Sunday, January 18, 2009

Climate Change Irreversible in Four Years?

Really, how many times are we going to hear this "dire" warning:
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.
Really, seriously, how many more times is this warning going to be repeated? Despite all contrary evidence, we have to take a look the panic and the stupid policies overreacting is going to create.

2 comments:

Jose said...

Panic? Who is panicking? Rudd has committed Australia to a useless 5%reduction in emissions. Britain and parts of Europe are taking some effective and innovative measures, but still plenty more to do. US is USeless, but with Bush gone that should change. I don't see any signs of panic, unless you mean the skeptics who predict disaster if their little world is changed one iota. Never mind the fact that if climate change does happen on the scale predicted we may not have a world any more.

Anonymous said...

I'm not seeing much panic in my community either.

Not to mention that according to a report released yesterday Jan. 27, CURRENT damage to the climate will take 1,000 years to reverse.