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All IPCC definitions taken from Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group I Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Annex I, Glossary, pp. 941-954. Cambridge University Press.

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Comments 94251 to 94300:

  1. Climate sensitivity is low
    RW1 - "I'm not getting any 'proof' here of anything, so I'm left to figure it out on my own." Actually, I will have to disagree with you. You've been pointed to the documentation, you have statements from several people who are quite familiar with line-by-line atmospheric calculations, and even George White sees a ~3.6 W/m^2 imbalance with his own runs of the HITRAN code. Unfortunately, as muoncounter pointed out, these efforts are met with disbelief, rejection, and (yes) denial - "I'm going to get to bottom of this. I'll be back when I know and can show the proof". I have the impression from this conversation that you will reject anything that does not conform to your preconceptions, and that is very sad. 3.7 or so W/m^2 is the difference in total planetary emissions upon doubling CO2, the amount of extra IR not leaving at a particular temperature, the change in outward directed energy. Please - we've offered this information honestly and clearly, as the best established data available. I would suggest you consider your own reasons for not believing it, and why you are so insistent that we are wrong.
  2. Dispelling two myths about the tropospheric hot spot
    Dan, how did you know?.
    Moderator Response: [Daniel Bailey] Just a feeling.
  3. Crux of a Core, Part 1 - addressing J Storrs Hall
    @mod KK - cheers for that - probably not a bad idea since the original is 3 >< larger.
  4. Crux of a Core, Part 1 - addressing J Storrs Hall
    Thank you. I'm remain in denial about how often data is grossly misrepresented. I didn't know the GISP2 data was being abused, and quite elegantly, as shown in Hall's animated GIF. FYI: I've recently added GISP2 to my interactive Vostok Viewer. I've juxtaposed GISP2 with EPICA, and you can easily see the drastic mood swings of GISP2 against the gradual changes in EPICA. I look forward to Part 2. jg
  5. Crux of a Core, Part 1 - addressing J Storrs Hall
    don't mind me - testing the image posting code.
    Moderator Response: [Daniel Bailey] Tip: When posting an image, it's considered good form to also post a link to the source for the image. Example for above: Source for image here.
  6. Crux of a Core, Part 1 - addressing J Storrs Hall
    nigelj @ #1.... Actually, I think a great deal of Watts' work is relying on the misinformation of others. This one originated from J Storrs Hall. Watts is just the central repository for wrong and poorly researched information.
  7. Philippe Chantreau at 03:45 AM on 27 February 2011
    Meet The Denominator
    Feeble rethoric is an understatement. PT says "This is incorrect, I stated it did not fully support my position, "I was finally able to obtain a full copy of the paper and do not believe it fully meets the list's criteria". None of this changes the fact that I did go through them prior to adding them." That you do not see the irony here confirms that your reading comprehension might not enable you to stick to your own standards, so I'll point it to you. You said you went through the papers before adding them. Then you describe how you "finally" were able to obtain a copy of the Mavromichalaki paper so you then realized it did not meet your criteria. That was after having already included it in the list. That is a confession that either you did not really go through the paper before including it in the list, or that the "going through" means a kind of examination that does not allow you to understand what the paper is about. Perhaps you meant just reading the abstract. In which case, I will challenge you to point what, in the paper's abstract, supports your position. What we see here is not even feeble rethoric any more, I can't really think of a name for it.
  8. Motl-ey Cruel
    Agnostic - I haven't checked the comments for a while, but every commenter besides me was a "skeptic" who thought Motl's error-riddled post was just brilliant. None objected to him banning me. It's possible that he didn't allow any objectionary comments through his iron-fisted moderation process.
  9. Prudent Risk
    Negative effects outweigh positive effects on the global scale. It's Not Bad (argument #11) Insisting that negative effects can only be local while positive effects are global is an impressive display of sophistry and willful ignorance since you are a long-time commenter on this site.
