Friday, May 4, 2007

IPCC WG III continued

"First, the bad news: more than 6,000 people should have died in a 17-day heatwave that gripped France last July. The good news: only 2,000 actually succumbed."
"...
measures to help elderly and other vulnerable people cope with extreme heat had helped save many lives."

Adaptation.
The SPM has this to say "Irrespective of the scale of mitigation measures, adaptation measures are necessary." One line. Page 33 (of 35).

Fareed Zakaria said in February, "Global Warming: Get Used to It" and goes on to explain that regardless of causation we had better adapt, which fortunately is something humans are pretty good at.

Mr. Zakaria is a pretty wired fellow, editor of NewsWeek International, member of the Council on Foreign Relations and I'd guess some very private phone numbers in his Blackberry. So why the disconnect between his article and the SPM?

In another article April 16 headlined "
The Case for a Global Carbon Tax" He is again at odds with the SPM WG III which has this to say regarding taxes: "Taxes or carbon charges on fossil fuels--Resistance by vested interests may make them difficult to implement"
The IPCC really leans toward cap-and-trade: "Tradable permits--Predictable allocation mechanisms and stable price signals important for investments" both quotes Table 7 on page 30.

Sometimes I think reading these SPM's is like trying to read tea leaves. Without getting to drink the tea. Which sounds good right now. I'll be back in a bit with more WG III.