The Tipping Point ,,,,, James Hansen

[RedEarth]

‘Tipping Point’ — A non-technical Hansen piece
The nation’s top climate scientists, James Hansen, has just published a general-audience article, “Tipping Point,” in “2008-2009 State of the Wild,” from Island Press. It is well worth sending to folks who don’t like all the math. His key points:

We are at the tipping point because the climate state includes large, ready positive feedbacks provided by the Arctic sea ice, the West Antarctic ice sheet, and much of Greenland’s ice….

Prior major warmings in Earth’s history, the most recent occurring 55 million years ago . . . resulted in the extinction of half or more of the species then on the planet….

In my view, special interests have undue sway with our governments and have effectively promoted minimalist actions and growth in fossil fuels, rather than making the scale of investments necessary.

You might also like this figure on “cumulative fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions by different countries as a percent of global total



http://climateprogress.org/2008/04/28/tipping-point-a-non-technical-perspective-by-hansen/

Hansen's article......

http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/2008/StateOfWild_20080428.pdf

[ensho]

1. kick

nt

[NMDemDist2]

2. I've got a question,

when will the oxygen levels get too low to support life? Can that even happen?

[Systematic Chaos]

3. In the oceans, yes.

In the atmosphere, I think the sulfur dioxide would kill us long before the oxygen level actually got too low.

Either way, it's a grand old time to be had by all! :eyes:

[NickB79]

4. China overtook the US in CO2 emissions last year

Which makes this graph even scarier, to know that their slice of the pie grew so rapidly, not because the US reduced it's emissions, but because China's just grew faster than ours.

[Zachstar]

5. And china is only going to grow more.

Which is why it is pointless to go for anything other than active removal of greenhouse gas from the atmosphere. A challenge that is being researched.