Worldwatch - Window To Stop Catastrophic Warming Closing Rapidly- ENN

[hatrack]

EDIT

�The world is running out of time to head off catastrophic climate change, and it is essential that Europe and the rest of the international community bring pressure to bear on U.S. policy makers to address the climate crisis,�� said Assadourian, who spoke at the Barcelona launch of Vital Signs. �The United States must be held accountable for its emissions, double the per capita level in Europe, and should follow the EU lead by committing to reducing its total greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. This summer, the European Union has become a showcase for how the world will be transformed by climate change, including tragic fires in Greece and the Canary Islands, dramatic floods in England, and heat waves across the Continent. Assadourian urged European leaders to push the U.S. to engage more constructively with the international community on climate change, starting at the United Nations late this month and in the Bali Climate negotiations at the end of the year.

EDIT

While U.S. carbon emissions continue to grow, the fastest growth is occurring in Asia, particularly China and India. But without a U.S. commitment to emissions constraints, persuading China and India to commit to reductions is unlikely. �The only hope for reducing the world�s carbon emissions is for the U.S. to begin reducing its emissions and cooperating with other nations immediately. The EU may be the only entity that can make that happen,�� said Assadourian.

�With the U.S. Congress preparing to take up far-ranging climate legislation this fall, and with President Bush planning to hold an international climate change summit in Washington, now is the time to act. If the U.S. and other nations walk away without concrete plans to implement a binding agreement, the EU should not hesitate to use its diplomatic clout to press the issue,�� suggested Assadourian.

Already, the window to prevent catastrophic climate change appears to be closing. Some governments are starting to redirect their attention away from climate change mitigation and towards staking their claims in a warming world. �Canada is spending $3 billion to build eight new patrol boats to reinforce its claim over the Arctic waterways. Denmark and Russia are starting to vie for control over the Lomonosov Ridge, where new sources of oil and natural gas could be accessed if the Arctic Circle becomes ice free�fossil fuels that will further exacerbate climate change. These actions assume that a warming world is here,�� said Assadourian.

EDIT/END

http://www.enn.com/climate/article/23042

[leebert]

1. We can widen this global warming window

There's a simple solution immediately in the offing: Scrub the soot from China's smokestacks!

see:
http://leebert.newsvine.com
http://www.scientificblogging.com/the_soot_files

Overturning the conventional wisdom that airborne soot emissions only cause regional cooling it has been found that brown clouds of airborne soot can contribute to 50 percent of atmospheric heating that had been previously blamed on CO2 emissions. Because of the worldwide scope of airborne soot - such as the vast Asian Brown Clouds - atmospheric models that ascribe certain regional warming trends only to CO2 may need revisiting.

The lead researcher in this study, Prof. V. Ramanathan of the Scripps Institute commented, "The conventional thinking is that brown clouds have masked as much as 50 percent of the global warming .. through ... global dimming ... This study reveals that ... soot particles ... are intensifying the atmospheric warming ... by as much as 50 percent."

Other related studies have found that most airborne soot emissions are from industrial sources - particularly coal-powered industries - with only 10 percent originating from cook fires and diesel-powered vehicles.

In fact, easily a third of all global warming could be attributed to Asian Soot. These vast shrouds of soot are predominantly from coal-fired industrial sources in Asia, creating the notorious Asian Brown Cloud. Most of the soot falling on the Arctic comes from Asia, 90 percent of the Arctic melt is due to dirty snow melting faster than it can be created. Climate models show that 25 percent of *ALL* global warming is from the Arctic & tundra ice loss.

About 30 percent of the warming on the American West coast is due to Asian soot. 40 percent of the warming in the vast Pacific is due to Asian soot - that�s 30 percent of the Earth�s surface area, causing up to 12 percent of all global warming - just from Asian soot alone. The American Sierra�s are melting sooner due to dirty snow, same goes for the glacial recessions in the Northern Rockies.

There are more vast palls of soot spanning the globe from seasonal slash&burns in the tropics & subtropics, creating a double-whammy for mountaintop glaciers in the tropics � Kilimanjaro�s suffering from lowered microclimate precipitation due to deforestation, coupled with increased solar luminence...

We�re off-shoring production to China, shifting jobs, etc. overseas. In countries committed to Kyoto�s carbon trading scheme, Kyoto�s serving to back-door emissions with the shifted production, which then accelerates globalization by encouraging the additional shifting of production (and jobs) to Asia along with the emissions.

[XemaSab]

2. I'm unaccountably irritated by the tone of this article

Europe has a higher population density than we do. If you live in a city apartment and have a decent public transportation system, of course you're going to generate less carbon than an American living in the suburbs.

Whose fault is it that Americans live in big suburban houses? I guess you could trace it all back to poor city planning and the availability of cheap land, among other factors.

The thing that really bugs me about the blame-America-first tone is that ANYONE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD would make the same housing and transportation decisions Americans make if they were given the same choices.

[Dead_Parrot]

3. Yeah, but you fucked up first

Have a cigar.

:P

[XemaSab]

4. I'm reminded of a watershed management class

where one of the students said "Well, the Europeans have been successfully managing their environment for thousands of years, let's see how THEY do things!"

To which my thought was "When we look at Europe we're looking at what's LEFT after thousands of years of non-stewardship."

We don't even know what the extinction/extirpation rate has been there. All I know is that in the US (and NZ!) we still have wilderness, unlike Europe, which is a big park.

Let he who is without sin.... :P

[razzleberry]

5. Europe and Canada are very bad examples

we all know how much Canada's
ratification of the Kyoto treaty is worth --> nothing

as for Europe, the picture is cloudy, as I assume
Europe is going to paper over their gross overemissions
with phoney carbon offsets, of one type or another.

too bad Europe can't put the effort directed
towards skirting their Kyoto obligation,
into something useful