Randall Parker talks good sense on global warming over at FuturePundit.

I’ve written next to nothing (I think, actually, nothing) about GW–er, that’s global warming, not our current president–because the data is (is! is! the data is!) so darn fuzzy. I’m a math guy; I want sixteen significant digits. With GW research you’re lucky to get two.

Yes, we’re going through a warming spell. Yes, it’s got an anthropogenic component–quite likely a large one. And yes, the shrieking catastrophists of the enviro-Left are exceedingly annoying, and they are reaching for our wallets in the hopes of raising up a whole new category of tax-eaters. Beyond that, I wouldn’t bet my house on anything.

Randall’s conclusion–that “we have several quite compelling reasons to take steps to bring the fossil fuel era to an earlier end”–is surely sound. GW aside, surely the sweetest dream of every American (Englishman, German, Japanese,…) right now is to be able to tell the Middle East Muslims: “Thanks for all the oil, but we won’t be needing any more. You guys can go back to herding goats.”

Randall is, however, a bit light on how we get there from here. Who will run his “big R&D push”? The feddle gummint? Howls of laughter from all around. Does anyone–any NRO reader, I mean–think the feddle gummint could tie a knot in a piece of string in less than five years, for less than a billion dollars? How do we get this “big R&D push” going? (One of the commentators on Randall’s piece makes this point. And I note in passing how thoughtful and non-abusive commentators on science blogs are.)