Remarkable Climate Change Testimony From 1988

[kpete]

Testimony of G.M. Woodwell before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, U.S. Senate

June 23, 1988

Rapid Global Warming: Worse with Neglect

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The fact is that we, humans, have changed the composition of the atmosphere with respect to heat-trapping gases enough to start the progression of global climate, not into a new steady state, but into an open-ended warming that is pulling the environment out from under this civilization. If one wonders where that process leads, one need not look far around the world to find dysfunctional landscapes. Have a quick look at New Orleans, the Gulf Coast, or Haiti before the earthquake. All have fallen far below any point where internal resources can be used to restore a nation with a functional political system, a vital economy, and a functional environment. They have fallen into an abyss, beyond rescue without massive outside aid that will, first, restore a functional landscape to produce, for instance, a water supply, and stable agriculture, and a fishery. Something to build an economy around, and to support a government.

The challenge is complicated, the most complicated international environmental issue the world has ever faced. The scientific community has done brilliantly with the IPCC, by nature a conservative apparatus. It is time now, thirty years after the problem was recognized as threatening this civilization, for the scientific community to come forth with clear instructions, relentlessly repeated and amplified, as to how to restore a functional habitat for humanity. It can be done, but the scientific community has a big responsibility not now widely recognized or accepted.

more:
http://climateprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/WoodwellSenateTestimonyJune88.pdf
http://climateprogress.org/2010/03/09/exclusive-dr-george-woodwell-sets-the-record-straight/#more-20664