Alex Tabarrok is Not An ****** Reporter

Alex Tabarrok reports:

John Tierney relays today what seems like a very sensible idea from economist Ross McKitrick, tie a carbon tax to the temperature. If the temperature rises the tax goes up, if the temperature does not rise (as McKitrick, a climate change skeptic thinks) the tax will stay at a low level. Temperature of the troposphere would be measured by satellite at the equator and averaged over a period of time.

After claiming that everyone ought to agree, he predicts that those concerned about anthropogenic global warming won't. After the comments accumulate he comes back with:

Addendum: As predicted most of the objections (in the comments) are from climate change proponents. In essence, they argue that the problem is so serious that we must act before the evidence is in. . .

I read every critical comment to that point (and made some) and that is not an honest reporting of the objections posted. The most frequent objections were that (a)Because climate lags CO2 waiting until temperature heats up a lot means you will be too late and (b) that the evidence decidely is in. You can't wait to act until the last flat Earth idiot concedes. Equally important, it was pointed out that the method McKittric suggests for measuring temperature change is puposely designed to be minimally sensitive to actual climate change. Warming overwhelmingly takes place in high latitudes, not at the equator, and satellites have proven themselves insensitive to warming at the surface.

UPDATE: Just as I might have predicted, Alex took offense at my description of his reporting style. He might have done better to consider why a diagnostic that doesn't diagnose well until the patient is dead is a poor choice when you want to prevent calamity.

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