ChemEngineer
Diamond Member
- Feb 5, 2019
- 6,079
- 5,875
- 1,940
False Alarm
By Bjorn Lomborg
2020
Basic Books, New York
Page 27 In 2006, Al Gore estimated that unless drastic measures to reduce greenhouse gases were taken within ten years, the world would reach a point of no return.By Bjorn Lomborg
2020
Basic Books, New York
But we can go back even further. In 1969, the head of the UN Environmental Program declared we had just three years to “win – or lose- the climate struggle.”
“… a threat potentially more catastrophic than any other in human history…”
Page 28 …in the last 200 years, tuberculosis has killed about a billion people.
Science News had a 1975 cover showing glaciers overwhelming the New York City skyline. Time Magazine published the story, “Another Ice Age” in 1974, suggesting that “the telltale signs are everywhere.”
Page 29 Oil was supposed to run out in 1990 according to these thinkers, and natural gas in 1992, but our reserves for both are larger today than in 1970…
Page 52 …the biggest ever study of heat and cold… found that heat caused almost 0.5% of all deaths, but more than 7% of all deaths were caused by cold…..
Page 53.. the massive Lancet study… more than 140,000 died each year from the heat each year, and more than 2,000,000 from the cold….
…moderate cold kills an astounding 580,000 each year….
Page 55 Global warming is causing an unprecedented greening of the world, which scientists have been slow to recognize.
… over the past three decades, upward of half the world’s vegetated area is getting greener, whereas only 4% is browning. The overwhelming cause of global warming greening is carbon dioxide fertilization.
… global greening over the past thirty-five years has increased the leaves on plants and trees equivalent in area to two times the continental United States.
Page 57 The only robust scientific finding is that warmer weather leads to less fighting (wars).
Page 62 … on a planetary level, the earth isn’t experiencing more drought.
…. the United States’ own climate assessment tells you that drought has decreased, not increased.
… globally the number of consecutive dry days has been declining for the past ninety years.
Page 66…. Flooding takes far less of a toll than it did a century ago.
Page 67 In total, the global amount of area burned has declined more than 540,000 square miles, from 1.9 million square miles in the early part of the last century to 1.4 million square miles today.
Page 89 Since 1992, humanity has emitted more carbon dioxide than in all history before then.
Emissions will likely keep increasing in the coming decades, as more poor countries clamber out of poverty.
Page 90 Asked what action he would take to prevent global warming, David Attenborough once promised to unplug his mobile phone charger when not in use. (Chargers cannot use any electricity when they are not charging!)
Page 91 …“rebound effect.” When we save some cash by being more efficient, we spend the savings elsewhere in ways that lead to more emissions.
Page 105 In the poor world… people want much more energy at lower cost, not fickle power at high cost.
Page 109 … in 2018 the UN Secretary General said the world would gain “at least $26 trillion in benefits from strong climate action….. (A year and a half later, the report has not been made available.)
Page 110 A 2018 Global Sachs report… shows that the infrastructure for electric cars would cost an astronomical 8% of global GDP….
