Roger--I thought this was an excellent episode! I recently joined the board of Switch Alliance and am a huge supporter of the education mission. Your episode was well balanced. The Carbon tax is a tough political pill and I am highly doubtful it would pass. This tells you all you need to understand about how much the general public is willing to pay out of pocket for some of the changes being advocated. There is a widespread belief that any incremental cost associated with energy transition should be borne by the companies. This ultimately ends hitting the consumer pocket book but it's not an explicit tax. Thus its easier to find ways to force companies to internalize the cost of carbon through various rules and regulations and pass the cost on through increase price on products and services.
What a terrific and balanced episode. So glad PBS will be airing it next month. America and the world need more informed discussion like that and far less alarmism about climate change. You are to be commended for continuing to be a voice for truth and reason in the face of so much misinformation and hostility. Please keep doing what you’re doing.
Interesting discussion. I was interested in the point that climate alarmism tends to drown out the other advantages of clean energy. More breathable air and more drinkable water. In 50 years our global environment could possibly be better than now in those respects.
Helpful sanity. I had no issue following the transcript. In fact, it was an interesting experiment to read the comments unattributed and to judge and digest them solely on their own merits.
Not sure the least developed world can make the energy leap from burning wood to wind and solar without an interim fossil fuel step. But for the sake of that population's health any leap is beneficial.
My problem with the carbon tax is that I don't trust the Government to use it to promote R&D for new technology. Instead they'll invest in more DEI training at nuclear plants. We would get 10 cents on the dollar if we were lucky.
Apr 20, 2023·edited Apr 20, 2023Liked by Roger Pielke Jr.
This was about as good as one could expect for objectivity. The moderator was excellent. The final line was there's no existential threat from climate change. I'm surprised that PBS let that through.
It seems like Prof. Cohan is well behind on the research re. ocean acidification and damage to coral reefs as well as forecasts of increased disasters. I would have liked to see Roger push back on him a bit on this, but I guess the idea is to show agreement rather than disagreement. I think Cohan sees the writing on the wall and is trying to retrench and save as much face and career as he can.
I sent it on to one of my granddaughters who is in the "we're all gonna die soon anyway so no kids no ambition" group. I hope she takes 30 minutes to watch it.
Enjoyed it, you were very presentable and articulate. Dr Cohen’s body language seemed uncomfortable in some cases. I think he would want a larger carbon tax as an example. It is really unfortunate that the show will be consumed by such a small percentage of the population. Send a copy to the D of E and maybe they will reconsider the silly EV goals they are talking about. Seems adaptability is dependent on a dependable electrical grid which seems to me to one of the the items that might benefit from a carbon tax?
Apr 20, 2023·edited Apr 20, 2023Liked by Roger Pielke Jr.
I don't agree with the optimism. The energy policies being promoted and enforced by the global elites are going to lead to disaster. The Developing World will require a 4X increase in World Primary energy consumption or a 5X total increase. There just isn't enough economical fossil fuels to achieve that growth in energy. And the overwhelming emphasis being placed on wind & solar, which is just a scam. The high materials inputs, land use, intermittency, seasonality, low EROI, vulnerability to changing weather patterns, geographic limitations, extreme energy inefficiency are all inescapable attributes of wind & solar. Not even remotely capable of replacing fossil, a recipe for disaster.
The only viable path forward is a rapid expansion of Nuclear Power. That is quite capable of replacing fossil fuels essentially forever. Unlimited energy. It still is being suppressed and blockaded by the same bunch who are promoting climate change alarmism. They don't want solutions. They want energy poverty, population reduction and a techno-feudal World government. In short the leaders of the Western World are Malthusians and are using energy poverty caused by the switch to energy scams i.e. Wind, Solar, Agrofuels, Hydrogen, Biomass burning, CCS and ITER to increase their power & control.
Unless our rulers wake up and realize Nuclear power needs an emergency level expansion, there is nothing to be optimistic about.
There never was an emergency but am totally shocked that PBS even airing a discussion that things may not be so bad.
I have been a fan of PBS since I bought my first satellite dish as a 17 year old in the early 80s, living in a small canadian prairie town. I watch Nova, Frontline, Nature and other shows regularly and I have not seen anything reasonable on climate on there in a decade.
