Putin sees pluses to global warming

[trof]

Reuters
MOSCOW, Sept. 29 — President Vladimir Putin backed away Monday from Russia’s earlier pledge to swiftly ratify a key U.N. pact on curbing global warming — a plan that will collapse without its backing. Putin told delegates at a climate change conference here that “people say we are a northern country and a temperature 2-3 degrees warmer would not be scary, maybe it would be good.”

“YOU WOULD have to spend less money on fur coats and other warm things,” he said, adding that farm output would rise.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/973376.asp?0na=x23027I6-

No, this is not from Ironic Times or the Onion.
:eyes:

[Brucey]

1. Ah, the benefits of global warming.

And, hey, if half the people in Russia died, there would be a lot more room and food for everybody. It's great to be able to see the silver lining.

[emad]

2. It's bloody cold up there...

the oil industry is beginning to boom

the fur coat industry is in decline

Llyudmilla Putin has threatened to move south unless 'Ras' gets his act together and does something about the weather...

[THUNDER HANDS]

3. theoretically

Is it possible to reverse climate change, once the process of warming has occurred?

[Caution]

4. Most likely yes

But by then the damage would be done and it would take decades, perhaps centuries to reverse the process.

[PATRICK]

7. No one seems to get the point that

the earth is relatively teeming with humans and their civilzations compared to past cold snaps. Any sizeable variant in agriculture extended over any time will be catastrophic. Even the warming alone is disruptive. Should one area like Russia somehow temporarily benefit in the long run it might make matters even worse. The world economy would be trashed as well in the dying out process.

People rely heavily on short memories and once a good thing, always a good thing. And we areled by people with much worse reasoning than your run-of-the-mill procrastinating cock-eyed optimism.

[HereSince1628]

13. Maybe and maybe not

Warming may push the environment out of the stable domain it was in and into domains in which the new equilibrium will separated from the old by thresholds that will be difficult to surmount...

[donsu]

16. agree

nt

[mmm]

19. Very soon it will be too late for us

As the size and abundance of commercially targeted fish species has plunged in recent decades, populations of smaller, unexploited organisms --the 'foundation' species of the marine ecosystem-- have also experienced major downshifts, right down to the coral - the
once ubiquitous filter-feeder.

Some combination of global warming, over-fishing and pollution have
damaged the marine nutrient cycle; the oceans are literally starving.
Anyone who dives and travels has seen the changes first hand:
bleached coral, white seaweed replacing the green,
low fish counts and under-sized specimens where diverse communities flourished only twenty years ago.

The next twenty years will tell the tale and I fear
it shall not be a pretty one.

[Dogmudgeon]

5. Warming up to an ICE Age

If global warming causes enough northern ice to melt, it could easily shut down the Atlantic oceanic "conveyer" that brings warm water (and warm weather) to Europe. The result would be a "Little Ice Age" that would drop average temperatures in Europe by five degrees or more.

It sounds ironic, but the science behind it is well-established, and it appears to have happened before in human history. In Russia, such a change would mean a major change in weather for the colder.

See Woods Hole Oceanic Institute research on abrupt climate change:
http://www.whoi.edu/institutes/occi/currenttopics/ct_abruptclimate.htm

--bkl

[PATRICK]

6. Right after meeting Greenhouse Bush

Yet another deal has been struck. He actually is quoting the fallback party line of the Bushco extremists as an aexcuse for pretty much the same things.

Has Bush on the ropes in Iraq too. Boy, nearly all the leaders of the world governments need to be dumped. The Intrigue League play is not worth watching anymore.

[NNN0LHI]

8. This guy has been hanging around with Chimpy too much

Or is that the other way around?

Don

[Mal]

9. It may already be having a real effect

According to 'Catalyst' (an Australian science program), there is a theory that the greenhouse effect and ozone hole are acting to speed up the permanent cyclone around the South Pole. This has the effect of tightening it, pulling the rain-bearing winds further south, meaning that instead of hitting Australia, they miss to the south and the rain falls into the ocean.
Over the last 20 to 30 years, rainfall in Perth has been significantly down, and Melbourne is showing the same.
And our arsehole of a PM still parrots your arsehole of a prez.

[eek]

10. Pooty and poppy's little visit a couple of weeks ago

is starting to have repercussions.
Pooty was at camp Dave a few days ago.

There sure is alotta bush activity surrounding Pooty at the moment.

Maybe this is why Pooty is all "won't ratify Kyoto" and so on.

Maybe this is related to the "let's distance ourselves from unca dick"


yeah and also maybe Pickles gives mongo hummers...

Anyway, it sure is weird out there, huh?

[realFedUp]

11. Resorts in Siberia....

Condos in the Crimea...

[htuttle]

12. I'm not entirely sure Putin is being serious

Given the shot across the bow he sent Bush the other day (vis a vis being asked to 'fight Americans in Afghanistan'), it strikes me that this might be more of the same. It seems like more, rather blunt, positioning for negotiations. I think he's realized that the only way to get through to Bush is to be blunt. As in, "We're not going to let the US make the rest of the world carry its weight in greenhouse emission cutbacks. If the US doesn't do it, we won't do it, and they will be hurt much worse than us."

Seems to me that what Putin would like best is to join the EU in some form at some point. I know that maintaining Russia's 'superpower' status is important to him and his advisors. It seems that snubbing Kyoto outright like Bush would NOT be the best way to get in good with the EU states.

On the other hand, I've always thought that everyone was stupid about something or other. Perhaps the environment is one of Putin's 'stupid zones'.

[On the Road]

18. I Think Putin May be Creating a Bargaining Chip

and why not? A lot of other countries, including the US, are playing chicken with global change.

[Maple]

14. He was joking folks

We say things like that in Canada too, especially on a winter day.

However, we also signed Kyoto.

[HereSince1628]

17. Joking, Da, but really wanting to sell emission credits

Flying over northern Russia you can't help but be impressed with the forests.

I don't know about politicians but their academicians aren't so different from us. I remember a night in Karelia throwing back peppered vodka's and wondering with them about climate change. In the midst of worries about flooding St. Petersburg, and losing seals because the ice floes would melt too early, there was also whimsy about the value of maps based on polar-projections of the globe, and trans-Arctic shipping lanes.

[Bandit]

15. Doesn't he sound just like a Republican ~ Hey it's good for me so who

cares about you. Republicanism at the core.

[davidinalameda]

20. that has to be one of the damn dumbest things I've ever heard

and that's saying a lot since we've had Bush for the past 3 years!

Is stupidity contageous?

[amberdisc]

21. This guy has a wry sense of humour.

Probably would make a good drinking buddy.