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TechnoratiReverse Climate Change: Reduce Greenhouse Gases 80% below 1990 Levels by 2025
If your doctor told you in 1990 that someone you love had breast cancer and that 80% of her breast would have to be removed immediately in order to save her life - you would not wait until 2025 and remove only 25% of the cancer. Nor would you remove 80% of the cancer, but wait until 2050.
There is scientific consensus that we are in the midst of a worldwide emergency with catastrophic climate change -- the human-made, warming-driven destabilization of the earth's climate system. This crisis is perhaps the most daunting challenge ever faced by humanity. Our survival on this planet may depend on a swift, dramatic response.
The head of the UN Environmental Program says, "It is now unequivocal that the burning of fossil fuels is fundamentally changing our climate." Some have called coal and oil unintended weapons of mass destruction.
In 1990, the statured scientists of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) told the world that to stop catastrophic climate change we must reduce greenhouse gases, mostly carbon dioxide, by 60-80% immediately.
Nineteen years later, due in large part to negligence by the George W. Bush administration, the world has done little to reduce greenhouse gases or avert the threat of catastrophic climate change.
In 2001 the IPCC said that global warming was increasing 50% faster than originally believed. Even so, the toughest proposals offered to date for reducing greenhouse gases is to cut them 25% below 1990 levels by 2025 and 80% by 2050.
We need immediate, worldwide leadership, far bolder than anything currently proposed. Without action, we face devastation from the resulting severe storms, insect infestation, disease, flooding, drought, fire and temperature and weather extremes of all sorts.
Today marks the grassroots launch of Head off the Threat Political Action Committee, hottpac.org, the first and only national PAC working on the grassroots level, to focus exclusively on electing candidates to reverse climate change.
The centerpiece of the hottpac.org platform is reducing greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, 80% below 1990 levels by 2025. We should not wait another two generations for something that should have happened two decades ago.
Ross Gelbspan, author of The Heat is On, says that our response to the crisis of global warming must be "the social counterpart to a climate snap -- a rapid, immense, worldwide gathering of political will " if humanity is to survive.
Let's be clear that dire predictions are no excuse for despair. Instead we must see the challenge of catastrophic climate change as an opportunity for positive change. But how, you ask, can we make such major cuts so quickly?
Clean, Renewable, Non-nuclear Energy
Oil is responsible for about 44% of U.S. fossil-fuel-related carbon dioxide emissions and coal is responsible for up to another 40%. All coal is a dirty, polluting, non-renewable energy source producing 3.7 million tons of carbon dioxide per year on average. Coal fired power plants emit sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, mercury, arsenic and lead.
There is no such thing as "clean coal." In addition, coal mining companies engage in the heinous practice known as mountain-top removal, destroying life in nearby communities.
Renewable energy sources such as wind, tidal, geothermal, solar and small hydro projects create new economic opportunities and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As an added bonus, renewables increase our energy independence and promote national security.
We must support federal policies to mandate that the production of all America's energy come from 100% clean, renewable, non-nuclear sources of energy by no later than 2018. We must mandate the immediate end to construction of all new coal-fired power plants.
Accidents on the scale of Chernobyl, causing death and deformities for generations, can still occur in all commercial reactor designs. Nuclear waste remains an unsolved problem that poses significant long-term health, environmental and safety risks. We have the technology to develop and use clean, safe, renewable sources of energy and do not need more nuclear power plants.
Gasoline Engines
No matter how much we try to create more efficient, less polluting gasoline engines, they will continue to be an unacceptably large source of greenhouse gas emissions. By no later than 2018 we should entirely replace gasoline-powered engines with a technologically feasible range of options including plug-in electric, hydrogen and fuel cell engines.
Deforestation
Greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation are larger than emissions from vehicles, aircraft, ships and trains combined. The loss of forests is the biggest man-made contributor to climate change after burning fossil fuels, accounting for about 20% of global carbon dioxide emissions per year. The best way to remove vast amounts of carbon from the atmosphere is by maintaining healthy forests, meaning an end to all logging on public lands immediately.
Conservation
Significant advances in conservation do not require large-scale new technology. It requires only changes in our life habits. Other countries -- such as Japan, Italy and France -- are far more efficient in their conservation of energy. Even small increases above the pittance the federal government now spends on programs such as conservation, insulation and energy-efficient appliances, could significantly reduce our energy consumption.
We need federal policies to mandate the reduction of energy consumption by 50% by 2018 through serious conservation incentives and education.
