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Jim Hansen says current carbon levels in the atmosphere were already too high to prevent runaway greenhouse warming. Yet the levels are still rising despite all the efforts of politicians and scientists. (Fuller discussion below
National Day of Action: Hey Long Islanders!!! Have your organizations participate in the National White House Call-In Day on January 21st asking Obama to begin implementing a new energy future through clean and safe renewable energy and energy
On February 5, Long Islanders will participate in, the National Teach-In on Global Warming involving High Schools and Colleges. Still time to get more schools involved! (I’m currently working with faculty at CW Post for an evening event focused on artists.) http://www.nationalteachin.org/actionmap/?type=state&state=NY
Anti-Coal, Green Jobs, Youth Climate Movements Coming to the Fore. By Ezra Small, EENews, January 19, 2009. “In 1967 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called for a ‘radical reordering of our nation’s priorities‘ to create millions of jobs in order to lift African-Americans out of poverty. Today, in the spirit of MLK on his birthday, the anti-coal and youth climate movements are calling for our government to radically reshape the nation’s energy priorities and to stop the long tradition of bailing out obsolete technologies and instead support a new energy future. Immediately following the Inauguration on Jan 20, a number of organizations are launching new campaigns and hosting national conferences to demand that Congress and the Obama administration embrace this unique opportunity to tackle the climate and economic crises. From February 4-6, The Blue-Green Alliance is hosting the Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference in Washington D.C. which will involve over 2,000 labor and environmental advocates and government agencies. Power Past Coal, a new collaboration between environmental and human rights groups is launching a 100 Days of Action between January 21st to April 30th to call on hundreds of people to organize events from Appalachia to Arizona to speak out against dirty coal. The Climate Crisis Coalition is teaming up with the CLEAN Network to call on supporters to participate in the National White House Call-In Day on January 21st asking Obama to begin implementing a new energy future through clean and safe renewable energy and energy efficiency. On February 5, the National Teach-In on Global Warming will engage colleges, universities, high-schools, middle-schools, faith based organizations, civic groups, and businesses in solutions driven dialogue by launching a Solutions for the First 10 Day‘ webcast, roundtable discussions, and video letters to Congress. The Energy Action Coalition is organizing Powershift ’09, where over 10,000 young people will gather in Washington to hold our elected officials accountable for rebuilding our economy and reclaim our future through a 3-day Conference, Lobby Day, and Rally on Capitol Hill, February 27 through March 2. Enjoy the historic inauguration and then take action to seize this crucial mom ent!”
U.S. CAP Proposal Falls Flat. By Stacy Morford, SolveClimate, January 19, 2009. “Rep. Henry Waxman, in his new role as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, whipped the rug out from under the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (U.S. CAP) before the group even had a chance to present its climate action recommendations this morning. By doing so, he sent corporate polluters a clear message that he means business. Waxman said he wants a comprehensive, science-based bill on climate and energy through his committee by the Memorial Day recess. U.S. CAP’s climate plan [PDF, 28 pp] falls far short of what scientists say is the minimum necessary to protect the planet,… Friends of the Earth President Brent Blackwelder summed up much of the environmental community’s reaction when he called the U.S. CAP plan ‘deeply flawed.'”
Depressed Carbon Prices Deter Offsets. By Michael Szabo, Reuters, January 19, 2009. “Tumbling prices for emissions permits may have knock-on effects on the world’s $120 billion carbon market,
Detroit Auto Show Reveals Electric Future. By Hank Green, SciAmerican, January 14, 2009. Hybrid vehicles-each representing a significant advance in the technology — made a strong showing, including the all-new Prius, the all-sleek Honda Insight, and the Ford Focus Hybrid. All of the hybrids rolled out here are expected to be available to consumers by the end of the year.”
