Climate change at last! - Fat Tail Daily

The only honest role for government is to protect people from danger. But it quickly becomes a protection racket. The more fearful people become the more they are willing to pay for protection.

Here’s the latest from Associated Press:

Get ready for several years of killer heat, top weather forecasters warn

“Higher global mean temperatures may sound abstract, but it translates in real life to a higher chance of extreme weather: stronger hurricanes, stronger precipitation, droughts,” said Cornell University climate scientist Natalie Mahowald, who wasn’t part of the calculations but said they made sense. “So higher global mean temperatures translates [sic] to more lives lost.”

As far as we know there is no evidence that weather is becoming more extreme…or that ‘climate change’ has anything to do with it. As for lives lost, thanks to air conditioning, weather monitoring, rescue services and central heating fewer people die from climate-related disasters each year.

But fashions change. So do sources of outrage…indignation…and danger. Teddy Roosevelt peddled fear of the Huns. The Women’s Christian Temperance League believed demon rum was such an enemy the US needed to ban it altogether. Senator Joe McCarthy warned against communists hiding in our closets.

The only honest role for government is to protect people from danger. But it quickly becomes a protection racket. The more fearful people become the more they are willing to pay for protection. So, the natural tendency of government is to find boogeymen everywhere.

The Russians, for example. Shills for the firepower industry act as though they might sweep across Europe at any moment…and then arrive on the beaches of New Jersey a few weeks later. Donald Trump has been a reliable spokesman for government in this regard. Not only does he increase the US ‘defense’ budget; he also insists that the Europeans do so too.

The Independent:

NATO set to commit to five percent defense spending goal amid threats from Trump

The expected measure comes after months of pressure from President Donald Trump. Earlier this year, the commander-in-chief warned that NATO allies would put American protection at risk if members did not increase their own military spending. Many allies rejected the notion at the time as mere political noise…

The aforementioned “global climate change,” is another major source of political noise. The volume may be going down, but the alarums — like a cell phone going off at a funeral service — keep ringing, such as this last week from the Environmental Literacy Center:

The Scorched Earth: Mapping the Uninhabitable Zones of a Warming World

What places will be too hot to live? The blunt truth is that as the climate crisis intensifies, swathes of the planet are rapidly approaching uninhabitable conditions. Primarily, regions near the equator and in the tropics, already known for their high temperatures and humidity, are most vulnerable.

Taking the planet as a whole, there are now millions of square miles that are already uninhabitable. Not because they are too hot, but because they are too cold.

While there are humans living in some of the hottest places on earth…almost no one lives in the coldest places. Siberia…most of Alaska…Antarctica…Northern Canada and all of Greenland — all are practically deserted. A few extra degrees of warmth and they could have golf courses and beach resorts.

Even on our own property in Argentina, there are thousands of acres of high pastures — that are now only suitable for hardy (and largely inedible) mountain cattle, rustic sheep and semi-wild llama. A little bit of ‘climate change’ — a few extra inches of rainfall as well as some global warming — could make them much more useful, more attractive and more productive.

So, we wait for the headlines: “How Climate Change is making millions of acres accessible to humans for the first time!” And “Global Warming could save millions of people from hunger.”

We won’t hold our breath.

Regards,