NYT/AP: Top scientist, NASA's James Hansen: Stop building coal plants

[DeepModem Mom]

Scientist: Stop Building Coal Plants
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 26, 2007

WASHINGTON (AP) -- One of the world's top scientists on global warming called for the United States to stop building coal-fired power plants and eventually bulldoze older generators that don't capture and bury greenhouse gases.

But 159 coal-fired power plants are scheduled to be built in the next decade or so, generating enough power for about 96 million homes, according to a study last month by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Burning coal is one of the major sources of carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas causing global warming.

In prepared remarks to be delivered at the National Press Club Monday afternoon, NASA scientist James Hansen, who has been one of the earliest top researchers to warn the world about global warming, will call for a moratorium on building new coal-fired power plants.

Hansen's call dovetails with an edict by the private equity group buying TXU, a massive Texas-based utility. The equity group, led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Texas Pacific Group, agreed to stop plans to build eight new coal-fired power plants, not to propose new coal-fired plants outside Texas and to support mandatory national caps on emissions linked to global warming.

Hansen's presentation to the press club says all coal-fired power plants that do not capture and bury carbon dioxide ''must eventually be bulldozed (before mid-century).''...

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Climate-Change-Coal.html

[kenny blankenship]

1. I guess he knows that he'll be cleaning out his desk tomorrow morning

Go out with style, Mr. Hansen, but don't go quietly.

[EFerrari]

6. No kidding. Well, he did the right thing, which is rare enough

in BushWorld.

[Cabcere]

2. I hope they listen to him

but I doubt it very much. :cry: Hansen has been saying for years that we are rapidly approaching the "tipping point" of climate change - that is, if we don't drastically change the way we live soon (within the next ten years, I believe), we will lose the window of opportunity and climate change will progress past the point of no return. :( And yet the Bush administration has been heavily editing his reports, making sure that his info seems less credible and that climate change is a mere possibility with little scientific evidence to support it - even though Hansen is one of the top scientists at NASA and knows damn well what he's talking about, not to mention that he has the facts to back it up. :mad: WTF is wrong with these people? They need to wake up and pay attention - and they'd better do it soon, or we're all screwed. :scared:

[kestrel91316]

7. "......They need to wake up and pay attention....."

This song needs to be our battle cry:


Have I been sleeping?
I’ve been so still
Afraid of crumbling
Have I been careless?
Dismissing all the distant rumblings
Take me where I am supposed to be
To comprehend the things that I can’t see

Cause I need to move
I need to wake up
I need to change
I need to shake up
I need to speak out
Something’s got to break up
I’ve been asleep
And I need to wake up
Now

And as a child
I danced like it was 1999
My dreams were wild
The promise of this new world
Would be mine
Now I am throwing off the carelessness of youth
To listen to an inconvenient truth

That I need to move
I need to wake up
I need to change


I need to shake up
I need to speak out
Something’s got to break up
I’ve been asleep
And I need to wake up
Now

I am not an island
I am not alone
I am my intentions
Trapped here in this flesh and bone

And I need to move
I need to wake up
I need to change
I need to shake up
I need to speak out
Something’s got to break up
I’ve been asleep
And I need to wake up
Now

I want to change
I need to shake up
I need to speak out
Oh, Something’s got to break up
I’ve been asleep
And I need to wake up
Now
-----Melissa Etheridge, "I Need To Wake Up", from An Inconvenient Truth

[Dr.Phool]

3. This is gonna piss off the coal lobby, big time.

All the money they've spent promoting "clean" coal, and here comes some fancy schmancy scientist scaring people again.

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. He should be talking to China. China is building them left & right.

[kestrel91316]

8. Better that we remove the log in our own eye first.

Then we can tackle China's log in theirs.

Sadly, neither of us has mere motes.

[Dems Will Win]

11. One coal plant a week in China!

Actually new inventions such as the practical CPV solar unit working at 40% effciency makes all the power we'd ever need.

If anyone is curious about the most important invention since the steam engine, ask me about it!

It just came out of R&D and is going to get big-time funding soon.

Plus the Global Thermostat was invented by Paul Crutzen so we can turn down the temperature of Earth back to normal ($10 billion every 3 years), whenever we want.

Ask me about that too!

LUV Hansen!

[OneBlueSky]

5. 159 coal-fired plants schedule to be built in the next decade . . .

yeah, that's taking global warming seriously . . . :sarcasm:

[plcdude]

13. are you talking

building in the US? Hansen's point is that if burn coal you must sequester the co2 and that is not possible yet. There are no clean coal powerplants yet.

[redqueen]

9. K&R

Texas just got a break... the fast-tracking of TXU's 11 new plants it wants to build was stopped.

[Zorra]

10. With all due respect, my dog figured this out years ago. nt

[plcdude]

12. I just watched his

presentation on CSAN 2 and he laid it out on the table in pretty stark terms. He also answered a question about possilbly providing testimony at a congressional hearing and he said he would as a private citizen so he would not have to submit his testimony to the Whitehouse and he could speak more freely. A young man attempted to question the results of the measuring process of co2 but Hansen said the measurements are standard and if he had an article from juried paper on this he would be happy to read it. He is a brave guy.

[DeepModem Mom]

14. Wow! Thanks for this report. nt