John Sauven: 100 months to save the Earth

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/08/climatechange.g8?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

100 months to save the Earth

There isn't much time to turn things around. And today's G8 announcements on climate change set the bar too low

John Sauven
guardian.co.uk,
Tuesday July 8, 2008

The informal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G8">annual gathering of the world's most powerful leaders emerged after the oil crisis and the subsequent recession in the 1970s. The vested interests of this group in the global economy and access to the world's resources are obvious. The eight countries now forming the group represent between them the bulk of the world's economic activity; they also own most of the world's firepower and consume most of the world's resources.

Given the vested interests you'd think then that the G8 would be focused on climate change: a threat "more serious even than the threat of terrorism" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3584679.stm">Sir David King); "the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen", which will cause economic havoc costing more than two world wars and the Great Depression combined (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/26/climatechange.scienceofclimatechange">Professor Nicholas Stern). Surely that is just the sort of a challenge that the big boys club ought to be taking on?

Global emissions in 1990 were 40bn tonnes of CO2 equivalent. Estimates put current emissions at around 55bn tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year. If we continue on this path then by 2050 the figure will be a colossal 85 billion tonnes. A 50% cut using a 1990 baseline means getting down to just 20bn tonnes a year by 2050. What's not being talked about is how we get there.

The world's climate experts say that that the world's CO2 output must peak within the next decade and then drop, very fast, if we are to reach this sort of long term reduction. In short, we have about 100 months to turn the global energy system around. The action taken must be immediate and far reaching.

...

[elocs]

1. If it's a hundred months, then kiss it goodbye.

It will take the nations of the world 100 months to figure out that they have 100 months.

[nomorenomore08]

2. 100 months? How many solar panels/wind turbines/nuclear reactors can be built in that time?

And how much hemp can be grown to replace petroleum-based products (plastics, cosmetics, etc.)?

Seems to me there's a shit-ton of money to be made in saving the Earth...