Consider the changing climate - and think of your children and grandchildren.

by Martin J. Rosenthal, August 2012      updated*
Bill McKibben and James Hansen, the world's leading Climatologist (Goddard/NASA-Climate Center-Columbia University) have each written recent articles on climate change.
(1) Hansen proves we have moved up .8 Celsius in the last two decades.
(2) He has said that 2 degrees Celsius or 4 Fahrenheit is the maximum movement in our temperature for DRASTIC climate change.
(3) The difference in temperature from the ICE AGE, when 100 stories worth of ICE covered New York City and the Ice sheet went down South as far as the Carolinas, was the same 4 DEGREES FARENHEIT.

In this case we are moving in the opposite direction.

MOST IMPORTANT ARE THESE TWO NUMBERS. 565 and 2795

If we burn another 565 gigatons of carbon by mid century we would be at the limit of the 2 degree Celsius rise in temperature

However, the estimate does not take in the carbon already in the air and it is not based on potential gas taken out of the ground.

It is estimated that including that we are currently up another .8 degrees C.

So we may be already three quarters of the way toward the 2 degree Celsius limit or at 1.6 degrees Celsius up.

If this is true by mid century we should be beyond the limit of 2 degrees Celsius (a possible 4-11 degree Fahrenheit) rise in temperature.

And, if all the industries in “energy produced from carbon” were to get out of the ground all the carbon that their “current” stock price is based on…(their current price also based on future reserves and exploration …) - then we would have 2795 gigatons of carbon to burn or five times the 565 gigaton number.

Certainly those who own stocks in carbon producing industries would be delighted, but, since it is 5 times the 565 number (let’s figure on 10 degrees Celsius - or 20 degree Fahrenheit - rise in temperature)

(1) Are we in a carbon stock “bubble” ?
(2) Was It 110°F In Phoenix last week ?
(3) Talk About Drought!
(4) Oh, I forgot about the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets… New York city would be buried in 1000’s of feet of water. Montreal will be the new Florida.

This is no longer Science Fiction.
James Hansen of NASA and Columbia University – the world’s leading climatologist, worked out the following: “Forty climate models for these results”. Previously we could only work with twenty. For his work he used the supercomputer that landed “Curiosity” within a hundred yards of its expected position on Mars!

Who has been working with great interest and effort to get us into alternative energy? OBAMA.

“CLEAN” COAL –REALLY?
(1) Coal is highest in Carbons, Mercury & Sulphur that causes acidity in the oceans.
We should have a class action suit against false advertising.
(2) Clean coal …it doesn’t exist –
(3) According to the August 18th issue of “The Economist”, the geologic carbon capture and storage process as a way to have “clean coal” is far from being successfully proven. Even if current feasibility experiments funded by the Department of Energy show promise, there are possible dangers of seismic threats and many quakes are imperceptible to humans. A sudden release of CO2 from underground storage could kill people. In addition the cost factor has led to the shelving of several projects in recent years.

The final conclusion of these well researched articles is that the cost of hiding carbon underground must get lower than emitting the carbon into the air. “At present,” says this article, “that looks far off.” Let’s not lie to the public about this!

As Nevil Shute, writer Of “On The Beach “once said “There Is Still Time Brother”

Think again…think of your children and grandchildren!

REFERENCES:
Bill McKibben "Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math: Three Simple Numbers that Add Up to Global Catastrophe — And that Make Clear Who the Real Enemy Is." Rolling Stone magazine July 19 2012
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new...

The New Climate Dice: Public Perception of Climate Change
By James Hansen, Makiko Sato, Reto Ruedy — NASA Science brief: August 2012
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/hansen_17/

* SEE ALSO (updated 23 Mar 2016): Ice melt, sea level rise and superstorms: evidence from paleoclimate data, climate modeling, and modern observations that 2 ◦C global warming could be dangerous - Hansen et al