Heat and Hope: Time Running Out for Steep Emissions Cuts

The world will have to reduce emissions more drastically than has been widely predicted, essentially ending the emission of carbon dioxide by 2050 to avoid catastrophic disruption to the world’s climate, according to State of the World 2009: Confronting Climate Change, released today by the Worldwatch Institute. Yet opportunities abound in renewable energy and efficiency improvements, agriculture and forestry, and the resilience of societies for slowing and managing climate change, according to the book’s 47 authors.

“We’re privileged to live at a moment in history when we can still avert a climate catastrophe that would leave the planet hostile to human development and well-being,” (more…)

Die Gerichtsaussage von Dr. James Hansen, gefolgt von einem Freispruch der angeklagten Greenpeace Aktivisten, ist ein wichtiger Erfolg für alle Klimaschützer. Unten die vollständige Version im original von Jim Hansen.

Good news from the UK: the Kingsnorth Six were acquitted by a Crown Court jury.  They were members of a group of 23 Greenpeace volunteers who had attempted to shut down the Kingsnorth coal-fired power plant, specifically the six were the ones painting the smokestack with “Gordon Bin It” when interrupted by the police.  Their defense was ‘lawful excuse’, that they were protecting property of greater value (the Earth!) from the impact of climate change.  We will need our Mercedes-driving lawyer friends to tell us if the verdict has greater significance — but the jurors were common people, not politicians.  It was an impressive show — judge and lawyers with their white wigs — hopefully it has an impact. (more…)

An abrupt release of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, from ice sheets that extended to Earth’s low latitudes some 635 million years ago caused a dramatic shift in climate, scientists funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) report in this week’s issue of the journal Nature.

The shift triggered events that resulted in global warming and an ending of the last “snowball” ice age.

The researchers believe that the methane was released gradually at first and then very quickly from clathrates–methane ice that forms and stabilizes beneath ice sheets. (more…)

Reprint from James Hansen; dieser Artikel wird noch ins Deutsche übersetzt.

Recent analyses indicate that the amount of atmospheric CO2 required to cause dangerous climate change is at most 450 ppm, and likely less than that. Reductions of non-CO2 climate forcings can provide only moderate, albeit important, adjustments to the CO2 limit. Realization of how close the planet is to ‘tipping points’ with unacceptable consequences, especially ice sheet disintegration with sea level rise out of humanity’s control, has a bright (more…)