The Green New Deal will be genocide, according to Alex Epstein in a talk presented Thursday, February 20. He also warned against the exaggerated doomsday rhetoric coming from those concerned about a warming planet. Epstein says that in order to avoid a global holocaust carbon dioxide emissions must continue to increase.
He emphasized the non partisan nature of his talk while telling us how important it is that we should not elect socialism, as in Venezuela.
Alex Epstein presented a lot of data supporting an argument as to how burning fossil fuels and emitting copious amounts of CO2 has improved and continues to improve the lives of billions of human being. Much of his talk was devoted to making that point. It is an argument without much opposition. Yes capitalism is great, I somewhat agree.
Those concerned about the changing climate consider only the negative effects of fossil fuels and ignore the positive, according to Epstein. He says the problems caused by our reliance on fossil fuels and “machine energy” are minor compared to the benefits.
I have issues with two bits of data that Epstein uses in support of his case. For instance he presents a graph showing a hyperbolic curve that illustrates that as CO2 concentration increases it’s ability to trap infrared radiation decreases. Anyone familiar with how to lie with statistics will recognize the statistical lie of that graph. If one were to look closely at the graph one would not be reassured that the current increase of CO2 in the atmosphere is insignificant. When converted to degrees Kelvin, the temperature difference between ice age and our current climate is about four percent. Thus it will not take much of a boost in temperature due to increasing CO2 concentration to have dramatic effect.
Sea levels are expected to rise about two feet in a hundred years, according to Epstein. In fact the most recent estimate is up to a meter by 2099, which is another kind of beast altogether.
And as more is known about the dynamics of some very large masses of glacial ice grounded thousands of feet below sea-level in West Antarctica there is some concern that a meter rise in sea level by 2099 might be a conservative estimate. A point to be made here is that any such estimates are tentative pending more data and improved climate modeling.
If anything, knowing what I know and accepting some of the truth that Alex Epstein presents makes me less optimistic about the future. However I agree with Epstein about the human ability to adapt, so I hold on to the hope that human adaptability will allow humanity to survive and prevail in whatever environment the Earth provides.
Andy Womack, Golden Scholar
