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Reply to "From LTE: We 'need a plan' for Global Warming"

"The inconvenient truth, to coin a phrase — is that while climate change brings negatives, it brings positives, too. Polar melting may cause dislocation for those who live in low-lying coastal areas, but it will also lead to safe commercial shipping in formerly inhospitable northern seas, and to economic opportunity for high-latitude residents.

A warming planet will also be a greener planet. Is a greener planet. Rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have already led to “persistent and widespread increase” in leaf cover — i.e., greening — across as much as half of the world’s vegetated regions, according to a study published in Nature last year.

Alarmists mindlessly condemn atmospheric CO2 as “carbon pollution,” but carbon dioxide is essential to the health and growth of plant life. NASA satellites show that over the past 35 years, there has been an increase in world greenery equal in area to twice the continental United States. Climate change has been a particular blessing in Africa, where the “Sahel greening” has significantly reduced famine.

The effects of climate change range from the obvious (lower heating bills) to the subtle (more habitat for moose and endangered sharks). Territory formerly deemed too forbiddingly cold will grow more temperate — and valuable. Delicacies from lobster to blueberries may become more plentiful.

Bottom line? Global warming will bring gains as well as losses, upsides no less than downsides. Climate science isn’t a good-and-evil morality tale. Climate discourse shouldn’t be either".


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