‘Modest’ climate change ‘beneficial’ for the globe: Steven Koonin

Sky News Australia

‘Modest’ climate change ‘beneficial’ for the globe: Steven Koonin

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Modest global warming will be beneficial for the planet and even if the temperature increases by two or three degrees Celsius the impacts will be modest, according to Professor Steven Koonin. It is in fact getting warmer, its gotten about one degree Celsius warmer since 1900, and that warming is thought to be in part due to human influences and in part due to natural phenomenon, he told Sky News. The assessment reports say that a modest warming will actually be beneficial for the globe, and only when we get to two or three degrees do we start to see some impacts, and even those, the official reports say, will be modest. Professor Koonin authored Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn't, and Why It Matters and served as the undersecretary for science in the US Department of Energy under the Obama administration. The truth is that this climate change is not a hoax, but its not horrible either, he said. I believe that we will be able to manage it largely by adaptation because reducing our emissions on the scale required to make a difference is, I would say, practically impossible. Professor Koonin said when drastic, large-scale measures proposed start to impact ordinary people, theyre going to stand back and say is this really worth it, is this really so much of a threat. Even if the warming got as much as three or four degrees, the reports themselves say that the economic impact will be equivalent to a couple years worth of growth at the end of the century, 80 years from now, he said. Even the official reports say this is not a big deal economically. Professor Koonin said depending on the climate model, the Earth could warm from 1.5 to 4.5 degrees Celsius. Read More Our Apps