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CO2 Levels Already in Danger Zone
If we want to avert climate disaster we have to reduce atmospheric CO2 below present levels. Like Right Now.
This is a big change in thinking. Until recently many believed we could emit a wee bit more before calling calamity down upon ourselves and everything else. The new paper in Open Atmospheric Science Journal echoes Bill McKibben's piece in the current Mother Jones: The Most Important Number on Earth.
The number is 350. That's parts per million. Atmospheric CO2 is currently at 385 ppm and increasing by about 2 ppm a year from the burning of coal, oil, and gas and forests. Many thought we could get to 450 ppm before disaster. But the new research is based on improved data on Earth's climate history and ongoing observations of change, especially in the polar regions. The researchers combined evidence of Earth's response to past CO2 changes with recent patterns of climate changes. The results show that atmospheric CO2 has already entered a danger zone.
Coal is the largest source of atmospheric CO2 and the one that would be most practical to eliminate. The authors also suggest that reforesting cut woodlands and improving farm practices to retain soil carbon could lower atmospheric CO2 by as much as 50 ppm. They dismiss the notion of geoengineering solutions, noting the price of artificially removing 50 ppm of CO2 from the air would be about $20 trillion.
The authors conclude that moving beyond fossil fuels will require a Herculean effort. But no worse than what went into winning World War II. The greatest danger, they conclude, is continued ignorance and denial, which will make tragic consequences unavoidable.
Lead author James Hansen of Columbia sees a bright side. "Following a path that leads to a lower CO2 amount, we can alleviate a number of problems that had begun to seem inevitable, such as increased storm intensities, expanded desertification, loss of coral reefs, and loss of mountain glaciers that supply fresh water to hundreds of millions of people."
Also good to know: We actually elected a new president promising to usher in an Age of Intelligence. Let's exit the Age of Unequivocal & Dangerous Stupidity as fast as possible.
Julia Whitty is Mother Jones' environmental correspondent, lecturer, and 2008 winner of the PEN USA Literary Award, the Kiriyama Prize and the John Burroughs Medal.
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Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and a top UN official urged industrialised nations Friday to alter their lifestyles and not let the global financial crisis hamper climate change efforts.
Industrialised nations should also help developing countries respond to climate change, Wen said at the opening of a two-day international meeting on global warming in Beijing.
"The developed countries have a responsibility and an obligation to respond to global climate change by altering their unsustainable way of life," the state news agency Xinhua quoted him as saying.
"As the global financial crisis spreads and worsens, and the world economy slows down, the international community must not waver in its determination to tackle climate change."
We need to realize that the kind of money currently being spent propping-up the financial community would be better spent on things like advanced factories to make wind turbines and solar cells - which, if built with public funds, could supply an endless stream of low(or no)-cost devices to virtually everyone. That's the only way I can see to change things fast enough to stop global warming.
Beside solving the energy and looming environmental crisis, this would also provide the number of well-paying jobs needed to boost the economy up to a whole new level.
Nuclear power plants smaller than a garden shed and able to power 20,000 homes will be on sale within five years, say scientists at Los Alamos, the US government laboratory which developed the first atomic bomb.
The miniature reactors will be factory-sealed, contain no weapons-grade material, have no moving parts and will be nearly impossible to steal because they will be encased in concrete and buried underground.
The US government has licensed the technology to Hyperion, a New Mexico-based company which said last week that it has taken its first firm orders and plans to start mass production within five years. 'Our goal is to generate electricity for 10 cents a watt anywhere in the world,' said John Deal, chief executive of Hyperion. 'They will cost approximately $25m each. For a community with 10,000 households, that is a very affordable $2,500 per home.'
Deal claims to have more than 100 firm orders, largely from the oil and electricity industries, but says the company is also targeting developing countries and isolated communities. 'It's leapfrog technology,' he said.
China? That's rich. That's like us lecturing the world on climate change.
I've just about given up, it's time to start thinking about construction shelters or space colonies so some of the human race can survive.
NASA is faking data, Al Gore is blowing away tens of thousands of pounds of jet fuel a year,
China has the nerve to tell the rest of the world to tighten their belts because WE? pollute too much.
Huh.
Global temps seem to be more closely tied to the sunspot cycle than recently known. We are currently in a cooling trend that could last for some time, and could possibly be moderate to semi-severe. So don't start jumping out of windows yet guys. CO2 needs to be brought under control, but it wont be a quick or easy road. We are still in the awareness phase of the game.