Evidence of global warming continues to accumulate, says Energy Secretary Steven Chu, with dire warnings for those who ignore it.
"This is the smoking gun," says Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
New research reinforces the claim that human activities are behind the build up of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, Chu said during an address at Stanford University.
“This is the smoking gun,” he said. “The carbon in the atmosphere is due to humans.”
The new research examines the types of carbon in the atmosphere and compares the ratio of carbon-14, a rare form of carbon created in the upper atmosphere, to carbon-12, formed by the burning of fossil fuels. It offers unequivocal proof, he said
Chu warned that the dangers of business as usual could be considerable. During the last ice age, average global temperatures were 6 degrees Celsius cooler than today. And yet much of Europe and North America lay under sheets of ice.
If the world continues unimpeded to burn fossil fuels, temperatures could rise 3 to 6 degrees Celsius. “Six degrees represent a profound change,” he said.
To many, the dangers of climate change seem remote because changing temperatures are difficult to measure over a span of 20 to 30 years. In recent years, for instance, temperatures seem to have reached a plateau.
But scientists looking at a 150-year period observe a rise and steeper rises will come, Chu said. The impact of the increasing CO2 “won’t be fully felt for 100 years…cause the oceans have to warm up.”
The way to fight this rise, many experts say, is to limit the use of fossil fuels by putting a price on carbon. “We will live in a carbon constrained world,” Chu agreed. It may take five years to arrive; it may take 10. “It is coming,” he said.
They said 25 years ago that we won’t feel the affects for 100 years. Well, shouldn’t it now be 75 years? Come on – this is OLD news. We’ve been hearing since the 1980′s that unless we “do something,” the planet is doomed and we’re all going to experience “runaway global warming.” They’ve even talked about how important it is to “cool” the earth. Wow! If they had starting “cooling” the earth 5-10 years ago and were actually successful, how worse would the winter of 2008/2009 been? Or the summer of 2009 (cold!)? Or better yet – the winter of 2009/2010? Since Florida lost A LOT (agriculture, manatees, tender vegitation, tropical fish, etc.) already, I can’t imagine even colder temperatures there…
http://www.iceagenow.com
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