Opinion: How to live with climate change
By Bjorn Lomborg
One of the scarier predictions about global warming is the suggestion that melting glaciers and ice caps could cause sea levels to rise as much as 15 to 20 feet over the next century. Set aside the fact that the best research we have — from the United Nations climate panel — says that global sea levels are not likely to rise more than about 20 inches by 2100. Rather, let’s imagine that over the next 80 or 90 years, a giant port city — say, Tokyo — found itself engulfed by a sea-level rise of about 15 feet. Millions of inhabitants would be imperiled, along with trillions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure. Without a vast global effort, could we cope with such a terrifying catastrophe? Well, we already have. In fact, we’re doing it right now.
Since 1930, excessive ground water withdrawal has caused Tokyo to subside by as much as 15 feet. Similar subsidence has occurred over the past century in numerous cities, including Tianjin, Shanghai, Osaka, Bangkok and Jakarta. And in each case, the city has managed to protect itself from such large relative sea-level rises without much difficulty.
The process is called adaptation, and it’s something we humans are very good at. That isn’t surprising, since we’ve been doing it for millennia. As climate economist Richard Tol notes, our ability to adapt to widely varying climates explains how people live happily at both the equator and the poles. In the debate over global warming, in which some have argued that civilization as we know it is at stake, this is an important point. Humankind is not completely at the mercy of nature. To the contrary, when it comes to dealing with the impact of climate change, we’ve compiled a pretty impressive track record. While this doesn’t mean we can afford to ignore climate change, it provides a powerful reason not to panic about it either.
Bjorn Lomborg is head of the Copenhagen Consensus Center and an adjunct professor at Copenhagen Business School. He is the author of “The Skeptical Environmentalist” and “Cool It” and the subject of the movie “Cool It.”
If you were to believe the sea level rise predicted by global warming nuts all you have to do as a test is take a glass of water put all the ice cubes it will hold and let it sit according to the global warming nuts it would over flow and we all know that wont happen. it would be better to put a little gin and tonic in the glass and sit back and relax.
I’ll join you,but I’ll have a Mango Martini!
let it melt,mother nature big enough to take care of herself.
Excellent solution!!! One of the most intelligent responses to date. Count me in!!!
A cocktail sounds good, in the meantime, put a cone shaped coffee filter filled with ice on top of a cup of water and watch the level rise as the ice melts. Or you could put your head in the sand like the last president did when told something opposite of the ” facts ” given to him by the ” scientists ” funded by the oil, gas, and coal industries.
David…. what about all of the ice that is on land… that would not be subject to the decrease in volume due to the phase change of water?
Laughable.
Definition of a right wing environmental wacko some one who thinks he can predict what will happen a thousand years from now but has not got a clue about tomorrow
“right wing environmental wacko”?
That’s a new one on me.
Dogwoman you are correct right wing and wacko do not go together
No, I tend to believe it’s environmental and right wing that don’t go together.