[geo] Re: Hansen Outlines His Stimulus Package

[John Nissen]

Hi Alvia, Jim Hansen is right to warn of a "devil's cauldron", but he is wrong that the risk can be avoided by emissions reduction, because even the most drastic emissions reduction would take decades to reverse global warming and bring the CO2 level down to 250 ppm.  Meanwhile something in the cauldron will have started an irreversible process. His "levy and dividend" scheme should put most of the levy towards geoengineering both to cool the planet and to reduce CO2.   And, Alvia, I am afraid that, by the time nature acts to cause a minor catastrophe for the US, it will be too late for geoengineering to save us all from the devil's cauldron. Cheers, John --- Alvia Gaskill wrote: Note: the Senate won't begin taking up Waxman-Markey until September.  September, warm days, cool nights and probably 10% unemployment.  Not exactly perfect timing for the world's greatest debating society to take action.  If the bill dies in the Senate, most likely Copenhagen will turn out to be one great vacation for delegates from more than 150 nations and not much else.  To get REAL action like that proposed by Hansen, an environmental 911 is necessary.  But, Osama doesn't do climate.  So we have to wait for nature to act.  And act she will.   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-james-hansen/g-8-failure-reflects-us-f_b_228597.html   G-8 Failure Reflects U.S. Failure on Climate Change Jim Hansen is director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, but he writes on this policy-related topic as a private citizen. [snip] I ... have explained why to members of Congress before and will again at a Capitol Hill briefing on July 13. Science has exposed the climate threat and revealed this inconvenient truth: If we burn even half of Earth's remaining fossil fuels we will destroy the planet as humanity knows it. The added emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide will set our Earth irreversibly onto a course toward an ice-free state, a course that will initiate a chain reaction of irreversible and catastrophic climate changes. The concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere now stands at 387 parts per million, the highest level in 600,000 years and more than 100 ppm higher than the amount at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Burning just the oil and gas sitting in known fields will drive atmospheric CO2 well over 400 ppm and ignite a devil's cauldron of melted icecaps, bubbling permafrost, and combustible forests from which there will be no turning back. But if we cut off the largest source of carbon dioxide, coal, we have a chance to bring CO2 back to 350 ppm and still lower through agricultural and forestry practices that increase carbon storage in trees and soil. [snip] --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To post to this group, send email to geoengineering@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to geoengineering+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---