Vaclav Klaus – The Czech President had an op-ed this past week in the “Financial Times” that grabbed some attention, more so because the Czech Republic has just assumed the rotating presidency of the European Union. I have written recently about the extraordinary leadership of the EU on energy and climate, for instance here and here, including the assiduity in all of this by French President Nicolas Sarkozy who led the EU for the final half of last year. With Klaus, a well-known Skeptic at the helm of the EU, people are holding their breath. (I mentioned Klaus and how his shenanigans embarrass many Czechs at the end of this post from a while back.)
Klaus wrote at the “FT” that “The uniqueness of current levels of global warming is not a proven phenomenon. The explanation of factors that are contributing to global warming is not very clear and persuasive. Moves to mitigate climate change by fighting carbon dioxide emissions are useless and, what is most important, human beings have proved themselves to be sufficiently adaptable to an incrementally changing climate.” Phew! This is one of the prices we pay for democracy. You sometimes get folks who are, in a word, deranged, holding high public office. (See also Bush, Cheney, Inhofe and some others.)
Suffice it to say that Klaus got some pushback. Here’s one eloquent letter saying, among other things, “his conclusions that climate change “alarmists’ are responsible for “restraining our freedom’ is downright otherworldly.” Another letter says Klaus “must be living in a parallel universe, when he declares: “The global climate is basically not changing.’ He might just as well insist that the world is flat.” The writer further quotes Daniel Cohn-Bendit, co-president of the Greens/European Free Alliance Group in the European parliament who recently told Klaus: “I don’t care about your opinions.” Ouch.
ExxonMobil Supports Carbon Tax – Speaking of Skeptics, Rex Tillerson, the head of the oil and gas mega-multinational that has provided substantial funding to the leading support group for the Skeptics, the Heartland Institute, has called for a carbon tax instead of a cap-and-trade approach. (We’ve explored this complex and important issue at the blog a number of times, most recently here. We’ve also looked at The Skeptics here.) See Tillerson’s remarks from the press release. That ExxonMobil is even talking seriously about addressing carbon loading is a big step forward. Call me Polyanna, perhaps, but I’m glad for every bit of forward progress. You go, Rex!
Food Shortages – I was struck by this headline from UPI: Global warming could overheat crops. A study, published in “Science,” posits that “Rapidly warming climate is likely to seriously alter crop yields in the tropics and subtropics by the end of this century and, without adaptation, leave half of the world’s population facing serious food shortages” Here’s the release from Stanford University’s Program on Food Security and the Environment (FSE). One of the coauthors of the study is the director of FSE, the other is a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington. Plus, “The serious climate issues won’t be limited to the tropics, the authors conclude. As an example, they cite record temperatures that struck Western Europe in June, July and August of 2003, killing an estimated 52,000 people. That summer-long heat wave cut wheat yields and fodder production in France and Italy by one-third.”
But then Vaclav Klaus thinks it’s all okay, because we can adapt.