  10. Prudent Risk
    RSVP, "a negative effect or threat is very obvious, it is more than likely only a local problem, whereas on a global scale, someone or some species is coming out ahead in some way." I suppose you can go on wearing those rose-tinted glasses for a long while. Since all threats are local, let's go on with our "What! Me worry?" business as usual. Let's take just one local threat: Sea level rise threatens to inundate sections of coastal Louisiana with increasing frequency. No big deal, you say, who cares about a bunch of marsh grass and pelicans? That's a local threat that won't bother anyone, say up Yooper's way, basking in the warm waters of Lake Superior. Heard of Port Fourchon, at an elevation of 0.64 m (2.1 ft)? Sea level there is rising at more than 9mm/yr (a combination of sea level rise and land subsidence). From a 2008 report prepared for the South Louisiana Economic Council: This port services about 90 percent of all deepwater rigs and platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and it is also the host for the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP). We estimate that in 2006 about $63.4 billion worth of oil and natural gas was tied to this port via the LOOP and the offshore platforms the port helps to service. We conservatively estimate that a three-week loss in services from Port Fourchon would lead to: • A loss of $9,994.7 million in sales at U.S. firms; • A loss of $2,890.9 million in household earnings in the U.S., and; • A loss of 77,440 jobs in the nation And that was in 2008! Put storm surge on top of sea level rise and the LOOP goes out of service (and with it, 13% of US oil imports). Do that when oil is already pushing $100/bbl and you've got economic meltdown. No, it's not local; this particular threat will come find you.
  11. Deep ocean warming solves the sea level puzzle
    I know this question is way out there, but I have to ask. Does the rise of sea level take into account changes in the Earth's radius, or is this considered a constant?
  12. Prudent Risk
    When assessing options and yhe negative consequences of global effects, your starting point must account for both positive effects that come as a result of not taking action, as well as any negative effects that would have been there anyway. It is then only the difference that matters. If on the otherhand a negative effect or threat is very obvious, it is more than likely only a local problem, whereas on a global scale, someone or some species is coming out ahead in some way. And since it is impossible to predict all outcomes (in a global sense) until this is possible, "business as usual" is about all you can justify.
  13. Dispelling two myths about the tropospheric hot spot
    "Stratospheric cooling is the real "fingerprint" of enhanced greenhouse vs. natural (e.g. increased solar) warming." From "An influence of solar spectral variations on radiative forcing of climate - Haigh et al" we have... "...since April 2004, have revealed4 that over this declining phase of the solar cycle there was a four to six times larger decline in ultraviolet than would have been predicted on the basis of our previous understanding. This reduction was partially compensated in the total solar output by an increase in radiation at visible wavelengths..." And so compared to the the "previous misunderstanding/simplification of TSI" I'd expect there to be more than expected surface warming and more than expected stratospheric cooling. This is from a natural change in the sun's output that mimicks the CO2 fingerprint.
    Moderator Response: [Daniel Bailey] "This is from a natural change in the sun's output that mimicks the CO2 fingerprint." You are simply incorrect on this matter. Use the search function to find several threads addressing this meme, as it is the topic of those threads. Muoncounter: I win! (Gané, Gané!)
  14. Pete Dunkelberg at 00:13 AM on 27 February 2011
    Crux of a Core, Part 1 - addressing J Storrs Hall
    Thanks for this article. The ScienceDirect links aren't working for me at this time, but here is a link for Alley_etal_2010_History_of_the_Greenland_Ice_Sheet__Paleoclimatic_insights.pdf (6.25 Mb). It's a beautiful paper scientifically and aesthetically. There is even a picture of ancient coral at Key Largo Florida.
  15. Crux of a Core, Part 1 - addressing J Storrs Hall
    Jason Box, PhD from the Byrd polar research center, has as a blog here; - http://www.meltfactor.org/blog/?p=294 - showing the current 2010 greenland ice sheet temperature anomaly at 2.4 degrees above average. It's hardly good science to put in the current curve atop figure 1 for comparison, but no worse than slapping on the global trend for the same period. It would be intersting to see if some one could smooth the contemporary trend into the GISP2 curve to give a better idea where we're at currently. Failing that, getting his curve onto this site might be nice, at the very least.
  16. Dikran Marsupial at 21:58 PM on 26 February 2011
    2nd law of thermodynamics contradicts greenhouse theory
    Damobel@379 Rather than engaging in pedantry, please answer the question. You can call it transfer instead of flow if you like, it makes no difference to the argument, I;ll reword it for you: "O.K. so you agree that heat energy can be transferred from a cooler body to a warmer object? In this case heat energy is transferred from the cooler shell to the warmer inner body, although there is a greater transfer of heat in the other direction, and so the second law of thermodynamics isn't broken." Your financial analogy is incorrect, money is transferred in both directions. The net transfer would have been the same if you had just given me the $10 instead, but to understand the physics of the greenhouse effect the individual transfers are relevant, not just the net effect. To continue the analogy, consider two companies that trade with eachother, one buys $1M of services from the other, which then buys $999,999 of services from the first. If you are the IRS, would you accept the argument that the first company had only given the second $1? No, becuase in finance, just as in physics, the individual fluxes matter, not just the net flux.
