Posted on 03/16/2006 6:58:29 AM PST by The_Victor
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Human-fueled global warming has reached a "tipping point," according to a new survey of scientific research that found warming would continue even if greenhouse gas emissions halted immediately.
"It would keep on warming even though we have stopped the cause, which is greenhouse gases from the combustion of fossil fuels," David Jhirad of the Washington-based World Resources Institute said on Wednesday.
The rate of warming would be slower, Jhirad said in a telephone interview, but a kind of thermal inertia would ensure that global temperatures continue their upward trend.
He referred to a report released by the nonprofit institute this week that analyzed research reports on climate change for 2005.
"Taken collectively, they suggest that the world may well have moved past a key physical tipping point," the institute wrote.
Jhirad said there were actually two tipping points. The first is that there is no doubt human activities cause global warming; a more physical tipping point is that the effects of global warming are evident now.
The report, based on research published in journals including Science and Nature, also found the effects of climate change were so severe they should spur urgent action to prevent more damage and to combat damage that has already occurred.
"We can't assume this change is so far in the future that we can afford to delay," Jhirad said.
The World Resources Institute, founded in 1982, is a nonpartisan environmental think tank that works with industry and other ecological groups around the world.
CARBON TRADING
New policies should encourage companies to make technological and commercial innovations that will cut air pollution, Jhirad said, adding U.S. companies were also clamoring for political leadership.
Jhirad said he was "underwhelmed" by U.S. political leadership on this issue. In 2001, President George W. Bush pulled the United States out of the Kyoto Protocol, the United Nations' main plan to curb global warming. He denounced Kyoto as an economic straitjacket that would cost U.S. jobs and said it wrongly excluded developing nations.
The Kyoto agreement obliges some 40 industrial nations to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases by 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012.
Jhirad said the United States should adopt a system of carbon trading, like one in place in much of Europe, where companies that emit few greenhouse gases get credits that can be traded with companies that emit a lot.
"The market has expanded tremendously in terms of the volume of trading and the value of the carbon credits," he said. "That's what we would like to see (in the United States): a market-friendly approach that would set incentives for technological innovation, which is going to be needed."
Also on Wednesday, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Civil Society Institute released a survey that found 83 percent of Americans wanted more leadership from the federal government to reduce the pollution linked to global warming.
The survey contacted 1,029 adults in the United States from February 23 through 26 and had an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
If not for our ethics, we would have nothing. LOL
too funny!
oh no! quick, lets elect Hillary and hand our sovereignty over to the United Nations, they'll know what to do...
Energy Companies Choose Nuke Plant Site
Thursday March 16, 4:59 pm ET
By Paul Nowell, AP Business Writer
Duke Power, Southern Select Site in South Carolina for Potential Nuclear Power Plant
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Duke Power Co. and Southern Co. have selected a site in South Carolina for a potential nuclear power plant, which would be one of the first ordered in the U.S. in more than 30 years, the companies said Thursday.
Duke Power, the electric utility subsidiary of Charlotte-based Duke Energy Corp., will be the developer and licensed operator of a potential plant co-owned by the Atlanta-based Southern Co., both companies announced in prepared statements.
Duke Power chief nuclear officer Brew Barron estimated the cost of building the new plant to be between $4 billion and $6 billion. The plant would create as many as 1,000 jobs during construction, he said, and up to 800 full-time jobs once the plant is operating.
The utilities expect to file an application to build the plant with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in late 2007 or early 2008, Duke Power said. The companies will decide later whether to actually proceed with plant construction in Cherokee County, S.C.
The site is the same one where Duke Power had stared constructing a nuclear plant in the 1970s, Barron said. The project was abandoned in the 1980s when load projections were lowered, he said.
"This site was a very good one at that time, so it's not surprising the Cherokee site came up again at the top of the list," he said on a conference call. "We saw it as being a win-win."
Cherokee County last year approved an incentive package that offered a 50 percent break on property taxes if the nuclear plant was located there. The site is in the Cherokee Falls community near Gaffney, S.C.
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford welcomed the announcement and the potential for new jobs.
"In the competition for global investment, this announcement could potentially be an enormous win for South Carolina in terms of not only direct jobs, but our power generating capacity for further job-creating efforts going forward," Sanford said in a statement.
Shares of Duke rose 16 cents, to close at $29.37 on the New York Stock Exchange, and Southern Co. shares rose 10 cents, to $33.83.
In January, Raleigh-based Progress Energy said it will consider building a nuclear reactor at the Shearon Harris plant about 25 miles southwest of Raleigh. Progress Energy operates four nuclear reactors in the Carolinas.
"Southern Company is a well respected nuclear operator and we are pleased to have the opportunity to share the nuclear expertise of both our companies on this project," Ruth Shaw, president and chief executive officer of Duke Power, said in a statement.
Barnie Beasley, chief executive of Southern Nuclear, a unit of Southern Co., called the announcement "another step Southern Company is taking to explore economical and reliable generating options and to preserve the nuclear power option for meeting future energy needs."
"This joint project between Southern Company and Duke Power is a good fit," he said in a statement. "Duke Power's business model is compatible with Southern Co.'s, and Duke Power is well respected in the nuclear industry for its nuclear expertise and strong operating experience."
Duke has said previously a new nuclear plant will feature two Westinghouse Advanced Passive 1000 reactors. Each reactor is capable of producing about 1,117 megawatts, Duke Power said.
The industry has been ramping up its nuclear program after President Bush signed an energy bill last year that enhances incentives for building nuclear reactors. Duke, which serves more than 2 million customers in North Carolina and South Carolina, operates three nuclear generating stations in the Carolinas.
Last week, Cinergy Corp. and Duke Energy shareholders approved the merger of the two energy companies in an all-stock deal valued at $9 billion.
On Wednesday, state regulators in Indiana approved the deal, which means the only remaining regulatory approval needed is from North Carolina, which the companies hope could come by the end of the month. Officials with both companies expect to close the deal in April.
"" Human-fueled global warming has reached a "tipping point," according to a new survey of scientific research that found warming would continue even if greenhouse gas emissions halted immediately.""
1. the word "tipping point" should be banned just like "perfect storm"
2. Good. now we dont have to pretend there is something we can do to stop global warming
You are so right!
Gak. Everywhere I turn I run into some liberal with an eighth-grade education yammering about "tipping points." I think this is the third one today. This is what this country gets for leading people to believe that being handed a bachelors degree in womyns studies is equal to a real college education, and that TIME mgazine is actually worth reading and imitating.
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