[extropy-chat] The great global warming swindle

[Keith Henson]

At 01:09 PM 4/18/2007 -0500, Max More wrote:
>A brief and partial reply, at least for now:
>
>At 08:48 PM 4/16/2007, Brett wrote:

snip

> >In fact, at least two consensus views are being
> >pushed on us­and pushed hard. One is that global
> >warming is not only happening but is primarily
> >anthropogenic. The second is that we must
> >immediately institute a set of strong global
> >controls on carbon dioxide production.
>
>Stepping well away from the fence, I say that it
>would be a big mistake to impose drastic controls
>on carbon dioxide production.
>
>That doesn't mean I favor doing nothing. But that's for another post.

I agree, at least not immediately, the economic shock would cause too much 
damage.

I frankly don't think that the global warming problem (serious as it might 
be) is as serious as the problem of low cost energy.  The latter is likely 
to starve an extremely large number of people, most of them in the poorer 
parts of the world.

Even that would probably not be a such a serious set back to the 
singularity except for the fact that people with looking into a bleak 
future can cause an awful lot of problems.

So finding a technical solution such as space elevators and power sats 
which would give the world a long term bright future seems like a really 
good idea.

Keith