transport them here caused more pollution than if they were operated w/o cat converters for their entire life. In short - we look at the face value of many things w/o thinking about the full economic / sociological / environmental impact. If the globe has warmed up 1 degree over the last 100 years, was this a very bad thing, neutral or even a good thing?
   
   I find that activists are pretty narrow in their views - and they almost never offer an alternative that is both cost effective and implementable ('cause if there were one, it would be happening already - right?). And while I'm not saying "Do Nothing" is a good solutions, lets make sure that anything we do implement makes sense and will have the desired consequences.