  17. Dikran Marsupial at 21:44 PM on 26 February 2011
    Meet The Denominator
    Poptech sorry poptech, even your rhetoric is feeble. I point out that you are applying a double standard by refusing to accept arguments based on subjective information: "Whether a paper supports your personal skepticism of AGW alarm is entirely subjective" and you reply "Just like any papers that you would consider to implicitly supporting alarm." Yes, but it is you that is refusing to accept subjective information, not me, hence that doesn't excuse your double standard does it? *I don't reject your list for its subjectivity, but I do reject individual papers that are known to be incorrect, or individual papers where the text of the paper is inconsistent with your intepretation of the abstract, or where your reason for inclusion is a logical fallacy (for instance a paper showing there has been natural climate change in the past does not mean that the current climnate change is natural).
  18. Crux of a Core, Part 1 - addressing J Storrs Hall
    XPLAIN: It's should be no surprise that this site addresses that particular argument about a 21-year old report here.
  19. Miriam O'Brien (Sou) at 20:44 PM on 26 February 2011
    Crux of a Core, Part 1 - addressing J Storrs Hall
    It's ironic that people refer to scientific analysis (eg oxygen isotope ratios) and willingly accept that from this, temperature can be estimated (and then proceed to fabricate extended conclusions). Yet the same people say 'climate science is a fraud', or words to that effect. It shows that such people are not at all interested in furthering their knowledge. They only want to sift the information provided by scientists and pick out bits and pieces they can misuse to further their political ends. BTW, ice cores give researchers a lot of information, not just oxygen isotope ratios.
  20. Crux of a Core, Part 1 - addressing J Storrs Hall
    Thankyou Rob. nigelj: I struggle to see how anyone remotely intelligent, and presumeably Watts is intelligent, could blend a single local record with a global record and seriously present that as a scientific argument. You are quite right of course. I would expect nothing better from WUWT but it's difficult to explain why the IPCC did precisely this when they published Lamb's Central England data in their FAR.
  21. Crux of a Core, Part 1 - addressing J Storrs Hall
    I've read that Greenland is currently about 1/2 a degree cooler than the MWP (locally) -which agrees with Watts' graph- but that local climate conditions around Greenland have temporarily isolated the continent from about 1 degree of warming which remains in the pipeline as an inevitable consequence of warming of the northern hemisphere due to AGW. And of course, Greenland continues to warm. That's the real issue.
  22. Crux of a Core, Part 1 - addressing J Storrs Hall
    As i remember average temperature of last 10 years at Summit is about -28 C. 2010 was very warm with temperature -25 - -26 (from SYNOP reports).
  23. Prudent Risk
    The definition of "committed warming" is different from one scientist to another, and the difference is not a problem as far as we talk about the general situation. But when we include numerical values, we must be careful about the definition. If I remember correctly, Ramanathan and Fang discussed the equilibrium response of the atmosphere-ocean system to the constant greenhouse gas concentration at the current level. This is not a realistic scenario of the future but an idealized case for the sake of evaluation. Some others think that the case of zero-emission is more appropriate to be expressed as "committed warming". See, for example, "Climate Change Commitment II" at RealClimate (June 2010). Also the assumption about anthropogenic aerosols makes much difference, which was actually the main subject of Ramanathan's paper. I do not think that there is a unique right definitions of committed climate change and that the rest are wrong ones. I think that we always need to explain the definition we choose when we mention any numbers of its estimate.
  24. 2nd law of thermodynamics contradicts greenhouse theory
    Re #378 muoncounter You wrote:- "Are you willing to spend another hundred or more comments re-drawing the distinction between 'flow' vs. 'transfer'?" As I noted above 'heat flowing' is an outdated concept belonging to the caloric theory of heat. It is outdated because it was discovered that it didn't explain experimental results, so a better theory of heat was developed called thermodynamics. The attractions of the 'heat flowing' concept are very great, I fall for them myself occasionally but none the less lead to erronius results. My advice is to avoid the term to maintain scientific credibility.
