'US Climate Policy Bigger Threat to World than Terrorism'

[G_j]

www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0109-02.htm
Published on Friday, January 9, 2004 by the lndependent/UK

'US Climate Policy Bigger Threat to World than Terrorism'
by Steve Connor

Tony Blair's chief scientist has launched a withering attack on President George Bush for failing to tackle climate change, which he says is more serious than terrorism.

Sir David King, the Government's chief scientific adviser, says in an article today in the journal Science that America, the world's greatest polluter, must take the threat of global warming more seriously.

"In my view, climate change is the most severe problem that we are facing today, more serious even than the threat of terrorism," Sir David says.

The Bush administration was wrong to pull out of the Kyoto protocol, the international effort to limit the emission of greenhouse gases, and wrong to imply the protocol could adversely affect the US economy, Sir David says. "As the world's only remaining superpower, the United States is accustomed to leading internationally co-ordinated action. But the US government is failing to take up the challenge of global warming.

"The Bush administration's strategy relies largely on market-based incentives and voluntary action ... But the market cannot decide that mitigation is necessary, nor can it establish the basic international framework in which all actors can take their place."

Results of a major study showed yesterday that more than a million species will become extinct as a result of global warming over the next 50 years. Sir David says the Bush administration is wrong to dispute the reality of global warming. The 10 hottest years on record started in 1991 and, worldwide, average temperatures had risen by 0.6C in the past century.

Sea levels were rising, ice caps were melting and flooding had become more frequent. The Thames barrier was used about once a year in the 1980s to protect London but now it was used more than six times a year.
...more...
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related items:

**Revealed: how global warming will cause extinction of a million species
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_medical/story.jsp?story=479080
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**Global Warming is Here Now, Say U.N. Delegates http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/121403G.shtml
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**Global Warming Kills 150,000 People a Year, Warns UN
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/121303G.shtml
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**The Four Degrees (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit): How Europe's Hottest Summer Shows Global Warming is Transforming Our
World
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=471135
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**Earth Warming at Faster Pace, Say Top Science Group's Leaders
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1218-01.htm
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**Climate Change Laid to Humans
Report Warns There's 'No Doubt' Industry is Primary Cause
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1204-04.htm
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**Melting Ice 'Will Swamp Capitals'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/120903H.shtml
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**Inuit begin rights case over global warming
www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/12/15/1071336885565.html
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**Global warming imperils ski slopes
Resorts need to move uphill as snow line continues retreat.
http://www.news-leader.com/today/1203-Globalwarm-232039.html
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[Dimsdale]

1. Thanks.

Surely we can enlist a "scholar" or two from The Cato Institute to remind us that all of this global warming nonsense is the product of junk science. Nothing to sweat here, folks!

[arko]

7. Climate Change

I don't know what to think about this. Junk science says the studies are flawed. The models they use don't take into account particle emissions, clouds, increases and decreases in solar activity.

The thing that keeps sticking in my mind is that 1,000 years ago Vikings farmed, produced crops, ran herds of cattle in a part of Greenland that is now basically tundra. Doesn't that mean that at least in Greenland it was warmer 1,000 years ago than it is now.

I don't think they had SUV's either. So what should we believe and why.

[FDRrocks]

2. *shhhhh*

We're not supposed to think about that! Move on, nothing to see here!

[Miramar]

3. What about peak oil --

How would the global warming scenario be affect by the 'oil peak' scenario described elsewhere? If the oil scarcity starts effecting us in 5 - 10 years, will the reduction in the use thereof save us from global warming?

[Stone_Spirits]

4. not enough.. emissions may increase by 75%

http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/120903H.shtml


<snip>
To avoid such catastrophe, the report says that industrialised countries will have to cut emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide by at least 20 per cent by 2020, and by up to 60 per cent by 2050. The Kyoto Protocol would at best cut them by 5 per cent by 2012, and probably less, even if it were brought into force and fully implemented.

     In the meantime the world looks as if it will greatly exceed the targets. Writing in The Independent on Sunday today, Michael Meacher, the former environment minister, calculates that global emissions of greenhouse gases could increase by 75 per cent by 2020, "putting the world well on the way to doomsday".

[G_j]

6. may have already peaked

but our greenhouse emissions will still
be increasing for a while.

[Minstrel Boy]

10. then it's back to coal

which burns much dirtier.

[are_we_united_yet]

5. Average Bush Supporter / Flag waiver response....

"Wow. Now where can I find a cheap gas station to fill up my Hummer?"

[Mari333]

8. since all of our kids have left

Its been downsizing in every way for us. We moved into the bottom floor of our large house, cut off the heat upstairs, cut off the small cottage we own, cut off the energy except to a small area we live in...and only drive when we absolutely have to..
Simplicity. we dont buy anything but food when we need it. we eat very little, and whenever I see a consumer in a HUmmer driving around, or a large SUV, I see the blood of all of those 500 soldiers that died and the thousands wounded or dead in Iraq being pumped into their tanks.
I refuse to buy anything now except for food, and even that I forage from my woods in the spring and summer.
I hate the fact that I even have to use gas to heat the house. Right now, I have no other alternative.

[G_j]

9. don't let

anyone tell you these things don't make a difference, they do. Imagine what a diffence a million Americans conserving energy and resources makes, being the number one per capita consumers on the planet. Imagine the difference a wise and visionary American energy policy would make.

[G_j]

11. Climate Change Portal

Below are a sampling of articles to be found at,
http://www.climateark.org/news/

Title: Climate Change Forecast to Extinguish One Million Species

Source: Copyright 2004, Environment News Service

Date: January 8, 2004

WASHINGTON, DC, January 8, 2004 (ENS) - Climate change could drive more than a quarter of all land animals and plants into extinction, a new study published today has determined. The Earth's warming climate could extinguish the existence of more than one million species, the researchers estimate.
..more..
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Title: Broad study on climate envisions extinctions
  Global warming may kill 37% of wildlife in hotspots

Source: Copyright 2004, Baltimore Sun
Date: January 8, 2004

Byline: Dennis O'Brien, Sun Staff
A team of international scientists says global warming could drive to extinction more than a third of the wildlife in the world's most ecologically sensitive areas by 2050 - and have similar, if less devastating effects on plants and animals worldwide.
..more..
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[G_j]

12. kick

:bounce: