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But if the change were gradual enough, I don't see that it would damage the economy too much


Right. And just how much time do you think we have?

Think about how long it would take to essentially shut down the automobile industry and all the peripherally related industries (steel, rubber, automobile repair, auto sales, etc.) and re-employ those workers, without triggering a global depression.

Hey, maybe we can convert over to building ELECTRIC cars, and get around the whole fossil fuel thing and save the world. Oh, wait... where is the electricity to run the electric cars going to come from? Coal? That would be worse than burning gasoline. I know! We'll build more nuclear plants. The average waiting time for certification of a nuclear power plant in North America is currently around 40 years and counting, but what the heck, maybe the ice in Greenland won't melt all that much in another half a century.

The automobile industry is just ONE example of the turmoil that would ensue in the unlikely circumstance that we actually did do something about global warming.

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Are there really still people who believe it will continue to be sustainable indefinitely?


Apparently the 59,297 Americans who purchased large SUVs in April alone of this year seem to think so. (Scroll to end of article for citation)

There's the myth of an old Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times." The coming decades certainly have my interest.

tanstaafl.
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"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"