Conclusion
No more passing the buck. The gentle measures offered at the United Nations Framework on Climate Change in Poznan, Poland are simply inadequate. It's time to cut greenhouse gas emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2025 and put an end to the cancer of catastrophic climate change. It's our time to lead on the most critical issue of our time.
12 Comments so far
Show AllCNN Meteorologist: Manmade Global Warming Theory 'Arrogant'
Network's second meteorologist to challenge notion man can alter climate.
http://businessandmedia.org/articles/2008/20081218205953.aspx
Sleep tight sweet Aphrodite
Oh Homo erectus ...he wrecked us ...
he wrecked us
So why did he leave us
small brain should have been a select us
Oh Homo erectus ...he wrecked us ...
he wrecked us...
should have left that fire alone...
stuck with the raw ...and left dark matter in the dark...
oh pine for Homo erectus
when fight or flight didn't need to check a manifest
and destiny was timeless
but hush
Sleep tight sweet Aphrodite
the post human era will be even better than before!
for nature will nurture even more
except for the odd meteorite
The biggest sound won't be a bite
though that may seem a little trite
for finite is just time that said good night
Blah blah blah ... Another idiotic article now once against postponing the deadline. So when 2025 hits and we're yet again in a rut, what then? 2050 ? Or what the fuck, 2100 ? The author makes no mention of the need to legalize industrial hemp so that it can replace fossil fuels completely nor does she discuss the need to do away with corn fed shit and give us back our grass fed meat and diary. Instead, all she wants is yet more big government ! Take a fucking hike !
I am not without hope but I am not optimistic at all. How do you do this? The forces arrayed against environmentally sane living are vast, powerful, entrenched, complacent and capable of utter ruthlessness when necessary. They have armies of pliant minions happy to act as errand boys and girls and as mouthpieces. Vast numbers of Americans never read anything or watch the news (most of which is worthless anyway). They don't know or care anything about the world around them. They care about Jesus or gay marriage or pick-up trucks or football teams. They think all that stuff about the environment or global warming is just some incomprehensible and boring "science" thing they see on TV sometimes. They don't relate it at all to their own lives. They work for businessess that profit well off the current rip and rape economy. They listen to preachers who tell them not to worry; their reward waits in heaven.
How do you penetrate this hermetically sealed bubble of willful ignorance and exploitation? Where do you start? The media are owned lock, stock and barrel by beneficiaries of global warming. So is our political class. Our schools are being turned into the educational equivalent of factory farms, churing out mindless and obedient "meat" for the miles of cubicles the machine needs to keep filled. If political success occured somehow despite all this, what do you do about the millions of proto-fascist, gun-owning conspiracy-believing, militia types and their thousands of friends inside the official military?
The article is of course, correct. But how do you get there from here?
"But how do you get there from here?"
We start talking to our neighbors and fellow workers. Building alternative means of communication is as much a science as building alternative energy sources. One cannot happen without the other.
Pollution is the gaseous form of greed and alienation. A clean planet is the materialization of community.
"But how do you get there from here?"
We start talking to our neighbors and fellow workers. Building alternative means of communication is as much a science as building alternative energy sources. One cannot happen without the other.
Anyone watch the Frontline program about the Saudis pushing for more oil use regardless of global warming?
"Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children."
Ancient Native American Proverb
I tghink it was Jim Henson creator of the muppets who said that.
You will likely be called extreme for advocating for such sane and realistic goals. My little article (pasted below) was published in a local sierra club newsletter a few months ago is even more extreme. (Although I am sure the leadership of the sierra club would condemn such a public position).
I am happy to join up with another so called "extremist"! I am no genius but the causes and answers to what ails our biosphere seem obvious to me.
I'd be happy if others used some of my suppositions to advocate for sanity and the biosphere.......
Die Off of 6 Billion People by 2100 …..
“By 2100, the Earth's population will be culled from today's 6.6 billion to as few as 500 million,… “ stated James Lovelock in October of 2007, one of the twentieth century's most influential scientists. (see the whole interview here http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/16956300/the_prophet_of_climate_change_james_lovelock )
Can human civilization change course?
King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of England in the 1920’s did not achieve the lifestyle of today’s average American.
They had no major electric appliances, no air conditioning, no heat pumps, no airline travel, no malls, no super markets, no computers, no cell phones or television.
They may have owned an automobile or two. They were royalty, however they lived without the modern luxuries we take for granted every hour of every day.
The Real Problem: Our Industrial and consumer based civilization does not factor in the external costs of our current lifestyle on the health of the biosphere.
