ATTACK OF THE ENVIROSKEPTICS: ZERO-SUM NONSENSE

Andrew Sullivan agrees
with me that the coverage of the "Bush U-Turn" on Global Warming is much ado about nothing. The difference is that he's quite
sanguine about the fact.

It seems to me that the Bush administration has long held the sensible skeptical position (which does not preclude taking human impact on global warming seriously). The difference between them and Al Gore is that they don't take this as a certainty or buy the notion you have to throw the economy into reverse to prevent it.

Ah yes, the grim options of the enviroskeptic - we can either a) do nothing to reduce emmissions or b) "throw the economy into reverse." That's zero-sum nonsense. While its true that at some future point we may have to decide between economic growth and emissions reduction, we are far from that place now. It is quite possible for the United States to dramatically reduce the critical ratio of emmissions/per GDP, which would allow for reduced emmissions and increased productivity. The reason is the U.S.'s woeful energy efficiency, which lags far behind the rest of the industrialized world. The solution is painfully obvious, but economically painless - raise energy taxes, and drop other taxes(something else regressive, like payroll) a corresponding amount. The wonders of the free market will take care of the rest - punishing those who continue to waste energy, and rewarding those who make the neccessary improvements in energy efficiency (and even more so those who develop new techniques and products). Contrary to the lies of the energy lobby, we can take signficant steps
now to reduce our emmissions without cutting into our economic growth. The benefits of national security from our reduced energy consumption alone justify such policies. The fact that they can also help slow down the Great Climate Experiment we are currently performing makes it a no-brainer.


A quick look at the stats shows that there is plenty of room for emission cuts and our current standard of living:

Country	Emmissions(tons CO2)/GDP	Energy Efficiency (BTU/GDP)
United States	0.8	10,918
Canada	0.8	18,547
France	0.3	5,904
Germany	0.4	5,317
Japan	0.3	4,075
United Kingdom	0.5	7,632