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Democracy and the Long View
They are, of course, famously incompatible.

That said, there is an argument in favor of self-interested First World countries moving as rapidly as possible towards a lower carbon footprint. On the one hand, they're the ones with the most to lose from rising sea levels simply because they have so much invested in coastal areas.

Another point, though, is a simple competitive move for our grandchildren. There will never be more fossil fuel in the world than there is now, and the demand is rising. Moving away from fossil-carbon based economies as other countries move to them is going to be a significant competitive advantage in approximately the same timeframe required for power plant construction (which is on the order of twenty years regardless of plant type.)

In fact, since many renewable power types tend to be smaller and more distributed, they can be deployed with less lead time than major fossil or nuclear plants can, which both improves their ROI and increases their flexibility in changing conditions.

All of this is part of the reason why I consider anthropogenic global warming to be a somewhat moot point. At best it's useful for persuading people to adopt otherwise sound policies, but sound policy choices point in the same direction regardless of AGW.
Posted by: Yagotta B. Kidding   Posted on: 09/25/08 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
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Democracy and the Long View  Yagotta B. Kidding | 09/25/08
RE: Should engineers fix climate change?  tburzio | 09/25/08
RE: Should engineers fix climate change?  Monosdeja | 09/25/08
Global warming is fraudulent science mixed with...  techboy_z | 09/25/08
Plants convert CO2 into O2  fr0thy2 | 09/26/08
Also  rparker009 | 09/26/08
very true  dmennie | 09/26/08
Joe's "mark 4 variant" sounds really bogus  hummingfrog | 09/25/08
Excuse me, but, moving waves have energy in them like blowing wind. This  DonnieBoy | 09/25/08
Clean miss, Donnie  Yagotta B. Kidding | 09/25/08
Not exactly true. With ice cover, you reflect 90% of the sun, WITHOUT ice  DonnieBoy | 09/25/08
Entropy is not heat  cd2_z | 09/26/08
RE: Should engineers fix climate change?  albeit | 09/26/08
Ok, let me have that nickel a gallon.. For I have such a device.  rparker009 | 09/26/08
I could do it right now.  Dr_Zinj | 09/26/08
As we are at the end of the current interglacial period...  Letophoro | 09/26/08
YOu lost credibility with me with  rpwillia0@... | 09/26/08
RE: Should engineers fix climate change?  jjbiener@... | 09/26/08
Perhaps we are not to blame...  mmfiore@... | 09/26/08
Re: Perhaps...  jjbiener@... | 09/26/08
RE: Should engineers fix climate change?  shadfurman | 09/26/08
RE: Should engineers fix climate change?  RY82AN | 09/26/08
First, invest in a spell checker  riredale | 09/27/08
RE: Should engineers fix climate change?  hoffmann367@... | 09/28/08

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