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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Climate Science For The Tea Party

We have had 14 weather events whose effects have cost over a billion dollars each in 2012.

The biggest problem understanding the science of historical climatology is the mere fact that most weather events studied in the ancient epochs of the Earth do not have a dollar value connected to them. For example, the Huron ice age of 2.4 billion years ago was quite a vast bit of business, but it has no dollar amount by which we may visualize it.

I mean, imagine trying to go to the movies without the TV news constantly blatting at you which film grossed how much over the past weekend; it would be quite impossible.

So too climate. All this chit-chat and blather about CO2 and acidification of the oceans and destruction of coral reefs, and the finger-wagging of scientists, going "Tsk, tsk! You'll be sorry!" is all well and good, but what we really need is how many sawbucks are flushed away in a flood... to coin a phrase.

Stop talking about increases of 2 degrees Celsius, and get down to brass tacks, shekels, and pesetas: it is not Climate Small Change, but Climate Big Bucks:  the climate is about to do its own capitalistic "creative destruction".
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