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A comment on Global Warming's Terrifying New Math.

Re:Global Warming's Terrifying New Math by iwwr on Friday September 21, 2012 @06:13AM (#4553106)
What about the economic feedback effects? By a deliberate policy of expensive energy, along with massive subsidies to unsustainable industries (see: biofuels, windmills) there is a net creation of poverty. If we look at the consequences of global warming, it's going to strike mostly in the poverty-stricken areas of the world. By denying economic development to those regions and by making it difficult for the developed world to grow further, we are condemning many people to avoidable misery.

Note that we're not talking about pollution that causes direct health problems (an often conflated issue in the environmentalist message today).

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Global Warming's Terrifying New Math by lolcraft on Friday September 21, 2012 @07:31AM (#4553283)
Today's first-world sub-economy is not limited by total energy output, but by consumer demand and private credit. Furthermore, production of high-energy products would be moved towards underdeveloped countries that aren't on the Annex I of the Kyoto Protocol: that is, countries that don't have any restrictions yet on their maximum CO2 output.

Yeah, non-Annex I countries would be screwed if they tried to export energy to developed countries. That could be one way it could backfire, I guess. Given our demand for petrol, the upcoming demand for coal in under-developed countries once we move our primary and secondary economies there, and the traditional "resource curse", I would argue they should worry about other, more interesting things, like corruption.

You don't convince me. Also, please explain what this "net creation of poverty" means.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Global Warming's Terrifying New Math by 7952 on Friday September 21, 2012 @07:51AM (#4553340)
How exactly is economic development being denied?

Certainly China is not held back by concerns of CO2 emissions. Growth of coal fired power stations and the associated health impacts are well known. China also has the largest wind energy sector in the world.

[ Parent | on HN ]