> > I appreciate your concern but could you please > > put a Twin Cities related twist on these? > > > > -Allen Graetz > > MPLS
Updated message August 13, 2004 Twin City people and media: Did anyone consider speaking to the NOAA Administrator on recommendations for taking immediate action to slow our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per my request? Everyone needs to be informed and stay up to date concerning the facts on global warming, and to take major action immediately to reduce your individual greenhouse gas emissions. I did that four years ago when I moved to Chanhassen from St. Paul to allow me to bike or walk to work. I travel very little and use a small amount of power compared to others that I know. I rarely travel to Minneapolis. I will pay my taxes that may be used without my approval to pay for commuter rail. Commuter rail and other kinds of transportation will not lesson the damage being done to the atmosphere by greenhouse gas emission. More choices for transportation will likely mean that more people will travel more, in my view, doing more damage to the environment and the health of other people in many ways. As I said earlier, everyone needs to be informed and stay up to date concerning the facts on global warming, and to take major action immediately to reduce your individual greenhouse gas emissions. Doing that is an individual responsibility. Your government, the media, the scientists and other people are not accepting that responsibility for you, or for your families, or friends or others. No one is accepting responsibility for others on the well known severe damage that is being done to the atmosphere and climate. Rapid global warming is happening now. No serious actions are being taken to reduce the primary cause of rapid global warming our greenhouse gas emissions from our transportation and our power plants. Additional information on this is available at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ClimateArchive/ Pat Neuman Chanhassen > August 12, 2004 > Twin City people and media, > > Please take this opportunity to speak to the NOAA Administrator on > recommendations for taking immediate action to slow our greenhouse > gas (GHG) emissions. Scientific consensus is that GHG emissions > are driving catastrophic rates of global climate warming. The > catastrophic rates of warming are already being observed by the > rapid thaw of the world's ice and permafrost, the warming oceans, > and the rapid increases in global temperatures and humidity. > > Please see previous messages, titles, excerpt & links below: > > [TCMetro] Administrator of NOAA in Chanhassen,Minneapolis on Thurs . Aug. 12 > http://www.noaa.gov/lautenbacher.html > > WOODS HOLE - IMPORTANT - World Bank undermines efforts on global warming > > Excerpt: > "The atmospheric burden of human-produced heat-trapping gases, > especially carbon dioxide" (Woods Hole article)." ... "The full > effects of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, without continued > additions, will extend far beyond current predictions." > > We cannot continue to ignore that reality. We should find humane > ways for helping these people use their human resources potential to > improve their lives and the world environment. I think there are > ways to do that. Can anyone suggest some ways? I think former US > president Jimmy Carter would have some suggestions on the ways to > help them use their potential to help, not hurt, themselves and others. > > "The failure of the United States and others to take international > leadership in correcting this trend is inexcusable, but this failure > in no way justifies the action of the World Bank in leading the > world into even greater reliance on fossil fuels." > ... > http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/08/ 11/world_bank_undermines_efforts_on_global_warming?mode=PF > > > Pat Neuman > Chanhassen -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of P. Neuman self only Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2004 4:46 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [TCMetro] WOODS HOLE - IMPORTANT - World Bank undermines efforts onglobal warming World Bank undermines efforts on global warming By George M. Woodwell and Kilaparti Ramakrishna August 11, 2004 WOODS HOLE WHILE WE are all preoccupied with an unnecessary war costing billions of dollars and eating up time that might far better be spent on the alleviation of poverty and disease, global climatic disruption gains momentum and moves toward irreversible climatic chaos. The World Bank recently met to consider continued support for development of new sources of fossil fuels, the primary cause of the climatic disruption. It decided to continue support in the interest of offering succor to those less developed nations that might sell oil or coal or gas into the world markets. The action calls attention once again to the growing discrepancy between what the scientific community is saying about the state of the world and what the political and economic communities are willing to hear. The fact is that the environment is being changed in ways that destroy its life- supporting capacities. Immediate effective steps must be taken to stop the erosion. First, the world must move away from a reliance on fossil fuels -- coal, oil, and gas -- as the energy source for industrialization. There is, of course, enormous resistance to this change. The political and economic interests of the fossil fuel industry and its allies are overwhelming. They argue, in a now stereotypical pattern, that the scientists are wrong, then that the scientists may be right but change is very expensive and the expense is not justified, and, finally, that it is too late to try because we cannot stop the changes. The World Bank, on the other hand, has an international legal personality and a position of leadership. Its job is to improve the world, to aid in economic development. While one might question the organization's methods, its mission is certainly not to drive the world into impoverishment. Yet the human undertaking that the World Bank wishes to advance is dependent upon a functioning environment that is being destroyed daily by current use of fossil fuels. The best way to eliminate a pest, defeat an enemy, or cause the erosion of society is to change the environment out from under it. History is rich in examples as climate or soil or other environmental resources have collapsed and caused the demise of one civilization after another. The difference now is that the changes are global and the global industrial civilization with all of its successes and all of its promise is at hazard. The atmospheric burden of human-produced heat-trapping gases, especially carbon dioxide, is more than 30 percent above what it was a century ago and far higher than it has been at any time in the last 460,000 years. And it will soar under current policies to levels that are in fact unpredictable as the warming feeds on itself by stimulating further releases of heat trapping gases from forests and soils and as the seas warm and absorb less of the excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The full effects of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, without continued additions, will extend far beyond current predictions. The failure of the United States and others to take international leadership in correcting this trend is inexcusable, but this failure in no way justifies the action of the World Bank in leading the world into even greater reliance on fossil fuels. If the bank requires justification in international action, it has it in the Framework Convention on Climate Change, a treaty that has been ratified by all the nations, including the United States, and provides for "stabilizing" the heat trapping gas content of the atmosphere at levels that will protect human interests and nature. It is time for the public to hold the World Bank and other international development agencies to a far higher set of environmental standards than has been set by most of the governments that delegates to the governing board represent. Failure to do so assures the ultimate and final failure of the central mission of government at all levels, but most conspicuously in the international realm that the international development banks serve. George M. Woodwell and Kilaparti Ramakrishna are the director and deputy director of the Woods Hole Research Center. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/08/ 11/world_bank_undermines_efforts_on_global_warming?mode=PF Forwarded from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] j2997 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fuelcell-energy/ -------- End of Forwarded message from j2997 Financial incentives-ConserveNow! Please forward widely. Pat Neuman Chanhassen, MN http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ClimateArchive/ ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the Internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the Web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! _______________________________________________ Twin Cities Metropolitan Issues Forum http://www.e-democracy.org/tcmetro Rules: Sign posts with real name. You may not post more than twice a day.