  25. 2nd law of thermodynamics contradicts greenhouse theory
    Re #377 Dikran Marsupial You wrote:- "so you agree that heat energy can flow from a cooler body to a warmer object?" Flow in this connection is an outdated concept, it went out with the caloric theory of heat in the early 1800s. I admit to using the term sometimes but it is a mistake because energy is frequently transformed during thermodynamic interactions. Now look at it this way; I give you a $100 bill, you give me 9 $10 bills by way of change; which way is the money transfer? Who has the increased financial liquidity? Would the transfer have been significantly different had I just given you a $10 bill in the first place? The analogy is good because the money transaction can have different formats such as bank transfer. The similarity is remarkable because energy transfers can also have different formats e.g. compresing gas in a cylinder with a piston heats the gas because work is done on the gas by the piston; energy is transferred to the gas via the piston.
  26. Crux of a Core, Part 1 - addressing J Storrs Hall
    I struggle to see how anyone remotely intelligent, and presumeably Watts is intelligent, could blend a single local record with a global record and seriously present that as a scientific argument. Its a con job. There are two groups of people on this climate change issue. Only two groups. People who only care about making the most of now, and those who also care about the future and future generations. There could be a real reckoning on the whole issue.
  27. Motl-ey Cruel
    I believe skeptics, particularly scientist skeptics, should be encouraged to express the reasons for their skepticism and given every opportunity of defending their position. Attempts by the skeptic to impose censorship rather than argue their position merely confirms that their position is indefensible. What really surprises me is that some scientists, often distinguished in their own field, should put forward and cling to skeptical views on AGW and related issues. If a review of the literature shows their view is wrong, if they can not defend their position in argument or peer review, why would they cling to it? Doing so, or presenting a position which is based on partial, spurious, or tampered data (Plimer) amounts to intellectual dishonesty. For anyone but particularly a scientist, intellectual dishonesty is surely the worst of offences and to indulge in it so as to deliberately and knowingly mislead is both stupid and unforgivable. Maybe I’m too jugemental but I still can not understand why Dr Motl, a distinguished scientist would resort to gagging a critic rather than defend the position he has taken? Have others criticized him for his position on arguments put forward by Dana1981 and have they too been censored?
  28. Hockey Stick Own Goal
    I won't argue the trends. I simply took the difference between the running 30 year mean terminating in 1981 and in 2010 and divided by three to get a decadal trend. Very rough, but indicative. The 0.15 to 0.17 global trends in your graph only reinforce the point. The running 30 year interval is of the combined surface record from this site, and has a terminal year of 1979. The reason for that is that the SD rises rapidly to as high as 0.19 after 1979 because of the rapid rise in temperatures. The average taken over the whole surface record of the running 30 year intervals is 0.115, while the SD of the entire surface record is 0.135
  29. Climate sensitivity is low
    "You need to come good with a very good reason as to why you doubt the 3.7 w/m^2 figure" Agreed - I'm working on it. I really don't doubt the figure - just what the figure supposedly represents. I'm not getting any 'proof' here of anything, so I'm left to figure it out on my own.
  30. Climate sensitivity is low
    Tom, "if you already understand this then why are you asking a question which is almost nonsensical, and is certainly irrelevant, given that knowledge?" That is a very troubling question. It appears that if the 'answer' supplied can't be put into the exact format required, it's either alleged to be undocumented (when it actually was documented) or alleged to be unacceptable. Sadly, we've seen this drag on for hundreds of comments. How this rather elliptical debating process can be considered scientific eludes me.
    Moderator Response: [DB] Tamino has a new post up very "tangential" to those "elliptical" thinkers of whom you speak.
