Forbes: Let's Be "Rich, Fat & Happy As We Can" To Face Global Meltdown - It's Inevitable Anyway

[hatrack]

EDIT

So, given that it’s going to happen whatever we do what effort should we be expending to try and stop it happening, what should we be doing? The answers to those two questions being none and nothing. If it’s going to happen anyway then we shouldn’t waste resources in trying to stop it happening.

Now, if the original claim was that without immediate and stringent action then it might happen then perhaps more action might be logically supportable. But given that the claim is actually that whatever we do it’s going to happen then the correct decision is simply to shrug our shoulders and go invest in some sandbags to keep back the floods. For however much we impoverish ourselves by killing off industrial society, or by razing all the coal fired stations to build more expensive solar installations, that flooding is going to happen anyway. So, why make ourselves poorer in order to change nothing?

As I say, the policy prescriptions you can get from these descriptions of climate change can change quite alarmingly depending upon whether you view them through the lens of economics or not. If it’s inevitable that past emissions will raise sea levels four feet then there’s no point at all in limiting current emissions to prevent that four foot rise. We might as well face the floods being as rich, fat and happy as we can, without wasting resources on trying to prevent something inevitable.

It is only if continuing emissions are going to lead to something more, something else possibly worse, happening that there’s any economic case at all for limiting them. As it happens I think that there are worse things that might happen and that there is a very good case indeed for limiting future emissions. But this finding, that West Antarctica is going to melt no matter what just isn’t a valid reason to limit future emissions. The damage is already done, see?

EDIT

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2014/05/13/if-antarctic-melting-has-passed-the-point-of-no-return-we-should-do-less-about-climate-change-not-more/

[Downwinder]

1. You are going to die anyway so why go to a Doctor and delay the issue?

[enough]

2. He says do nothing and then says "there is a very good case indeed for limiting future emissions."

Which is it?

Continuing with business as usual is not doing nothing. Business as usual is doing A LOT, expending a lot of energy, money, and resources, to make matters worse.

[tularetom]

3. Who couldn't see THAT coming?

Deny, deny, deny, and then deny some more. In spite of all the evidence, keep denying and keep on doing the things that make it worse.

Finally, when they can no longer ignore the evidence, throw up your hands and say, well, too late to stop it now, might as well just keep doing what we've always done.

[pscot]

4. The human mind is a fearful and wonderful thing

We go from "nothing to see here" to "nothing we can do about it" without even blinking.

[bettydavis]

5. why stop there?

By that logic If I'm broke and I'm gonna drown anyway, why shouldn't I go on a killing spree on the upper east side and move myself into a beautiful townhouse and go out with a bang? After that I could go down to Pier 7 and shoot anyone on the luxury yacht I want to take for a spin. Or maybe just settle some old scores for fun. If it truly is the end of the world, we should all go hog wild!

[Nihil]

6. More evidence that economists should not be allowed near policy-makers (or mass media).

The best rebuttal is in one of the first comments:
>> Your lunatic opinions just prove how morally bankrupt and unsustainable
>> American capitalism has become.

(That was a verbatim quote: Please note that it applies to all flavours, not just "American".)


> We might as well face the floods being as rich, fat and happy as we can,
> without wasting resources on trying to prevent something inevitable.

There is a lot to be recommended for extreme solutions to "not wasting resources".

I would suggest rounding up such "rich, fat and happy" people who have that particular
mindset, rendering the fat for candles, processing the protein into Soylent Green and
recovering the phosphates & minerals from their bones & offal for fertilizer.

It wouldn't make me either rich or fat but it would make me a damn sight happier
than having to read such tripe from people given major influencing media pulpits
from which they peddle their screeds of selfish denial.