Are Major Carbon Emission Cuts Worth The Cost?

January 19, 2009

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Environmentalists and those who reject climate change are in disagreement about the value of major carbon emission cuts, Scientific American reports.

Bjorn Lomborg, economist and founder of Copenhagen Consensus; Peter Huber, a senior fellow at Manhattan Institute are among the experts who claim the cuts are not worth the costs they incur.

Carbon cutting efforts are too expensive for too little good, Lomborg noted. There are better ways to use those financial resources, he said.

Those who said climate change must tackled include Oliver Tickell, journalist and would-be politician, Adam Werbach, former Sierra Club president and environmental consultant, and L. Hunter Lovins of Natural Capitalism Solutions.

Tackling climate change is worth the cost because it will also address some of the world’s other problems, Werbach argued. Upgrading electrical grid technology could save U.S. consumers $20 billion, he said.

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Reader Comments

There is nothing wrong and everythig right with trying to modernize the technology of such things as the electric grid. Unfortunately, many of the most vocal environmentalists do not have a clue how the pieces fit together. They are far more likely to be focused on the single, simplistic goal of reducing or eliminating emissions; nevermind whether or not they destroy livelihoods or other elements of society in the process. We need far more moderation from that community than we’re seeing at present. God help us if our legislators don’t do their homework and simply respond with knee jerk reactions to the screaming greenies.

Glennis | January 20th, 2009