'A possible means of escape from the horrors of carbon dioxide emission constrai

[Richard S Courtney.]

HarpoSpoke:

You ask:

Quote:This is a point I've tried to make before. I would be curious to know how and by whom that estimate is made. (Bjorn Lomborg perhaps?)

Yes, Lomborg.

Richard

---

HarpoSpoke:

You say:

Quote:I've always assumed that we will leave fossil fuels behind just like we've done everything else. But not in a "forced to change" way. We didn't stop using wood to heat our homes because we ran out of wood for instance. I would not be at all surprised if we were not using oil to run our cars by mid-century....with or without the AGW scare. (the internal combustion engine is 150+ years old...that's a long time for us to stick with a type of technology at this point in our history)

I agree. But that is 'factor x': the unknown future effect. For example, 300 years ago it would have been possible to say that today's transport system would be impossible because there is not sufficient land to grow all the hay needed for the horses. But, of course, modern transport systems do not need to use hay.

What cannot be known is
(a) what the future will provide
and
(b) when the future will provide it.

So, we need to act responsibly on the basis of what we have.

The problem with 'greens' is that they do not want to act responsibly with what we have because they fear we will not be able to do act that way for ever. Using their logic the people of 300 years ago should have abandoned using horses, and the resulting poverty would have prevented the eventual invention of the steam engine, then the electric motor, then the diesel engine, then ...

Richard