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 Bloomberg: Climate Threat Deadlier Than TerrorismPosted on Feb 12, 2008Although some politicians and media pundits who lean toward the right of the political spectrum regard global warming as an overhyped pet issue that mostly gets liberals hot under the collar, New York City mayor and media baron Mike Bloomberg (who’s moved around quite a bit on said spectrum) suggests that it is potentially much worse than the threat of terrorism. He made the comment Monday at a U.N. climate change conference.
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By Ed, February 13 at 10:21 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
CO2 emissions caused by human activity is the most important problem facing the planet today. Since it’s impossible to reduce CO2 emissions immediately, we’ve already reached the point where polar bears will become extinct in the wild, mountain glaciers will disappear and the Arctic will be ice-free in the summer.
Fresh water is going to become an even more scarce resource. Crop cultivation belts will shift (and may shrink). A significant percent of species will go extinct.
Any person who does not see this is ignorant or foolish.
Report thisBy Aegrus, February 13 at 6:21 am #
Amen, JS.
We have to start the change in American culture, and culture around the world, to waste less. Sustainable economy, sustainable agriculture and efficiency are the lifeblood of civilization. We’re either going to fall right on our faces, or we can rise to do what is in our species’ interest to do.
Report thisBy Fadel Abdallah, February 12 at 7:00 pm #
When Bloomberg talks, then we better listen; for, after all, he speaks backed by his big money. As a big capitalist, he knows what threatens his long-term wealth most and I happen to partially agree.
But then I might add that no terrorism, no global warming, no economic recession can be as evil and destructive as eight years of Bush’s and gang rule. We have not seen as yet the devastating effects of their evil legacy.
Report thisBy PatrickHenry, February 12 at 4:24 pm #
Global warming is cyclical like global cooling. Cutting harmful emissions makes sense especially when it gets worse by the day as the world gets more “industrialized”. Trust a politician to come up with a new tax.
We can’t go through life worring that a boogyman terrorist is lurking around the next corner.
I think TPTB have worn out the word “terrorist”, criminal is better.
Report thisBy jackpine savage, February 12 at 4:09 pm #
When Al Gore accepted the Nobel Prize, he used the metaphor of a fever to describe global warming. Let’s take that metaphor to its logical conclusion. A fever is a symptom. The patient may in fact die if the fever is not reduced, but it is also possible to reduce the fever without curing the disease/infection that caused the fever. In this case, the patient may still die...just not from the fever.
Global Warming is a symptom, it is not the disease.
The disease is waste, which stems from inefficiency. We currently gauge efficiency almost completely in terms of economics. That is, an industry/concern is efficient if it produces something at a much smaller cost than it can sell that something for.
If, however, we measure out industry in terms of resource inputs and waste outputs, it is generally no more than 20% efficient. This is our real problem, and it begets our problem with global warming.
Now, i am not saying that we should ignore global warming or that it doesn’t exist. I’m suggesting that we should treat the disease, not the symptom.
One way to do this would be to tax resources and waste rather than profit. It would also help if industry were not allowed to externalize so many costs in order to remain profitable. We might also require (as the Europeans do) full life cycle analysis for products.
Currently, European cars must be 85% recyclable, and the manufacturer is responsible for the recycling. This leads to better design, which is an excellent way to attack the problem of waste. It would also help to design so that the waste output of one process forms the resource input of another process.
In other words, if we want to solve this problem, our best bet is to model our industrial activity on Nature...there is no such thing as waste in Nature.
*The other important factor is decentralization of everything from our food production to our energy generating to as much industry as we can.
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