Washington Post: Why We Can't (And Won't) Stop Global Warming
Robert Samuelson, writing in the Washington Post on July 5 -- Global Warming's Real Inconvenient Truth -- harkens back to an earlier column - from 1997 - and points out that the problem with solving Global Warming is two-fold:
First, we don't know what to do.
Second, it is politically dangerous to suggest the stop-gap measures such as energy rationing that limit economic growth and personal freedom.
His piece concludes with the ultra-reasonable sounding conclusion:
Only an aggressive research and development program might find ways of breaking our dependence on fossil fuels or dealing with it. Perhaps some system could purge the atmosphere of surplus greenhouse gases?
The trouble with the global warming debate is that it has become a moral crusade when it's really an engineering problem. The inconvenient truth is that if we don't solve the engineering problem, we're helpless.
First, we don't know what to do.
Second, it is politically dangerous to suggest the stop-gap measures such as energy rationing that limit economic growth and personal freedom.
His piece concludes with the ultra-reasonable sounding conclusion:
Only an aggressive research and development program might find ways of breaking our dependence on fossil fuels or dealing with it. Perhaps some system could purge the atmosphere of surplus greenhouse gases?
The trouble with the global warming debate is that it has become a moral crusade when it's really an engineering problem. The inconvenient truth is that if we don't solve the engineering problem, we're helpless.
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