The White House Bulletin
Don't Fight Global Warming, Learn To Live With It, Says Report. Instead of trying to prevent global warming, governments should invest money in "focused adaptive measures" to deal with the consequences of climate change, says a study released this morning by the National Center for Policy Analysis. The report estimates that the Kyoto Protocol will cost the nations that have signed on $165 billion annually to limit their output of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. But NCPA says that, instead of reducing the burning of fossil fuels like oil and coal, it would be more cost-effective for nations to focus on reducing the increased risks of malaria, hunger and coastal flooding that global warming will bring. The study says the cost of "adaptive" measures would only total $10 billion a year. NCPA, best known as the think tank that spearheaded the Medical Savings Account idea, is funded by individuals, corporations and foundations, including some close to the global warming debate, such as Exxon Mobil.
Advocates of carbon dioxide limits do not think the idea of adaptation to climate change is that far out. For example, the British, under Kyoto advocate Prime Minister Tony Blair, are reinforcing and improving the Thames River barrier system in part because of the increased risk of flooding due to climate change. But "our notion is that you have to mitigate as well as adapt," says Paul Bledsoe, spokesman for the National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan group that has pushed for caps on CO2 in the United States. Also, given the multibillion dollar cost of clean-up and relocation in flood-ravaged New Orleans alone, Bledsoe said that the NCPA's estimate of $1 billion annually around the globe for "building seawalls and other structures and an orderly relocation of coastal populations" is likely an underestimate. — Bulletin exclusive from U.S. News