Saturday, August 18, 2007

Cooling Global Warming?

Robert J. Samuelson makes his living taking on the conventional wisdom. His latest target is one of his employers, Newsweek magazine. In an column first published in Newsweek, Samuelson attacks a Newsweek cover story attempting to debunk the "denial machine" that "has created a paralyzing fog of doubt around climate change." The story, he says, "was a wonderful read, marred only by its being ndamentally misleading." Emission reduction goals are "fantasy," he says, and we don't know how to achieve the goals, even if they were real. Global warming is not a morality tale. Doubt exists and is legitimate. There is much to debate and debate we should.
Samuelson's 1995 book, "The Good Life and Its Discontents," dealt with classic American utopianism—"We expected all social problems to be solved." They aren't solved and won't be. Samuelson discussed the resulting complaining.

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