From: CurtAdams@aol.com
Date: Wed Jul 24 2002 - 21:08:31 MDT
In a message dated 7/24/02 14:30:06, doctor_logic@hotmail.com writes:
>If you live in a flooded apartment in NYC in 2025, will you buy global
>cooling services? What will you pay with?
Anybody from a coastal region would have an obvious tort against
companies in the fossil fuel business. Given the frightening litigiousness
of American society and the eagerness of juries to make awards far exceeding
reasonable compensation (which would actually be huge even by fair
standards),
fossil fuel production and use would be forced to completely shut down. It
really wouldn't get very far. Just a few inches and the FF business would
be paying for all storm damage on the coast at least and that would put
a monster effective tax on fossil fuels.
Anyway, it's unlikely global warming will get all that far. Solar power
should
pass fossil fuels in cost efficiency around 2030 at current rates so fossil
fuel use is going to fall off a cliff about then. The horror scenarios
require
that fossil fuel use continue on its current curve (which won't happen),
have very aggressive assumptions about temperature increase, and still
only predict a foot or so this century. Groundwater pumping is far more an
issue for lowlying regions.
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