Europe Pledges Over $10 Billion for Climate Change Adaptation in Developing Nations

It's nice to see Pielke getting press here. He's a voice of reason in the climate change community.

Do developing nations really care about climate change? Glancing at the UN World Health Organization ranking of global health risk factors, climate change is pretty low compared to hunger, alcohol abuse, tobacco use, unsafe water and so on. In fact, it barely registers.

My guess is that the politicians who have the luxury of worrying about non-problems like global warming are making it up. I'll bet those developing nations are more concerned about, you know, food and fuel, growing their economies, fighting poverty and disease and political instability. Like the WHO report, I'll bet global warming barely registers.

By the way, what nations are currently threatened by rising sea levels? The 4 to 8 inch rise in the last century is a fraction of the daily tidal change and it appears to be slowing (maybe). So are we talking about Venice? I can't think of any places threatened by rising sea levels and Venice's problem is sinking land, not rising seas. Maybe it's the Netherlands. Probably the Netherlands. When you reclaim a lot of land from the sea, sea levels become a pretty big deal. You obsess about it. Maybe that whole reclaiming-land-from-the-sea idea wasn't so great.

Oh, and how are water shortages and agricultural problems linked to global warming? (Hint: they're not)

Finally, what kind of adaptation are we talking about paying $10 billion for? Air conditioners?

The only discontent developing nations have with the industrialized nations is their badgering about emissions reductions. "How come we have to cut back when you got to pollute the planet while you grew wealthy?" Good question. Maybe we should all relax a little, or a lot, and accept the fact that as nations grow wealthy, their industrial capacity becomes more efficient, they clean their air and water and emit less pollution; though if you're talking about CO2, well I'm afraid we'll have to plant more trees. Wait, we're already doing that in many places of the world. Hmmm... Remind me again, what's the problem?

Well, spending your money on poor coutries is the effective way to go. While 10B wouldn't put a dent in Europes CO2, 10B in Africa could go a long way towards global CO2 goals and make the continent suck a little bit less.

1) Biochar gassification plants. Lovelock's favorite, this takes bio-waste, generates electricity from it, and then kicks out biochar to till back into the soil to improve its long term tilth.

2) Tree farms. Unlike conventional crops, trees improve the water table rather than drain it. High oil-fat, low water trees (almonds, for example) feed people and actually help the soil retain water.

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What? Maybe I'm reading this article wrong, but why are developed nations trying to help undeveloped nations adapt to climate change? It's our responsibility to prevent environmental disaster, so no one has to adapt to climate change. That is, regardless of whether they are developed or undeveloped. When will people learn that putting a patch over an issue doesn't solve the problem. You need to fix it!

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