We Just Passed the Climate's "Grim Milestone"
| Fri May. 10, 2013
The Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, where NOAA
watched the carbon record break.
Over the last couple weeks, scientists and environmentalists have been keeping a particularly close eye on the Hawaii-based monitoring station that tracks how much carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere, as the count tiptoed closer to a record-smashing 400 parts per million. Yesterday, we finally got there: The daily mean concentration was higher than at any time in human history, NOAA reported today.
Don't worry: The earth is not about to go up in a ball of flame. The 400 ppm mark is only a milestone, 50 ppm over what legendary NASA scientist James Hansen has since 1988 called the safe zone for avoiding the worst impacts of climate change, and yet only halfway to what the IPCC predicts we'll reach by the end of the century.
"Somehow in the last 50 ppm we melted the Arctic," said environmentalist and founder of activist group 350.org Bill McKibben, who called today's news a "grim but predictable milestone" and has long used the symbolic number as a rallying call for climate action. "We'll see what happens in the next 50."
We could find out soon enough: With the East Coast still recovering from Superstorm Sandy and the West gearing up for what promises to be a nasty fire season, University of California ecologist Max Moritz says milestones like these are "an excuse for us to take a good hard look at where we are," especially as the carbon concentration shows no signs of reversing course.
Scientists first saw the carbon scale tip past 400 ppm last summer, but only briefly; the record reported today by NOAA is the first time a daily average has surpassed that point. For the last several years concentrations have hovered in the 390s, and we're still not to the point where the carbon concentration will stay above the 400 ppm threshold permanently. But that's just around the corner, said J. Marshall Shepherd, president of the American Meteorological Society.
"It's clear that sometime next year we'll see 400 consistently," he said. "Avoiding the future warming will require a large and rapid reduction in greenhouse gases."
Most scientists, environmentalists, and climate-conscious policymakers agree this will require, at a minimum, slashing the use of fossil fuels, and in the meantime, taking steps to adapt for a world with higher temperatures, higher seas, and more extreme weather. For example, according to Hansen, the world will need to completely stop burning coal by 2030 if returning to 350 ppm is to remain possible. What's the holdup? Texas Tech climatologist Katherine Hayhoe blames "the inertia of our economic system, and the inertia of our political system." But she, like most of her peers, believe it can—and must—be done: "We have to change how we get our energy and how we use our energy."
Some progress is being made on that front: Thanks to energy efficiency gains, increased use of renewable power, and policies to cut emissions from cars and power plants, carbon emissions in the US have fallen 13 percent in the last seven years. But they're expected to begin climbing again soon, and worldwide, 2012 saw the most carbon emissions ever. Today's milestone underscores the reality that if we're serious about addressing climate change, there's still a long road ahead.
"So far we have failed miserably in tackling this problem," NOAA scientist Pieter Tans, who oversees the monitoring program, told the Times.
For McKibben, the real date to mark in the history books has yet to arrive: "I don't think this will be the turning point. The turning point will be when we do something about it."
http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2013/05/we-just-passed-climates-grim-milestone
What this means
Bill McKibbenCo-Founder, 350.org"We're in new territory for human beings--it's been millions of years since there's been this much carbon in the atmosphere. The only question now is whether the relentless rise in carbon can be matched by a relentless rise in the activism necessary to stop it."
Dr. James HansenFormer NASA Climatologist"If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced ... to at most 350 ppm."
Payal ParekhCoordinator, Global Power ShiftCrossing the 400 ppm threshold is a somber reminder that we haven't taken the action we need. Nevertheless there is good reason for hope -- activists all across the globe are fighting the fossil fuel industry and demanding clean, just and affordable solutions to our energy needs. At Global Power Shift, a convergence in Istanbul this June, 500 mostly young climate activists from 135 countries will come together to plan a global strategy for change. Upon returning home they'll escalate action and create the global power shift our world needs to push for 350 ppm.
Deirdre SmithWest Coast Fossil Free OrganizerMy grandmother said that we are always walking toward our goals or away from them. As we reach 400PPM I am thinking about her, and wondering which way the the Board of Trustees from any of the 40 fossil free campus campaigns I work with are walking. Perhaps, this will be the moment we decided to walk toward our common goals, to treat each moment as a chance to invest in our future. That's what my grandmother would hope, that's what I hope, that's what students are fighting for now.
400 ppm in the newsThis is an important moment in human history. Here's what news sources across the globe are saying about 400 PPM:
350 parts per million = safe level of carbon in the atmosphere.And the namesake for the 350 movement. This explains what's it's all about:
What We're Doing About ItWe've got work to do, and there's not a moment to lose.
Global Power ShiftA Global Convergence For Climate ActionPhase 1: Istanbul, TurkeyPhase 2: EverywhereGlobal Power Shift is the starting point for a new phase in the international climate movement. First, hundreds of climate leaders from around the world will gather in Istanbul to launch a year of new strategy and action for the movement. Then, we will fan out across the globe to spark an unprecedented wave of events and mobilizations for climate action. globalpowershift.org
Fossil FreeA movement to divest schools, religious institutions and governments from fossil fuels.400+ communities everywhereThe fossil fuel industry is planning to burn 5 times more carbon than the planet can afford -- and we're financing it. That's why people everywhere are organizing to demand their communities divest from destruction by taking their money out of fossil fuels. If it's wrong to wreck the planet, it's wrong to profit from that wreckage. gofossilfree.org
Stop the Keystone XL tar sands pipelineTelling President Barack Obama to keep his promises and stop the pipelineUSA and CanadaThe Keystone XL tar sands pipeline would transport 800,000 barrels a day of the world's dirtiest oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast -- we're joining with people across the US and Canada to let the President know he needs to live up to his lofty climate rhetoric and stop the pipeline. 350.org/KXL
Join the MovementConnect With Us to Get Involved
No comments:
Post a Comment