California Emission Waiver Looms for Carmakers. By Ken Bensinger, LATimes, January 19, 2009. Obama is expected to grant a waiver allowing California and more than a dozen other states to enforce their own greenhouse-gas emission standards on autos. That would obligate automakers to produce cars that are an average of 3 miles per gallon more efficient by 2015, and 7 mpg more by 2020, according to some calculations…
Cape Wind Construction Could Start by Year’s End.By James Kinsella, Cape Cod Today, January 17, 2009. “Construction of Cape Wind, the first offshore wind farm in the United States, could start by the end of the year, with the project producing power by the end of 2011, developer Jim Gordon said Friday. Gordon, the president and driving force of Cape Wind Associates LLC, which initially proposed a wind farm in Nantucket Sound more than seven years ago, hailed what he said was an ‘extremely favorable’ final environmental impact statement from the U.S. Minerals Management Service on the project…
2008 Ties for 8th Warmest Year. AP, January 16, 2009. “Last year was the eighth warmest year on record, according to the National Climatic Data Center. The world’s temperature in 2008 tied that of 2001 according to the center, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Preliminary calculations show the world’s average temperature for 2008 was 0.88 degree Fahrenheit above the 20th Century average of 57.0 degrees F. The ranking means that all of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 1997.”
American Meteorological Society Gives James Hansen its Top Honor. By Joseph Romm, Climate Progress, January 19, 2009. “The American Meteorological Society has awarded top climate scientist James Hansen its highest medal, the 2009 Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal, for his ‘outstanding contributions to climate modeling, understanding climate change forcings and sensitivity, and for clear communication of climate science in the public arena.”
President ‘has four years to save Earth’ – US must take the lead to avert eco-disaster.
Read the full interview with James Hansen here
Dr James Hansen. Photograph: AP Photos/The Daily Iowan/Melanie Patterson
Barack Obama has only four years to save the world. That is the stark assessment of Nasa scientist and leading climate expert Jim Hansen who last week warned only urgent action by the new president could halt the devastating climate change that now threatens Earth. Crucially, that action will have to be taken within Obama’s first administration, he added.
Soaring carbon emissions are already causing ice-cap melting and threaten to trigger global flooding, widespread species loss and major disruptions of weather patterns in the near future. “We cannot afford to put off change any longer,” said Hansen. “We have to get on a new path within this new administration. We have only four years left for Obama to set an example to the rest of the world. America must take the lead.”
Hansen said current carbon levels in the atmosphere were already too high to prevent runaway greenhouse warming. Yet the levels are still rising despite all the efforts of politicians and scientists.
Only the US now had the political muscle to lead the world and halt the rise, Hansen said. Having refused to recognise that global warming posed any risk at all over the past eight years, the US now had to take a lead as the world’s greatest carbon emitter and the planet’s largest economy. Cap-and-trade schemes, in which emission permits are bought and sold, have failed, he said, and must now be replaced by a carbon tax that will imposed on all producers of fossil fuels. At the same time, there must be a moratorium on new power plants that burn coal – the world’s worst carbon emitter.
Hansen – head of the Goddard Institute of Space Studies and winner of the WWF’s top conservation award – first warned Earth was in danger from climate change in 1988 and has been the victim of several unsuccessful attempts by the White House administration of George Bush to silence his views.
Hansen’s institute monitors temperature fluctuations at thousands of sites round the world, data that has led him to conclude that most estimates of sea level rises triggered by rising atmospheric temperatures are too low and too conservative. For example, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says a rise of between 20cm and 60cm can be expected by the end of the century.
However, Hansen said feedbacks in the climate system are already accelerating ice melt and are threatening to lead to the collapse of ice sheets. Sea-level rises will therefore be far greater – a claim backed last week by a group of British, Danish and Finnish scientists who said studies of past variations in climate indicate that a far more likely figure for sea-level rise will be about 1.4 metres, enough to cause devastating flooding of many of the world’s major cities and of low-lying areas of Holland, Bangladesh and other nations.
As a result of his fears about sea-level rise, Hansen said he had pressed both Britain ‘s Royal Society and the US National Academy of Sciences to carry out an urgent investigation of the state of the planet’s ice-caps. However, nothing had come of his proposals. The first task of Obama’s new climate office should therefore be to order such a probe “as a matter of urgency”, Hansen added.
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