About-face: Former climate change skeptic now says global warming is man-made Other Topics, posted by POGO, a resident of the Woodside: other neighborhood, on Jul 31, 2012 at 10:31 am
This is actually pretty big news.
One of the biggest climate change skeptics announced over the weekend that his much-publicized investigation into climate data has found that humans' production of carbon dioxide is causing the world to slowly warm up. And this process could speed up dramatically in the coming years.
VERY big news, which has caused me to reconsider my position (not that climate change exists, but man's contribution).
Posted by Alfred E Newman, a resident of the Atherton: Lindenwood neighborhood, on Jul 31, 2012 at 11:32 am
Pogo: agreed. Heard him interviewed last night and found the story significant, but was quite encouraged about his support for a fix.
To paraphrase, he believes the worst is yet to come, therefore we CAN make an impact. He is encouraged by the possibility of conservation and alternatives. He's quite encouraged by natural gas being a short term part of the solution, as NG contributes 1/3 of the carbon as coal.
I didn't realize that part of the equation. That's huge.
The best news, imho? That's all existing technology, which will only have the price driven down further by implementation on a broad scale.
And the US is chock full of gas. He used a lovely term - "greentracking" - to get it out more cleanly than existing fracking, along with other improvements.
Posted by Alfred E Newman, a resident of the Atherton: Lindenwood neighborhood, on Jul 31, 2012 at 3:20 pm
Pogo: my clock is fine, it's obviously yours that is broken.
/wink
At the risk of threadjack preparation for the zealots, nuclear is just too expensive over the COMPLETE life of the plant and it's residual. With the kind of subsidies put into nuclear (insurance, construction, fuel costs and contamination, plant shutdown and clean up, etc..) we can drive down the price of a host of alternative sources. That said, I'm less opposed to expensive nukes than coal.
Obviously, I wouldn't be welcome in West Virginia.
Posted by POGO, a resident of the Woodside: other neighborhood, on Jul 31, 2012 at 4:17 pm
Yes, coal is dirty. Even the clean plants are pretty dirty.
With regard to nuclear, I favor the way the French (oh the horror) have implemented it with their cookie cutter approach. Develop a single design for all plants that is acceptable on a FEDERAL level - regardless of which company builds it. That plan is acceptable and immune to challenge by any entity. A person qualified one plant can easily work in another plant.
For now, natural gas will have to do. I propose every government vehicle be on it within 2 years to get us off to a good start.
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