Global Warming's New Math

[Rich]

Is humanity even worth saving? I'm ever wavering

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 22, 2012, at 9:40 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> We've (are) lost.  New Orleans and the rest of the world's coastal cities are Atlantas's.  And bye bye to countless species.
> 
> The 20th/21st Centuries won't be fondly remembered.
> 
> On Sunday, July 22, 2012, Monte Davis wrote:
> The core argument, without caveats and qualifications:
> 
> 1) From Kyoto through Copenhagen, a 2 degree C. global increase has been
> widely accepted as a threshold we really don't wanna cross;
> 2) We can calculate how much more fossil-fuel burning will get us there;
> 3) Current proven reserves held by energy co's and nation/companies are
> about *six times* that  amount;
> 4) The stock price of energy companies (and the credit-worthiness of Saudi
> Arabia, Venezuela, USA states fracking their shale, et al) is tightly
> correlated with their reserves. Ergo, any combination of policies/actions
> that would be effective in keeping the increase under 2 degrees would in
> effect say to all those parties: "Five-sixths of that collective asset just
> became worthless." (Yeah, I know, coal & oil & gas are also feedstocks for
> polymers, fertilizers etc, but at this level that's a detail. Yeah,  I know,
> CO2 capture & sequestration is possible -- but do the math, and it would
> require infrastructure -- and expenditure -- on the same scale as all
> today's pipelines and refineries and tankers and coal trains.)
> 
> Some of you are no doubt saying "duhh," but it snapped my head around even
> though I've been reading McKibben & co for a long time. It's the difference
> between a handwaved "the fossil-fuel industry can't keep growing in future
> decades as it has for the last century or two"... and saying to that
> industry, the world's largest: "five-sixths of the biggest asset investors
> recognize in you *right now* is a mirage." That makes it much easier to
> understand the fervor of denial.
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
> Of Dave Monroe
> Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2012 9:35 PM
> To: pynchon -l
> Subject: Global Warming's New Math
> 
> http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-mat
> h-20120719
> 
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