Jimbo

Global Warming: Investment Implications

About 11,000 years ago, the world was in the grip of an ice age in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Ice was calculated to be 2,500 feet thick over most of New York and Long Island was a terminal moraine. Ice covered the midwest all the way to the north bank of the Ohio River. Then the world began to warm up dramatically and we are now in what geologists call an interglacial age. What caused this dramatic warming? It certainly can't be blamed on Peabody Coal or Exxon. The world has reportedly had much greater amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere in the past, but this has varied for reasons that seem implausible to blame on human activity. Several AGW advocates, including Al Gore and a professor at Stanford, have been quoted as saying that the problem has to be exaggerated to get the publics' attention and motivation. I submit this is very bad ethics and bad science. My cynical interpretation of all this is that, just like the French Revolution, The Soviet revolution, and others, the Utopian Impulse is irresistible to some people. The AGW folks want to seize the economy and control over society to achieve their "noble" goals. Aldous Huxley published "Brave New World" in 1932. If you haven't read it, I strongly recommend it. Huxley forecast a grim world, controlled by a World Government that used science and technology to strangle mankind. Having said that, I believe the age of oil is coming to a close. The economic, and energy, costs of producing a barrel of oil is going to become economically impossible. We must move to a variety of energy sources. I fear that many "alternative" energy sources are, at present, impractical. But we should persevere in research and development.

The Truth About Fossil Fuels and Renewable Energy (Part II)

A provocative, stimulating and thoughtful essay. I can only hope that some of the commenters who submitted critical comments are correct themselves. We are going to need all the help we can get.