The op-ed “The world can’t afford to politicize climate change research” generated many comments on BostonGlobe.com. The following is an edited sample:
Thoughtful piece. Thus, Lomberg should prepare to be canceled by the climate activists more interested in protecting dogma than science. (MetroWstVu)
Climate change is truly the ultimate “all of us” issue. No one will win when downtown Boston floods so often that we give up on it, or when drought ruins crops with such frequency that famine becomes a part of everyone’s language. Since 1850, we’ve improved the average standard of living on earth by a staggering amount. The American economy produces 15 times the amount of wealth per person now as it did then. This growth has been fueled by the carbon economy in large part — fossil fuels. However, this long run of growth will end unless we can shift our economy to lower carbon options. A new study in the peer-reviewed journal Nature showed that by 2049, the global economy will shrink by 19 percent, and that climate-related losses will cost $38 trillion annually. Again, this is the ultimate “all of us” issue. There are no winners if we destroy the systems that keep us alive, watered, breathing, and fed. Those who want to use these questions to pit us against each other are simply using the latest oil company tactics for stalling what needs to happen. (RealWhoFan)
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Better to stop doing the thing that caused the problem in the first place. (Rather than muck everything up further.) Kind of like spraying fruit trees with poison to kill the bugs and then realizing the fruit has poison on it! (nathan666)
This seems like a good way to keep the fossil fuel industry up and running while potentially creating more problems. We need to swiftly move to other sources of energy and find newer, smarter ways to reduce our energy use. We also need to seriously reduce our meat intake (methane, habitat loss, deforestation) and take a hard look at construction methods (concrete is a major emitter). There are several other steps we can take as well. So let’s not waste money and potentially add to our problems with this bioengineering idea. (gaylegil)
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According to one study, fossil fuel use peaked in 2023. Before trying moon shot ideas, we should try the obvious (and safer) win/win/win ideas of reforestation and reversing desertification (see Allan Savory’s TED Talk). Of course direct extraction of CO2 from the atmosphere will work too, but it’s a little bit like reinventing the wheel when trees are already happy to do it. It will take some elbow grease and planning to do, but it’s the low-hanging fruit that makes the most sense. (cordgrass)
I’m not against studying geoengineering. But Lomborg and all of us need to be honest with ourselves: It is NOT a “solution.” It would be a very temporary reprieve (a year or maybe two of lower temps). A Band-Aid on a severed limb. (Maples Dad)
Is it worth it to continue research on geoengineering? Possibly. But this op-ed contains an enormous unsupported assertion: “Geoengineering is the only feasible way that humanity has ever identified to cut temperatures quickly.” Since this has never happened, it’s impossible to prove. Leaving aside argument by rhetoric, the promise of a completely unproven get-out-of-jail-free card does have appeal for the enormous economic interests whose business models are based on climate destruction. (Ben Lieberman)
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Geoengineering the weather. What could possibly go wrong? Humanity has done such a grand job stewarding this planet, why not continue to alter it in some unknown direction and see what happens? This makes as much sense and has as many pitfalls as engineering babies. (Schneller)
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