Scientist: Emissions Levels Accelerating/Already Above Dangerous Levels

[RestoreGore]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071009/ap_on_sc/climate_change

Scientist: Emissions levels accelerating
By MERAIAH FOLEY, Associated Press Writer

SYDNEY, Australia - Worldwide economic growth has accelerated the level of greenhouse gas emissions to a dangerous threshold scientists had not expected for another decade, according to a leading Australian climate change expert.

Tim Flannery told Australian Broadcasting Corp. that an upcoming report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will contain new data showing that the level of climate-changing gases in the atmosphere has already reached critical levels.

Flannery is not a member of the IPCC, but said he based his comments on a thorough review of the technical data included in the panel's three working group reports published earlier this year.

Carola Traverso Saibante, spokeswoman for IPCC headquarters is in Geneva, said she was unable to disclose what would be in the final report synthesizing the data before it is released in November.

"What the report establishes is that the amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is already above the threshold that can potentially cause dangerous climate change," Flannery told the broadcaster late Monday. "We are already at great risk of dangerous climate change, that's what these figures say. It's not next year or next decade, it's now."

Flannery, whose recent book "The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth," made best-seller lists worldwide, said the data showed that the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions had reached about 455 parts per million by mid-2005, well ahead of scientists' previous calculations.

"We thought we'd be at that threshold within about a decade, that we had that much time," Flannery said. "I mean, that's beyond the limits of projection, beyond the worst-case scenario as we thought of it in 2001," when the last major IPCC report was issued.

The new data could add urgency to the next round of U.N. climate change talks on the Indonesian island of Bali in December, which will aim to start negotiations on a replacement for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

end of excerpt.
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If this is indeed true then there is no doubt we have failed as a species. But let's keep talking about the trivialities and arguing over whether Al Gore or anyone else is going to "run" or not. Yeah, that helps a lot. You want a good reason as to why he isn't running? Maybe because he already knows WE HAVE FUCKED THIS PLANET UP beyond even a "president's" signature on a bill. I'm truly disgusted.

[Bum Whisperer]

1. Until we figure out an effective means

of installing a thermostat on the sun for lowering the solar radiation output, we can expect to see a continuation in a climate change.

[RestoreGore]

2. We need a reality check on our gluttony

[RestoreGore]

3. kicking because we are dangerously close to the tipping point...

and it still won't be the lead story on the evening news.

[Karenina]

4. That point has long since tipped.

Fasten your seatbelt, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

[RestoreGore]

5. It's been fastened

Hopefully we can ride it out.