4.9 What About Record Breaking Hurricanes and Tornados and Floods,
Don't They Prove Global
Warming is an Emergency?
Chuck Schumer is the Senator for New York. During Hurricane Ida a lot of rain came down and some people drowned in their New York City basement apartments. Senator Schumer blames all that rainfall on global warming. Like Senator Schumer a lot of climate alarmists say there are more hurricanes and tornados and that they're worse and it is because of global warming. Judith Curry is the climatologist who first said that there were more hurricanes as a result of global warming. Later she found out she was wrong. You can find out what happened to her next at the Why They Scare Us lesson. As I write the following sentence in October 9 2024, hurricane Milton which is category 5, is about to make landfall in Florida and this only a short time after Category 4 hurricane Helene hit Florida. That seems like a lot of hurricane in a very short amount of time. Is it because of global warming? There have been very severe hurricanes before that have hit Florida so it's not clear if this is due to global warming or not.
Senator Schumer says we need to stop climate change. He says record rainfall shows that global warming is upon us. He says we have to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. If America does reduce carbon dioxide emissions it will make production of goods more expensive which will cause Americans to buy cheaper goods from other countries. Those countries that produce those goods will release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. So the only thing Chuck Schumer's plan would do would be to hurt the American economy. Even if other countries did not increase their production It has been calculated that, U.S. climate policies, fully achieved and adhered to throughout the century, will reduce global temperatures by just 0.031°C (0.057°F) by 2100. If other countries also cut emissions according to agreements they signed in the Paris Climate Accords the change would only be 0.048°C. According to the Institute for Energy Institute:
"It will be a lot of pain for very little gain, as the energy necessary for modern life becomes more and more expensive for those who have it and less available to those in the world who are striving to use energy to lift themselves from poverty."
It's hard to lift yourself from poverty if your heating bills go up and that's what would happen if there were taxes on carbon dioxide.
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Don't 97% of scientists say that global warming is a serious problem?