[Editor’s note: today’s discussion starts by Dr. Pournelle adding a cautionary comment about Bitcoins, then some thoughts about CO2/global warming debate. He is working hard to recover; you can use the “Well Wishes” page to add your encouragement.]
I have been too brief. It’s hard to type.
Bitcoin is fiat money, and it would not be wise to hold a significant part
of your savings in it. There is a small chance of significant gain and a
large chance of it appreciating at greater than inflation, so therefore
better than holding paper cash. If a real crises comes, something of
survival magnitude, it will be worthless. At least you can start fires with
paper. OF IF WE GET TO THAT. .22 rifle cartridges will be both [be worth] more than
gold..
Carbon dioxide emissions help tropical rainforests grow faster: Study shows trees absorb more greenhouse gas than expected
Even if the climate modelers had a point:
Tropical forests are growing faster than scientists thought due to rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
A Nasa-led study has found that tropical forests are absorbing 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year as they photosynthesise and grow.
And this is far more than is absorbed by the vast areas of boreal forest that encircle the Arctic.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2891432/ Carbon-dioxide-emissions-help- tropical-rainforests-grow- faster-Study-shows-trees- absorb-greenhouse-gas- expected.html Well, look at that, complexity strikes again; maybe the world doesn’t boil down to the limited ideology of people desperately grasping for relevance in global society?
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Most Respectfully,Joshua Jordan, KSC
Percussa Resurgo
We do not want to run an open experiment on increasing CO2 but the amounts so far are fertilizer, not pollutant. We do need to find cheap ways to sequester carbon because Africa must develop. Perhaps CO2 enhanced oil recovery will make economical CO2 happen at a profit. More CO2 is a blessing for farmers, whatever the effect on climate.
I am still wondering where the 2014 is the hottest year on record comes from. It sure wasn’t from the US or Europe.
Advisor Dan Spisak notes:
I would point out that a combination of increased temperatures and greater CO2 levels is contributing to making the oceans more acidic and this is having the effect of putting coral reefs into danger as the very ocean they live in dissolves them. So while there can be positive effects in other parts of the system I fear that the sheer size, complexity, and scope of what is involved means it will be important and challenging to see what the total balance of this is, be it positive, negative or neutral.
From Advisor Peter Glaskowsky:
Ironically, Bitcoin advocates use “fiat money” as a derogatory term for government-backed currency.
Their point is that Bitcoin isn’t issued by anyone. No one entity decides how much Bitcoin should be circulating or what it should be worth. Which is all true, as far as it goes.
But of course Bitcoin is still given an entirely arbitrary value based on a kind of mutual consent that can be altered or withdrawn at any time, just like government-backed currency, so it works out the same way, ultimately.
Hence the irony.
