Out of Egypt:

admit it, global warming is happening

This article explains the danger in store.

I'm so irritated that people tried to deny global warming. I'm still not necessarily convinced that it's a result of human activity, at least to the extent that some would say. But it's still something we need to deal with, no matter whether we're responsible for it or not. And in re: to Kyoto, I don't know the details of the regulations or their economic effects, but I think it's clear that air pollution would be a serious problem whether or not global warming was real. When libertarian-minded people argue for maximal deregulation on the basis of principles of economic freedom, they forget that people maximize utility in the short term. We're not good at thinking ahead, especially on subjects that require some technical knowledge. I worry about our society becoming ruled by experts (technocracy), yes, but perhaps I should be worrying more about massive climatic change and extinctions.

I wonder how China, India, the two-thirds world will respond to such threats. As Thomas Friedman writes in his The World is Flat, they are beginning to practice a form of capitalism more ruthless than our own.

The next 50 years, I think, are going to well fit the ancient Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times." If I were a premillenialist, I'd be looking for signs of the end of the age. As it is, I still wonder sometimes how long this can and will go on.