  31. Climate sensitivity is low
    RW1 @129, if you already understand this then why are you asking a question which is almost nonsensical, and is certainly irrelevant, given that knowledge? Your ask it again @130. However, it is irrelevant for all except the most abstruse studies. What concerns us it the total change in Outgoing IR Radiation, not the change at particular wave numbers. It is also very difficult to calculate independently. For each wave number effected, you would need to calculate the energy flows by radiation and convection/latent heat from the surface to the top of the atmosphere, including both upwards and downwards energy transfers. Line By Line models do in fact calculate exactly that for every wave number (or small band of wave numbers depending on their resolution), so if you were to ask a scientist who regularly dealt with LBL models, they would no doubt be able to find the information you seek. But unless you can show a very good reason why it matters, I see no reason to pander to your request, anymore than I would pander to a geocentrist's request to show the gravitational impact of Mount Everest on the moon's orbit. Given the very accurate prediction of LBL models as shown here, and the detailed discussion of that accuracy by Science of Dooom (linked by scaddenp @102 above) and the many quoted direct claims that the change in OLWR from a doubling in CO2 is 3.7 w/m^2, you have no reasonable basis to doubt that figure. You need to come good with a very good reason as to why you doubt the 3.7 w/m^2 figure, and as to why you persist in your obtuse question.
  32. Hockey Stick Own Goal
    "the trend in temperatures since 1980 is approx 0.12 degrees C per decade" Tamino's graph shows a slightly higher trend, as do the composite surface reconstructions put together by Ned back in July 2010. Northern hemisphere 30 year trends are 2-3 times these rates. "average standard deviation of the running 30 year interval over the instrumental period to 1979 is 0.103" Do you mean the satellite record since 1979? Or the surface record up to 1979; if so why stop in 1979? In either case, its a noisy signal; hence the rationale (as I read it) for Tamino's filtering process rather than a purely statistical trend removal.
  33. Hockey Stick Own Goal
    Muoncounter @124: Marcus: "is it fair to say that man-made forcings are now great enough to entirely swamp all natural forcings?" Muoncounter: "I think that is more than fair ..." To put it into context, the trend in temperatures since 1980 is approx 0.12 degrees C per decade (0.116 where underline indicates a recurring integer). For comparison, the average standard deviation of the running 30 year interval over the instrumental period to 1979 is 0.103, so temperature increase per annum is just over a tenth of the normal annual fluctuation in global mean temperatures. The fluctuation in regional mean temperatures is, of course, much larger so that at a regional level, annual variation is far more significant.
  34. Climate sensitivity is low
    I tried. I'm going to get to bottom of this. I'll be back when I know and can show the proof.
  35. Climate sensitivity is low
    RW1 - The reduction in the atmospheric window represents only a small portion of the 3.7 W/m^2, as Tom Curtis said. Sorry I don't have exact numbers, but (as I have a day job) I haven't put in a request for the HITRAN data. If you look at the actual spectra of top of atmosphere (TOA) emissions, you will see the GHG blocked bands: The baseline of around 225K (around 650 microns) in the first graph represents the lapse-rate cooled greenhouse gas emission at the altitude where the IR can actually reach space without being intercepted by more GHG's. The higher this goes, the cooler the gases, the lower the temperature for emission, the lower the bottom of that curve. And hence the lower the integrated power over the entire spectra. My question to you is: Why does it matter? What's the issue with the 'window' versus lowest temperature of fully intercepted bands? I'm genuinely curious, especially since you've been poking at that for some days now - why is the percentage involved in 'window' narrowing important relative to the total integrated power blocked by a doubling of CO2? Do you have an argument based upon 'window' size? The reason I ask is because I don't see why the distribution would be an issue - the total energy imbalance (change in emitted energy with doubled CO2) is what is important as a forcing, rather than exact spectral distribution (and I say that as someone who works with spectrometers all the time!).
  36. PMEL Carbon Program: a new resource
    Rob Painting... saying that it is my opinion that 'XYZ' is more likely caused by a major non-anthropogenic factor than a minor anthropogenic factor is not going out on a limb. It is like hearing hoof beats at a racetrack and looking for horses - you are looking for zebras... Please detail the critical flaw in my reasoning - as I have done for you. Note that I did not say that upwelling causes total ocean pH decrease (that would be a strawman) - I stated that local upwelling is the direct cause of the ill effects such as low pH stressed shellfish. I also went on to say that local CO2 concentration is a function of water temperature, with more CO2 in colder water. Also please take a look at the the change in CO2 for the CLIVAR Repeat Section P06 I think it will be revealing...
  37. Climate sensitivity is low
    Here is a question: If the 3.7 W/m^2 does not represent the reduction in the atmospheric window, then what is the reduction in the atmospheric window from 2xCO2?
  38. A detailed look at galactic cosmic rays
    DB, (or should I call you Spoon Boy?) Do not try to bend the spoon fix the italics tag — that's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth: there is no spoon italics tag.