Roger--I thought this was an excellent episode! I recently joined the board of Switch Alliance and am a huge supporter of the education mission. Your episode was well balanced. The Carbon tax is a tough political pill and I am highly doubtful it would pass. This tells you all you need to understand about how much the general public is willing to pay out of pocket for some of the changes being advocated. There is a widespread belief that any incremental cost associated with energy transition should be borne by the companies. This ultimately ends hitting the consumer pocket book but it's not an explicit tax. Thus its easier to find ways to force companies to internalize the cost of carbon through various rules and regulations and pass the cost on through increase price on products and services.
What a terrific and balanced episode. So glad PBS will be airing it next month. America and the world need more informed discussion like that and far less alarmism about climate change. You are to be commended for continuing to be a voice for truth and reason in the face of so much misinformation and hostility. Please keep doing what you’re doing.
Interesting discussion. I was interested in the point that climate alarmism tends to drown out the other advantages of clean energy. More breathable air and more drinkable water. In 50 years our global environment could possibly be better than now in those respects.
Very informative and thoughtful discussion.
It is important to explain the flaws with the extreme scenarios, as was done in this presentation:
"These highest emission scenarios really don't look realistic anymore.
They have doubling or tripling of coal use beyond today, which I just don't see the world heading towards for a wide number of reasons."
is a valuable quote.
Later on the other impossibility came up: population will never reach the 12 billion in 2100 that is the basis for the extreme temperature increases.
China is losing population right now, as are several other large countries. Many more will start losing population by the 2050s.
Helpful sanity. I had no issue following the transcript. In fact, it was an interesting experiment to read the comments unattributed and to judge and digest them solely on their own merits.
Not sure the least developed world can make the energy leap from burning wood to wind and solar without an interim fossil fuel step. But for the sake of that population's health any leap is beneficial.
"It’s not...Yellowstone,..."
Yes, unless they've edited the transcript, it's definitely not like Yellowstone:
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/19afb1b8-5995-4361-93d9-8c7f441f72f0
:-/
My problem with the carbon tax is that I don't trust the Government to use it to promote R&D for new technology. Instead they'll invest in more DEI training at nuclear plants. We would get 10 cents on the dollar if we were lucky.
This was about as good as one could expect for objectivity. The moderator was excellent. The final line was there's no existential threat from climate change. I'm surprised that PBS let that through.
It seems like Prof. Cohan is well behind on the research re. ocean acidification and damage to coral reefs as well as forecasts of increased disasters. I would have liked to see Roger push back on him a bit on this, but I guess the idea is to show agreement rather than disagreement. I think Cohan sees the writing on the wall and is trying to retrench and save as much face and career as he can.
I sent it on to one of my granddaughters who is in the "we're all gonna die soon anyway so no kids no ambition" group. I hope she takes 30 minutes to watch it.
Enjoyed it, you were very presentable and articulate. Dr Cohen’s body language seemed uncomfortable in some cases. I think he would want a larger carbon tax as an example. It is really unfortunate that the show will be consumed by such a small percentage of the population. Send a copy to the D of E and maybe they will reconsider the silly EV goals they are talking about. Seems adaptability is dependent on a dependable electrical grid which seems to me to one of the the items that might benefit from a carbon tax?
Roger, that was excellent.
I don't agree with the optimism. The energy policies being promoted and enforced by the global elites are going to lead to disaster. The Developing World will require a 4X increase in World Primary energy consumption or a 5X total increase. There just isn't enough economical fossil fuels to achieve that growth in energy. And the overwhelming emphasis being placed on wind & solar, which is just a scam. The high materials inputs, land use, intermittency, seasonality, low EROI, vulnerability to changing weather patterns, geographic limitations, extreme energy inefficiency are all inescapable attributes of wind & solar. Not even remotely capable of replacing fossil, a recipe for disaster.
The only viable path forward is a rapid expansion of Nuclear Power. That is quite capable of replacing fossil fuels essentially forever. Unlimited energy. It still is being suppressed and blockaded by the same bunch who are promoting climate change alarmism. They don't want solutions. They want energy poverty, population reduction and a techno-feudal World government. In short the leaders of the Western World are Malthusians and are using energy poverty caused by the switch to energy scams i.e. Wind, Solar, Agrofuels, Hydrogen, Biomass burning, CCS and ITER to increase their power & control.
Unless our rulers wake up and realize Nuclear power needs an emergency level expansion, there is nothing to be optimistic about.
There never was an emergency but am totally shocked that PBS even airing a discussion that things may not be so bad.
I have been a fan of PBS since I bought my first satellite dish as a 17 year old in the early 80s, living in a small canadian prairie town. I watch Nova, Frontline, Nature and other shows regularly and I have not seen anything reasonable on climate on there in a decade.
So congrats, it’s a start.