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Re:Five Pacific islands disappear as sea levels rise by hueving on Tuesday May 10, 2016 @11:00PM (#11672384)
Capping CO2 comes at an energy cost. If it were true that CO2 had no impact on the environment, we would be putting an undue burden on developing countries and low-income people in general. Even if the richer countries subsidize the poorer countries, that's money that could be spent towards other research.

Nearly every person who argues against global warming research is doing it because of this. They think we are making sacrifices for no purpose. If eliminating CO2 emissions came at no cost, there would be almost no debate at all because the majority of the people who didn't believe in the effects of CO2 wouldn't care.

Re:Five Pacific islands disappear as sea levels rise by whitneyrzoller on Wednesday May 11, 2016 @12:02AM (#11672576)
Not sure what you mean by "Capping"; if you mean "reducing" (CO2 emissions) then I'd disagree: my choice to ride a bike to work rather than drive comes at an energy savings not cost. Not that it matter anyways, folks will re-invest that savings on some garbage on Amazon that they'll have shipped same-day on prime.
Re:Five Pacific islands disappear as sea levels rise by hueving on Wednesday May 11, 2016 @12:59AM (#11672737)
>Not sure what you mean by "Capping";

Regulatory limits on CO2 emissions - "cap and trade".

>my choice to ride a bike to work rather than drive comes at an energy savings not cost.

Most people in the US cannot ride their bike to work, and it's not because they are overweight. About half the people commute > 10 miles, which is not reasonable for a daily bike commute in <40F weather, and even when it's warmer that's a miserable amount of time to be forced to commute every day. This also ignores people that need to pickup/dropoff kids.

So people will not choose to give up driving because the alternatives suck. It would have to be forced. Otherwise they would be riding their bikes now.

Re:Five Pacific islands disappear as sea levels rise by whitneyrzoller on Wednesday May 11, 2016 @07:30PM (#11680239)
I know most can't do it but this is essentially the argument for higher density communities, enabling walking/riding to go to work and run errands. It is the reason why NYC's carbon footprint is so small (and conversely why the suburbs surrounding NYC have such a large CO2 footprint).
Re:Five Pacific islands disappear as sea levels rise by hueving on Thursday May 12, 2016 @02:59AM (#11681843)
Most of the population can't afford to live in high density cities - at least not at the cost in the US to build high density. Compare the cost of a 2/3 bedroom apartment in NYC (to house the average family size) to the average income in the US.
Re:Five Pacific islands disappear as sea levels rise by wtbob on Wednesday May 11, 2016 @01:30AM (#11672818)
> my choice to ride a bike to work rather than drive comes at an energy savings not cost

Presumably your time is worth money. There's your cost. Not that a car is costless, of course!

Re:Five Pacific islands disappear as sea levels rise by whitneyrzoller on Wednesday May 11, 2016 @07:24PM (#11680209)
I live in NYC so riding a bike is cheaper wrt time than driving a car. It also doubles as exercise whereas driving doubles as rage propellant.
Re:Five Pacific islands disappear as sea levels rise by danieltillett on Wednesday May 11, 2016 @12:49AM (#11672711)
This is just explaining why someone might choose to reject any evidence, not what would change your mind. Is there no evidence that if observed would convince you climate change was human caused?
Re:Five Pacific islands disappear as sea levels rise by hueving on Wednesday May 11, 2016 @01:02AM (#11672752)
Please read the comment I replied to. I was pointing out that the underlying premise of that cartoon is silly and it would have little impact on skeptics because it completely misses the point.

>not what would change your mind.

I didn't say I was denying global warming. I was pointing out the strawman the cartoon builds up and then ridicules.

Re:Five Pacific islands disappear as sea levels rise by Qantourisc on Wednesday May 11, 2016 @02:47AM (#11673089)
If you have CO2 your burned something. And I doubt is was pure carbon you burned so your burned more. So now we have pollution. Cutting CO2 also cuts on pollution.
Re:Five Pacific islands disappear as sea levels rise by hueving on Wednesday May 11, 2016 @03:44AM (#11673344)
That's fine, but if CO2 didn't cause problems and we wanted to reduce pollution, do it directly, not indirectly because indirect regulation almost always leads to screwed up incentives. (e.g. finding something that produces almost no CO2 as a side effect but tons of other pollutants).

It's like banning Coca-Cola to reduce cavities so everyone just switches to Pepsi.