http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080624/ap_on_sc/sci_warming_scientist;_ylt=Ar8Vg75EZSfboc_n4KZIfJ1I2ocA
WASHINGTON - Exactly 20 years after warning America about global warming, a top NASA scientist said the situation has gotten so bad that the world's only hope is drastic action.
James Hansen told Congress on Monday that the world has long passed the "dangerous level" for greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and needs to get back to 1988 levels. He said Earth's atmosphere can only stay this loaded with man-made carbon dioxide for a couple more decades without changes such as mass extinction, ecosystem collapse and dramatic sea level rises.
"We're toast if we don't get on a very different path," Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute of Space Sciences who is sometimes called the godfather of global warming science, told The Associated Press. "This is the last chance."
The year of Hansen's original testimony was the world's hottest year on record. Since then, 14 years have been hotter, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Two decades later, Hansen spent his time on the question of whether it's too late to do anything about it. His answer: There's still time to stop the worst, but not much time.
"We see a tipping point occurring right before our eyes," Hansen told the AP before the luncheon. "The Arctic is the first tipping point and it's occurring exactly the way we said it would."
Hansen, echoing work by other scientists, said that in five to 10 years, the Arctic will be free of sea ice in the summer."
This is for the all the arm chair experts which we have some around here who think they know more than people like one of the top scientists at Nasa.
We ignored the warnings 20 years ago and really are doing very little that says we take them seriously now.In fact many are talking about doing things that would just make the problem worse.Like drilling and using even more oil,using more coal etc. etc. etc....
Some think this is all some left wing conspiracy to punish the high consumption rich countries and their peoples.For the life of me I don't see what the motivation for that would be especially on the part of the scientists like this guy.Ted Turner said basically the same thing not to long ago that mankind faced dire consequences and was denounced by some.And a member here yesterday accused me of having must be severly depressed lol to point out the same things here.While I would say I think the problem is the most serious one mankind has ever faced I am not a 20 or 30 something so I may not live long enough anyway to to see the really bad effects but even if I do is it better to just ignore it and act like it's not happening?No I think not as the scientists says we still have time but not much he says.
So what do you folks think we should do? Ignore it and hope these people are all wrong? I have many times said what I think we should do,which is aggressively promote population reduction by encouraging reduction in birth rates worldwide and moving towards a lot of new energy production using mainly nuclear power with also as much as possible from the other non CO2 adding methods like wind,solar etc.While I consider myself to be on the left politically my support for nuclear power is not something a lot on the left support,but they like the people on the right who support using oil and coal have to make some hard choices IMO.We have to have energy and we have to do something about the climate change.Conservation(new cafe standards for cars etc) needs to be part of it but so does new clean energy production.I am waiting and hoping that maybe one of the political parties/candidates will really talk some hard truths to people, lay this out and say lets not think we can ignore it another 20 years.That person would be a true leader IMO.While I don't think McCain is entirely incapable of saying such I do think Obama and the dems is more likely too.Enviormentalists do not have an economic interest in seeing oil and coal not be replaced by nuclear like the pubs and their supporters do,they may have to accept reluctantly nuclear power but they don't lose money by doing that.And I think the biggest opposition to doing anything about this is really the vested monied interests which fund the people who deny climate change etc..
But again and I guess this is the part that people have the toughest time grasping is the population issue.If we don't curb the population explosion it will be difficult to not use every form of energy available.A billion or 2 people even living relatively dirty would have a lot less impact than 7-9 billion under just about any scenario.:2 cents:
WASHINGTON - Exactly 20 years after warning America about global warming, a top NASA scientist said the situation has gotten so bad that the world's only hope is drastic action.
James Hansen told Congress on Monday that the world has long passed the "dangerous level" for greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and needs to get back to 1988 levels. He said Earth's atmosphere can only stay this loaded with man-made carbon dioxide for a couple more decades without changes such as mass extinction, ecosystem collapse and dramatic sea level rises.
"We're toast if we don't get on a very different path," Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute of Space Sciences who is sometimes called the godfather of global warming science, told The Associated Press. "This is the last chance."
The year of Hansen's original testimony was the world's hottest year on record. Since then, 14 years have been hotter, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Two decades later, Hansen spent his time on the question of whether it's too late to do anything about it. His answer: There's still time to stop the worst, but not much time.
"We see a tipping point occurring right before our eyes," Hansen told the AP before the luncheon. "The Arctic is the first tipping point and it's occurring exactly the way we said it would."
Hansen, echoing work by other scientists, said that in five to 10 years, the Arctic will be free of sea ice in the summer."
This is for the all the arm chair experts which we have some around here who think they know more than people like one of the top scientists at Nasa.
We ignored the warnings 20 years ago and really are doing very little that says we take them seriously now.In fact many are talking about doing things that would just make the problem worse.Like drilling and using even more oil,using more coal etc. etc. etc....
Some think this is all some left wing conspiracy to punish the high consumption rich countries and their peoples.For the life of me I don't see what the motivation for that would be especially on the part of the scientists like this guy.Ted Turner said basically the same thing not to long ago that mankind faced dire consequences and was denounced by some.And a member here yesterday accused me of having must be severly depressed lol to point out the same things here.While I would say I think the problem is the most serious one mankind has ever faced I am not a 20 or 30 something so I may not live long enough anyway to to see the really bad effects but even if I do is it better to just ignore it and act like it's not happening?No I think not as the scientists says we still have time but not much he says.
So what do you folks think we should do? Ignore it and hope these people are all wrong? I have many times said what I think we should do,which is aggressively promote population reduction by encouraging reduction in birth rates worldwide and moving towards a lot of new energy production using mainly nuclear power with also as much as possible from the other non CO2 adding methods like wind,solar etc.While I consider myself to be on the left politically my support for nuclear power is not something a lot on the left support,but they like the people on the right who support using oil and coal have to make some hard choices IMO.We have to have energy and we have to do something about the climate change.Conservation(new cafe standards for cars etc) needs to be part of it but so does new clean energy production.I am waiting and hoping that maybe one of the political parties/candidates will really talk some hard truths to people, lay this out and say lets not think we can ignore it another 20 years.That person would be a true leader IMO.While I don't think McCain is entirely incapable of saying such I do think Obama and the dems is more likely too.Enviormentalists do not have an economic interest in seeing oil and coal not be replaced by nuclear like the pubs and their supporters do,they may have to accept reluctantly nuclear power but they don't lose money by doing that.And I think the biggest opposition to doing anything about this is really the vested monied interests which fund the people who deny climate change etc..
But again and I guess this is the part that people have the toughest time grasping is the population issue.If we don't curb the population explosion it will be difficult to not use every form of energy available.A billion or 2 people even living relatively dirty would have a lot less impact than 7-9 billion under just about any scenario.:2 cents:
And no, he himself is not the collective embodiment of NASA.