If one weighs all the current science on the state of our natural world, there is only one conclusion, that there is no solution to maintaining our current lifestyles as well as a livable biosphere. What is being offered to us by industry, governments, politicians, and even the big environmental groups are false solutions that only postpone our doom by a few years.
Green Cars: A False Solution
The manufacturing of hybrid, electric or hydrogen automobiles has a larger environmental footprint than manufacturing conventional gasoline automobiles because of the toxins produced during the manufacture and recycling of the batteries and electronics.
Real Solution: No New Automobiles
• Moratorium on the manufacturing and sale of new automobiles by…. 2012
• End of manufacturing of new light trucks and passenger vehicles that achieve less than 30 MPG by 2010
• Existing autos must meet strict emission standards and will be maintained with new motors and parts throughout their existence
Liquid Biofuels: a false solution and great threat to all ecosystems and the world’s poor.
• Rainforest and grasslands are being destroyed around the globe to grow bio-fuel crops
• The Forest Service states that they can degrade 67 million acres of our National Forests to produce 21 billion gallons of ethanol per year
• Ethanol creates higher formaldehyde and ozone emissions degrading air quality
• Food shortages and riots around the world are already being caused by turning food crops into ethanol
• Genetically engineered microbes for wood-to-fuel conversion could create catastrophic harm if accidentally released into the natural world
Real Solutions via Biofuels
• Utilization of waste oils to power public transportation and waste collection fleets within cities
• Biofuels to farmers for food production and food transportation only
Real solutions to avoid human die off and biological holocaust:
• A Moratorium on new highway construction
• 80% Reduction of man made CO2 & methane releases by 2020
• Build New Rail transportation infrastructure to replace essential highways and freeways throughout the US
• Retool industries that are destroying the biosphere to manufacture components for a new restoration and renewable energy economy
• Re-localization of food production, as well as the manufacturing of essential goods and services to minimize trucking
• A Moratorium on all new fossil and uranium fueled power plants
• A Moratorium on all new airports and airport expansion
• Military and aerospace industries will be retooled to manufacture windmills, high efficiency appliances and solar electric technologies
• The Military budgets and personnel will be directed to perform toxic site cleanup (here and abroad), windmill and grid installation, restoration on public lands, and basic energy conservation upgrades to every livable shelter
• Mandate zero release of CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs and methyl bromide
• Mandate zero release of toxins and hormone disrupters into the environment via any manufacturing process or product
• Mandate all non-organic products sold will be reusable or 100% recycled by manufacturer
• Mandate the end of industrial grazing, logging, and mining on public lands
This will require a greater economic and social transition than that during World War II.
However, modern lifestyles will be maintained far beyond that of any human before that time.
We must ask ourselves: what is a living biosphere worth?
Is it worth giving up luxuries like airline travel, a new car, a big screen TV, a few meals per week containing meat, driving alone to work, and buying food and goods produced more than 200 miles away? Is maintaining a functioning community and a stable biosphere worth giving up a few luxuries?
In Conclusion, the big question remains even if we can accomplish the measures prescribed above, will this be enough to avoid the tipping point where global warming is unstoppable, toxins in the environment are beyond biological tolerances, and the subsequent collapse of civilization by the latter half of the 21st century?
I do not know that these real solutions will be enough, however “business as usual” and the false solutions being offered up by industry, corporations, politicians, and the big environmental groups is a recipe for disaster.
Physically join the struggle or the living biosphere that all life depends will collapse.
>>>>>>is a forester, energy conservation technician, endangered species surveyor and has been an ecosystem advocate for about 20 years. He owns three bicycles, has run vegi-oil in autos since 2000, and lives on an urban edible plot.
There is a lot of hype on global warming.
The Carboniferous period had higher levels of CO2 and life prevailed.
Global Warming is a challenge not a holocaust.
The real problem is worldwide extinctions, degraded ecosystems on land and in the sea and free markets that require annual growth as a sign of "health" and a growing worldwide population.
The solution will come after the short-sightedness of the free market system fails or earth's ecosystems collapse. Let's hope for the first one.
Peace.
"By no later than 2018 we should entirely replace gasoline-powered engines with a technologically feasible range of options including plug-in electric, hydrogen and fuel cell engines"
With massive federal expenditures (tens of of billions) we might replace 25% of the existing fleet of gasoline engines in that very short period. We might do it without plunging the country into a massive depression that makes the current situation look like Nirvana if you make that expenditure hundreds of billions.