Never believe studies published by the eco-socialists, that is.
John at Just Some Poor Schmuck pointed towards Bjorn Lomborg’s closer look at the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change.
Needless to say, the Stern Review is full of more shit than the compost bins after the Kentucky Derby.
The review is also one-sided, focusing almost exclusively on carbon-emission cuts as the solution to the problem of climate change. Mr. Stern sees increasing hurricane damage in the U.S. as a powerful argument for carbon controls. However, hurricane damage is increasing predominantly because there are more people with more goods to be damaged, settling in ever more risky habitats. Even if global warming does significantly increase the power of hurricanes, it is estimated that 95% to 98% of the increased damage will be due to demographics. The review acknowledges that simple initiatives like bracing and securing roof trusses and walls can cheaply reduce damage by more than 80%; yet its policy recommendations on expensive carbon reductions promise to cut the damages by 1% to 2% at best. That is a bad deal.
Mr. Stern is also selective, often seeming to cherry-pick statistics to fit an argument. This is demonstrated most clearly in the review’s examination of the social damage costs of CO2–essentially the environmental cost of emitting each extra ton of CO2. The most well-recognized climate economist in the world is probably Yale University’s William Nordhaus, whose “approach is perhaps closest in spirit to ours,” according to the Stern review. Mr. Nordhaus finds that the social cost of CO2 is $2.50 per ton. Mr. Stern, however, uses a figure of $85 per ton. Picking a rate even higher than the official U.K. estimates–that have themselves been criticized for being over the top–speaks volumes.
Further into the Lomborg’s review, we find that Nicholas Stern, the study’s author, suggests that, you guessed it, socialism needs to lord over corporations in order for any plan of Stern’s to be successful.
One more prophecy of the latest doomsday religion, The Church of Climate Change (formerly the Holy Global Cooling Monastary, and also formerly known as the House of Global Warming Worship).
A fine expose of lying with statistics. And where’s the peer review on this “study”?
Peer review would at least be useful for confirming or increasing the size of the enemies list.
Hey Phil, thanks fo rhte linkage. The “Global Warming” scam is one of my pet peeves, or at least it was until “John Carry” opened his smug condescending trap.
Have fun…and shoot something for me.