Can Obama lead on Global Warming?

[Karmadillo]

The latest news on global warming is terrible. It requires a response from the Obama administration that does not mesh with the post-partisan, business friendly behavior that has characterized much of its actions so far. It won't be possible to ameliorate global warming by robbing US taxpayers to enrich Wall Street thieves, or by expanding PNAC's forever war on terror, or by approving even more mountaintop removal coal mines. It's going to take genuine leadership where significant gains can be made only by taking significant risks and where there can be no mollifying lunatic global warming deniers on the right.

After the election, there was talk the Obama administration would mobilize its millions of idealistic supporters to put pressure on Congress to embrace real change. Not surprisingly, that hasn't happened, at least not so far, but if there was ever an issue crying out for mass mobilization, it's global warming. This recent article from the Guardian, however, suggests there will be no email for action in the immediate future. If that's the case, it's going to be up to us to relearn the ways of civil disobedience and take on predatory, suicidal capitalism without delay.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/24/steven-chu-environmentalist-anger

US energy secretary Steven Chu will fly to Europe this week to begin talks that will be crucial in the global battle against climate change. The 61-year-old physicist will hold key discussions with energy ministers from the G8 nations in Rome before travelling to London to take part in a debate with Nobel prize winners on global warming.

The arrival of Chu, himself a physics Nobel laureate, comes as the scientist-turned-politician finds himself attacked by environmentalists over decisions he has made about America's campaign to fight global warming. Green groups have accused him of being "contradictory and illogical" and of failing to demonstrate sufficient dynamism in establishing a new, low-carbon approach to transport and power-generation in the United States.

In recent weeks, Chu - who was appointed energy secretary by Barack Obama in December - has revealed that he is no longer willing to block the construction of new coal-powered electricity plants in the US, despite widespread opposition from green groups and having initially said that he would not permit their construction.

Environmental campaigners object vociferously to coal plants - which atmosphere scientist James Hansen, director of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, recently labelled "factories of death" in an article he wrote for the Observer - because of their high carbon emissions.

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[ensho]

1. NO to coal

nt

[Karmadillo]

2. World Population Devastated if Predicted Warming Increase of 9 Degrees F Occurs

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/03/a-predicted-glo.html

World Population Devastated if Predicted Warming Increase of 9 Degrees F Occurs

On the closing day of the Congress on Climate Change held last week in Copenhagen, one of the world's leading experts, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, said that if the buildup of greenhouse gases and its consequences pushed global temperatures 9 degrees Fahrenheit higher than today — well below the upper temperature range that scientists project could occur from global warming — Earth’s population would be devastated.

“In a very cynical way, it’s a triumph for science because at last we have stabilized something –- namely the estimates for the carrying capacity of the planet, namely below 1 billion people."

Schellnhuber's comments at the Copenhagen conference underscore that, given high rates of observed emissions, the worst-case IPCC scenario trajectories are unfoldinmg. For many key parameters, the climate system is already moving beyond the patterns of natural variability within which our society and economy have developed and thrived. These parameters include global mean surface temperature, sea-level rise, ocean and ice sheet dynamics, ocean acidification, and extreme climatic events. There is a significant risk that many of the trends will accelerate, leading to an increasing risk of abrupt or irreversible climatic shifts.

Recent observations show that societies are highly vulnerable to even modest levels of climate change, with poor nations and communities particularly at risk. Temperature rises above 2°C will be very difficult for contemporary societies to cope with, and will increase the level of climate disruption through the rest of the century.

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