Saturday, September 10, 2011

Pielke Sr on Climate Sensitivity: Just Look Away!

Obsessed as I am with climate sensitivity as the key to resolving the climate controversy, my attention is drawn to Roger  Pielke Sr who has today put up a blog post titled So-Called “Climate-Sensitivity” – A Dance On The Head Of A Pin. Pielke Sr is one of the godfathers of the climate "sceptics"*.

His argument is that global average surface temperatures do not matter. What matters is that we adapt to whatever is coming, by looking to provision of water, food, energy and ecosystems at a regional level.

Now this latter is attractive to me since I have been arguing for years that these provisions are the basis of green economics. The difference is that greens can do both. PielkeSr is saying that it is an either-or situation.

His argument is basically "Cure is better than prevention. You can only focus on cure. Do not look at the causes of the problem. Don't worry, we can dig our way out of this hole. All we need is bigger spades."

And: above all, Pielke is saying "For Pete's sake do not look at climate sensitivity, because that is where the "skeptics" case is at its weakest".

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