Global Warming: The Tyranny of "No Debate"

Clive Crook, writing in the National Journal, wants a rational look at global warming solutions, which he views as impossible in the current “poisoned atmosphere (forgive the expression).” To even begin the discussion, Crook goes through a ritual denunciation of Bush, saying his “ill-founded and appallingly executed war has discredited all of the administration's foreign-policy,” and “by skewing his [tax] reforms so outlandishly in favor of the rich -- when the incomes of the highest earners were leaping ahead in any case, and when middle-income households were doing much less well -- Bush has discredited that whole line of thinking.”

But most of all, Bush has made calm discussion of global warming impossible. Crook writes:

there is no such clarity on the costs of climate change -- not even on the costs of the warming experienced so far (that question, in fact, get surprisingly little attention). As for future warming, it seems close to certain that it will happen, but determining how much is very difficult. . .My point is this. The awesome obtuseness of the administration on the issue has created a falsely confident and passionate opposing consensus. . .

Focused on opposing Bush, the global-warming consensus has no appetite for complications and doubts of any sort, about how big a problem this is going to be, or about the best ways of addressing it, even though some of those ways might be immensely expensive. . .For instance, some experts have credibly criticized the economic forecasts underlying the IPCC's simulations on technical grounds. That is apparently impermissible: The critics were immediately dismissed as climate-change deniers.

Another example: In thinking intelligently about how to respond to climate change, policies aimed at adaptation should be weighed alongside steps to slow the rate of warming. Some mixture of the two is sure to make the best sense. Again, however, to talk of adaptation -- to talk of weighing costs against benefits in any methodical way -- is to be regarded as an ally of the White House.