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| tom66:
--- Quote from: Zero999 on July 15, 2023, 11:29:15 am ---If the climate warms further, it will increase the amount of land which can be farmed, rather than reduce it. The panic about famines is unfounded. Higher temperatures means land which is too cold can be turned over to agriculture and a longer growing season, will enable a greater range of crops and more food to be grown within a year. Higher global temperatures result in increased global precipitation, so deserts will on average shrink, increasing the arable land further. --- End quote --- There's no shortage of agricultural land though, so I don't view this as a positive outcome even if it were true. The problem with global hunger is one of infrastructure rather than farming. If the rest of the world's agricultural land was as productive as the West is with its, we'd easily be able to support a 10bn+ population with no one in hunger. Even more so if you reduced food waste, the average person wastes a ridiculous amount. But if you can't get food to the deepest parts of, say, Somalia, because of war and conflict, people are going to starve regardless. --- Quote from: Zero999 on July 15, 2023, 11:29:15 am ---Of course we should be careful about how our actions affect the environment, but we need to avoid policies which will over-react and adversely affect economic growth. The health of the general population is linked to economic wealth. Richer countries have longer life expectancies and the death rate always increases after an economic downturn. --- End quote --- Agreed, in general. The biggest issue with the climate change activists is they intersect very strongly with the anti-capitalists. There is a way to solve the problems of climate change and maintain our way of life, but it requires action now and not later. That is hard, but not impossible, to do with capitalism still in place. The idea that replacing capitalism with anything else would solve our problems is absolutely bonkers - especially given it essentially means that everyone agrees to significantly reduce their standard of living. Not happening in any democracy. It's one of the reasons I'm constantly frustrated by statistics like "Apple pollutes X% of global emissions" ... without anyone apparently acknowledging that they, the consumer, bought a thing and caused that pollution. |
| Marco:
Curbing emissions is simply something interesting to do while the wall of peak everything and demographics looms. Emissions are at least a tractable problem and the renewable solutions technologically much more interesting to me than the nuclear one. Either way, only AI can save us now. Singularity or bust. |
| AVGresponding:
--- Quote from: Zero999 on July 15, 2023, 11:29:15 am --- --- Quote from: nctnico on July 15, 2023, 10:15:58 am --- --- Quote from: tom66 on July 15, 2023, 08:23:35 am ---Fertiliser technology, greater agronomist understanding and automation in agriculture (one farmer can do so much more) surely also has a significant impact on crop yields. --- End quote --- Very true. Most of the agricultural land is not used to the maximum yield that can be obtained due to inefficient / archaic farming. --- End quote --- If the climate warms further, it will increase the amount of land which can be farmed, rather than reduce it. The panic about famines is unfounded. Higher temperatures means land which is too cold can be turned over to agriculture and a longer growing season, will enable a greater range of crops and more food to be grown within a year. Higher global temperatures result in increased global precipitation, so deserts will on average shrink, increasing the arable land further. Of course we should be careful about how our actions affect the environment, but we need to avoid policies which will over-react and adversely affect economic growth. The health of the general population is linked to economic wealth. Richer countries have longer life expectancies and the death rate always increases after an economic downturn. --- End quote --- An increase in global precipitation is irrelevant, if it doesn't happen where and when you want it to, and it won't. |
| vad:
--- Quote from: Siwastaja on July 15, 2023, 05:24:07 am ---Still, burning fossil fuels when better alternatives are available is extremely stupid, and playing around with the climate is a colossally bad idea exactly because of the we don't know for sure factor. --- End quote --- I beg your pardon, what better alternatives can replace fossil fuels now and in the foreseeable future? The world's total energy production was 617 EJ in 2019, increasing at a 2% annual rate. Fossil fuels accounted for more than 81% of production in 2019, as in previous years (source: IEA, https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-balances-overview/world). All hydro, nuclear, biofuels, wind, solar, and geothermal combined amounted to less than 19% combined, and the 80/20 ratio has been stagnating for years. P.S. Please note that this is total energy production, including liquid fuels for transport, and not just electric generation. |
| Marco:
When there is a gun to your head, better is not getting shot. |
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