US federal climate change report warns of threat to US economy and lives

[tabibito]

I live near places where the residents will have to wade across their front lawns in less than 50 years, and even i knew it was a joke.

It was a joke yes, but also an acknowledgement of fact. Assuming that the global warming effects are accurately forecast, the place where I lived for many of my school years - currently 20 km from the sea - would become part of an estuary roughly 50 km in length. The place where my daughter spent her childhood would become a beach-front property on that same estuary. Of course, the forecasts have to date not been exactly reliable, and the development of that estuary can be prevented by not particularly extensive polders.

[shunyadragon]

That would be amazing - if it pans out. But we have been hearing about breakthroughs in fusion technology for decades now. Personally, I think our approach should not be a "wait and see." We should continue to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels by every mans possible, in the event that we DON'T see this breakthrough manifest.

After all, we took the tax cut on the premise that "it would pay for itself" by growth in the economy. They were so certain, they didn't even bother writing a roll-back into the bill in the event that growth DIDN'T materialize (so much for confidence). We saw a miserly 0.5% rise in GDP growth, and now have a deficit of $1T. I'm not a fan of another "future promise." If it happens, awesome. Plan for the worst case.

I believe it will be an important source of energy in the future, but . . . in the future.

Right now we have to deal with the reality of Global Warming, and deal with how to live with a changing climate.