Quote:
Originally Posted by Puddleduck
Or maybe the GBR will just migrate south to find more favourable conditions?
|
The GBR won't migrate - but
coral growing currently in cooler waters will grow far better than it is today as a consequence of a warming climate change.
The earth is a very dynamic planet. Our continents float around in geologic time, our atmosphere changes.
It seems incontrovertible that humans, since the Industrial Revolution, have changed the composition of Earth's atmosphere. The start of widespread electrification in the 1930s-40s accelerated this process. With effective
lighting we could run facories round the clock.
Refrigeration needed to run 24/7/365. Time shifting around the circumference of the planet made sure that fossil fueled
power plants were always emitting CO2.
With very high levels of energy intensive, developed world living standards spreading throughout the planet, our civilizational CO2 output is increasing even more.
China itself has gone through human history's greatest economic transformation in only the last 35 years or so.
India, with even a slightly larger population is on the brink of a similar,
cheap energy driven transformation.
Our planet won't be destroyed by climate change. What is at risk is the present state of human civilization and our ability to grow enough
food for our ever increasing population.
The answer to AGW is not so much as shutting down the already developed nations economies (Chinese and Indian economic growth will make that meaningless) as much as it is to decrease and reverse population growth to a level that is sustainable.
No population growth control - no changing the desire of not quite haves to achieve what developed nation citizens have. Citizens of developed nations want to keep what they have.
One thing to consider - most developed nations already have negative population growth. The only growth in US population over the last 30-40 years has been by immigration. In comparison,
Japan which allows next to no immigration hasn't had population growth in decades - they just happen to have developed a lifestyle that allows long life. Russia's population is dropping because of high male mortality rates.