At the edge of the carbon cliff

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/dec/18/carbon-emissions-climate-change


The study is the first to comprehensively quantify the costs and risks of emissions surpassing critical thresholds by 2020. Photograph: Bei Feng/EPA

UXBRIDGE, Canada, Dec 17 2012 (IPS) - The most important number in history is now the annual measure of carbon emissions. That number reveals humanity's steady billion-tonne by billion-tonne march to the edge of the carbon cliff, beyond which scientists warn lies a fateful fall to catastrophic climate change.

With the global total of climate-disrupting emissions likely to come in at around 52 gigatonnes (billion metric tonnes) this year, we're already at the edge, according to new research.

To have a good chance of staying below two degrees C of warming, global emissions should be between 41 and 47 gigatonnes (Gt) by 2020, said Joeri Rogelj, a climate scientist at Switzerland's Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science in Zurich.

[daleanime]

1. K&R

nt

[GliderGuider]

2. I have an idea - let's hold a Conference of Parties and decide what to do about it! nt

[PETRUS]

3. The penultimate paragraph:

"Staying below two degrees is not a matter of science or technology. It will be determined by political and social decisions to take the necessary steps to shift to low-carbon living..."

[GliderGuider]

4. That's the one that makes me put my head down on my desk and give up. nt