More Jerry Pournelle on Climate Change
9th December 2009
Meanwhile, assume that rising CO2 levels are undesirable. I say assume, because CO2 level have certainly been higher in the past, and there are some reasons to welcome increased CO2 — plants love it, as an example. There is no particular reason to assume that the levels that prevailed when we began CO2 measurements are “better” in some sense than the somewhat higher ones of today. It may be that today’s are “too high”, but I haven’t seen any detailed analysis of why that is so, or of what the optimum might be. I haven’t seen much discussion of just what “optimum” is, nor of what the “optimum” temperature of the Earth might be. Optimum for what? And for whom?
But you may be sure they are not discussing such measures in Copenhagen as they use up all the limousines in Denmark. What’s at stake in Copenhagen has little to do with achievable CO2 levels, or real temperatures. What’s at stake is control. If the EPA can assert that CO2 is a public health threat, they can assert anything; and if you believe that breathing in a few more parts per million of CO2 is dangerous to your health, you will believe anything. And so it goes.