GOP Hinders Defence Planning

[dre]

It sure does. Agree completely.

Even the different stages of denial are similar.

1. Stage 1 - Deny the risk entirely (for climate change we actually went through a decade of people flat out denying the readings from thermometres)

2. Stage 2 - Acknowledge the risk but attribute it to other things.

3. Stage 3 - Accept the risk and the cause but loudly proclaim that nothing can be done.

4. Stage 4 - Loudly claim that any attempts to mitigate the risk will result in the sudden death of everyone (the economy will collapse!!!)

[WestCoastRunner]

Even the different stages of denial are similar.

1. Stage 1 - Deny the risk entirely (for climate change we actually went through a decade of people flat out denying the readings from thermometres)

2. Stage 2 - Acknowledge the risk but attribute it to other things.

3. Stage 3 - Accept the risk and the cause but loudly proclaim that nothing can be done.

4. Stage 4 - Loudly claim that any attempts to mitigate the risk will result in the sudden death of everyone (the economy will collapse!!!)

I'm curious. Did the tobacco industry ever get successfully sued?

[TimG]

Maybe... but the climate change argument sounds an awful lot like the tobacco cancer argument did in the past.

Not really. You see no one seriously questions whether CO2 causes warming. The debate is really about what policies, if any, are required to deal with the issue. To compare it to the tobacco debate it would be between people who thought tobacco should be outlawed (alarmists) and people who thought that people should be free to make their own choices (skeptics) even if they potentially have negative consequences. But even then the comparison does not really fit because tobacco is a option - no one needs it to live. CO2 emissions on the other hand are essential to our society so the demands of the alarmists come with huge costs and it is perfectly reasonable to question whether those costs are worthwhile.

Perhaps another way to look is it:

Alarmists are people who claim that the only way to deal with smoking induced lung cancer is to amputate a persons arms despite the fact that no has ever died from lung cancer and it is not clear that it will actually be bad. Skeptics are people saying that amputation is ridiculous thing to do because we have no real world evidence that it is actually a problem and, on top of that, there is no reason to believe that amputation will actually address the stated problem.

Edited July 5, 2016 by TimG

[TimG]

Even the different stages of denial are similar.

The stages of alarmist denial look this:

Stage 1: Insist the world will end of CO2 is not stopped;

Stage 2: When warming does not proceed as fast as claimed insist that people are lying;

Stage 3: Accept that the data does not support the claims and grudgingly admit the skeptics were right;

Stage 4: Give up and start looking for a new cause to be a vehicle for political ambitions.

[Guest]

The 18 US Atlantic and Gulf coast naval bases currently experience an average of ten floods per year, but the DOD is expecting they will be inundated with water an average of 260 days per year in 30 years time. These bases will have to raise all electrical systems, build flood walls, install pumps, canals, etc. and will still lose significant portions of their land. The DOD has called anthropogenic climate change a serious threat to national security, yet the current Republican controlled congress has interfered with their ability to plan for the identified threats....and all for campaign donation funds. sick.

East And Gulf Coast Military Bases Are Seriously Facing The Rising Threat Of Climate Change

Edited July 28, 2016 by Guest

[TimG]

The 18 US Atlantic and Gulf coast naval bases currently experience an average of ten floods per year, but the DOD is expecting they wil be inundated with water an average of 260 days per year in 30 years time.

Current SLR is about 3mm/year on the east coast. In 100 years that adds up to about 1ft. A rise that can be managed by increasing diking. It is also happening so slowly that existing buildings will need to be replaced before it is a concern. Of course looking at existing trends is not enough for alarmists. They have to use "computer models" to predict exponential acceleration in SLR. But the computer model predictions are no better than economist predictions of economy in 2018 yet it is those purely speculative predictions that the USC report was based on. Looks like some generals are looking for an excuse to get funding.

It is worth noting that the Dutch government has a vested interest in rational and plausible SLR predictions and the Dutch government report into the status of their sea walls is that SLR would be slow enough that they could afford to address the issue during the normal maintenance cycle for their sea walls.

Edited July 28, 2016 by TimG