A reader says "bollox"
Visitor's comment No. 1,739: "Eamonn, I am a fan of the blog, (although we disagree on almost everything). As a fellow Limerickman I think I may understand your contrariness more than most :) That said the above is bollox." John McDermott is referring to Wednesday's post, Kyoto vs. Copenhagen. He continues, warming to his theme, as it were:
"Global warming is a fact, the cause may be debatable, but we are getting warmer. An educated individual can dramatically minimise their exposure to HIV, however even if that same person minimised their personal affect on CO2 emissions, they would still be affected by the overall picture. AIDS has one cause, and when a cure is found — end of story. There will never be a one shot cure for global warming. I realize a cure does not help those already afflicted, but there are also ways to treat those with HIV; the problem is getting it to the affected and making it cheap enough.All surmountable problems if we should so desire. Defeating HIV is mired in the same political rat holes as is the effort to combat global warming. Instead of being guided by scientific inquiry our esteemed leaders, (especially here in the US) are guided by political dogma. Even if we were definite on the causes of global warming and agreed on a cure it could take centuries to reverse. The problem is we haven't even reached the point of agreeing the cause not to mind a course of action. Global warming will have a negative affect on every single life form on our planet, and could be a much greater destabilizing influence than AIDS. The truth is all of these issues need to be viewed holistically. Global issues need global solutions. We need to find the will and the cash to treat all these problems.
Your beloved President Bush ain't helping matters. What ever one thinks of the war in Iraq, his policies on AIDS are Neanderthal, (Read Nicholas Kristoff's Op Ed in the NY Times for some interesting stats on his abstinence programs) and he seems dead bent on reversing any progress made on cleaning up the air and reducing CO2 emissions. You forget in your support for Iraq the negative impact he is having on other issues his own country and other countries. I could go on, (how countries like Thailand, Russia etc use the war on terror as an excuse to roll back democracy etc)."
John McDermott, there, putting Rainy Day in its place. In 1993, John left Limerick for the "shores of Amerikay", as many a 19-century Irish ballad puts it, and settled in San Francisco, where he works in the software industry. His main passion, along with his wife and kids Shane and Maya, is music: "I still wanna be a rockstar/professional surfer — during my daily allocation of 2.5 minutes of free time," he says. He blogs at, logically, John McDermott's Blog.
Comments
I'm a great fan of your blog and read it every day.
And I totally agree with your post on Kyoto and disagree with John McDermott. Why don't we just look to see how to adapt to global warming, save all that money to spend on things that will really make a difference - like clean water, alternative energy projects, microloans and the priorities that the Copenhagen Consensus set out.
There's something about liberals these days and the constant gloom and doom they offer, which soon becomes articles of faith that one must subscribe to if you want to stay in the club. If you haven't picked up Michael Crichton's State of Fear, you should. His puncturing of many of the studies will do more to convince many of the mainstream of the silliness of Kyoto than anything else.
As for me, I think global aging is a far greater threat to the status quo and the world's economy than global warming. The demographics are incontrovertible, the science is not.
Take a gander at my two blogs
Legacy Matters http://www.estatevaults.com/lm
Business of Life http://www.estatevaults.com/bol
Posted by: Jille | February 18, 2005 2:23 PM
Eamonn, My heart is all a flutter, to get a mention on the famous Rainy Day! I'll have ta buy ya a pint if we ever hit the auld sod at the same time, and we can dig in to these arguments a little deeper. Nancy's, White house your call!
Up Munster!
To Jille:
Now hould your whisht; a liberal. I hate the commodifying of political belief's. Although my gut is liberal, (more socially than economically), I see myself more of a pragmatist. AND I am very optomistic on the future of humanity. Thats why I dislike organised religion it negates humankinds brilliance and adaptability by attributing the flow of history to some vague God.
Re the warming issue, I agree with you on microloans, (fabulous idea, clean water etc, but I don't agree with the "stick you head in the sand and adapt or ignore it argument". All these are solutions to global problems but applying one and ignoring the other doesn't work. It has to be a holisitic approach with long and short term goals, with built in flexibility. I could go on and on but his is Eamon's blog. Maybe Kyoto is a waste of time and money but it did get the discussion from the streets to the parliaments, thats a good thing.
Posted by: John McDermott | February 18, 2005 7:10 PM
Dear Visitor No. 1,739
That there is “global warming” seems undisputed. The causes for “global warming” are in disagreement. What would you propose to do about the increasing electrical activity on the Sun, which some scientists say has been raising temperatures on Earth for 200+ years? Personally, I think it’s just a tad hubristic to believe humankind and animals are capable causing any significant warming compared to the Sun.
AIDS is not a disease to be cured. There is no “one cause” and there will not be one shot to "cure" it. AIDS is an acronym for Acquired Immune Deficiency SYNDROME. There are 35 diseases which now comprise this syndrome. Just one disease, Pneumocystis Carinii, is carried by nearly 100% of the human population.
Posted by: Henry | February 19, 2005 1:47 PM
So many reactions John's reaction!
1) A lot of opposition in the US seems to be to the one-sidedness of the focus of the Kyoto Agreement on carbon dioxide and the lack of emphasis on methane. A focus on methane would mean taking action to curb rice paddy production, and nobody wants to go there. It is safer to bang on a country that overproduces some other pollutant.
2) Another lot of the opposition in the US just has to do with do with the fact that this is coming out of Europe. What is it with Europeans thinking they still run the world? Who do think they are anyway!!! Can't they just quietly go back to dangling off the edge of Asia?
3) What is the Kyoto Agreement going to do about that godawful dust cloud that develops every year nowadays over India and now China and wafts over to our West Coast? We could use some help on that one!
4) Now here's the Californian that saw his state overrun from the East throughout the 50', 60' and 70's. Our species' population is out of control Let's hope we all get rich enough fast enough to start having smaller families. This is the one area where Europe really is leading the way.
5) Because otherwise, whether it is AIDS or flu or Ebola, something is going to figure out how to take advantage of such a luscious food supply.
Posted by: Jim | February 22, 2005 10:27 PM
To Henry
I never said AID's I said HIV. Transmitted by blood to blood contact, primarily sex and needles. Almost always preventable by and educated individual. See my initial argument.
Hubristic: Humankind has always been hubristic, we'd be a foot note in the Wolly Mammoth's domination of the Earth if we hadn't been a tad big for our boots.
The sun may be getting warmer, but it's different type of warmth external to our atmosphere, and changeable - hence seasons. CO2 emmisions are internal and stay trapped in the atmosphere causing escalating warming.
To Jim
You are so right - gettin everyone rich enough is a key point. All the help in the world doesn't work unless we are making people better off. It's the great potential of Democracy and Capitalism. The ability to achieve a balance twixt the two is our greatest hope.
Posted by: John McDermott | February 25, 2005 7:16 PM