    Moderator Response: [DB] Yes, Obi-Wan; this Padawan realized his error, adapted, improvised and overcame. Move along, go about your business now.
  39. Climate sensitivity is low
    Tom Curtis (RE: 125), "The combination of these two effects will reduce the total energy leaving the atmosphere by 3.7 w/m^2" Wonderful. Now please provide me the documentation for this. What you don't seem to understand is I already know this is what is being claimed - I don't need to you to tell me it's true.
  40. Climate sensitivity is low
    So the 3.7 W/m^2 does not represent the reduction in the atmospheric window, nor does it represent the incremental absorption?
  41. How We Know Recent Global Warming Is Not Natural
    Poptech@100 "make sure to read my rebuttal to his post which they do not want you to read." What are you talking about? fixtures23 is free to read whatever he likes. No one here can stop him though they may advise against it. As long as you post on topic and in a civil manner your comments will not be deleted.
  42. 2nd law of thermodynamics contradicts greenhouse theory
    DM, You should be aware that friend damorbel is on record against heat flow: "first off heat doesn't flow'; only fluids flow." A couple of hundred comments later comes "I have made a number of relevant arguments about the direction of heat transfer (hotter to colder)". Are you willing to spend another hundred or more comments re-drawing the distinction between 'flow' vs. 'transfer'?
  43. Hockey Stick Own Goal
    Marcus, "at least 1 major volcanic eruption" If you're referring to Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano, my understanding was that it wasn't a major climate-mover. Lots of dust, but not enough oomph (it was VEI 4, compared to Pinatubo's VEI 6 -- a logarithmic scale) to put it into the stratosphere. "is it fair to say that man-made forcings are now great enough to entirely swamp all natural forcings?" I think that is more than fair; a result elegantly shown by Tamino's analysis removing short term factors to find the core trend. . Tamino also shows separate graphs for volcanic, solar and MEI fluctuations removed from the temperature signal. And the forcing that is left driving the uptrend is ... you guessed it!
  44. How We Know Recent Global Warming Is Not Natural
    Poptech, fixtures23 has all the look of a bot. Do you agree with the position of fixtures23 regarding the science?
  45. Climate sensitivity is low
    Well, I am used to the more usual definition of power as rate of energy conversion. The GW usage just sounds so strange when used instead of energy flux. Mix it in with amplifier analogues and its a real recipe for confusion. There is a lot to said for accuracy ( though I know I am pot calling kettle black at times). On other hand, met anyone not acquainted with GW using power in this peculiar way when discussing radiative physics?
  46. Philippe Chantreau at 12:28 PM on 26 February 2011
    Meet The Denominator
    "I went through each paper to see if it supported my position." Either that is false or your reading comprehension fails to accomplish that goal. You acknowledged earlier that the Mavromichalaki paper did not support your position. Perhaps you should have said each paper but one; or perhaps most papers? How can we know? Trust you? When you just threw that one inaccurate statement for the sake of argument?
  47. Motl-ey Cruel
    "My suspicion is that Lubos Motl has a political ax to grind" ... Well, as a self-styled conservative physicist, I'd say it's a good bet. "conservative" relates to his politics, not to his physics - he's a string theorist, after all! :)
  48. Hockey Stick Own Goal
    Muon @ 121. It's true that 2010 is tied has hottest year ever recorded, yet it had a culmination of negative natural forcings (at least 1 major volcanic eruption, below average sun-spot number & a La Nina event) that should have made it *colder* than 2008. So, on that basis, is it fair to say that man-made forcings are now great enough to entirely swamp all natural forcings? Sorry if this is OT, but I'd be interested in your thoughts on this!
  49. CO2 limits will harm the economy
    Thingadonta, far more solar energy reaches the earth every year than can be used by our civilization. Therefore talking about conservation of energy is irrelevant. The cost of energy is important, and the direct cost of alternative energy is currently greater than the direct cost energy from fossil fuels. However, the indirect costs of fossil fuels are very large. Our society does not seem to care, because those costs will be paid for primarily by future generations rather than by us. Ignoring those direct costs will not cause future generations to thank us.
  50. CO2 limits will harm the economy
    Energy cannot be creatd or destroyed, except in the minds of those who advocate alternative energies. If something produces less energy than something else, it's going to cost more money to use it. It's not rocket science, and rockets will not get to the moon using wind energy.

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