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.
It's all Bush's fault....
and...
We're all gonna die!!!!!!!!
"Help us, Al Gore, you're our only hope..."
Well good, if we can't do anything about it then we really don't need the socialist solutions these crackpots are offering up.
Let me repeat myself. Lets hope for global warming. Last week the gov voted to give a Billion dollars of our money to poor people that cannot or will no pay to heat their own homes due to the cold east coast weather.
No no, we will just burn less fuel to heat our cities and homes..why soon the co2 will drop so low we will fall into the NEXT ICE AGE..aaahhhhhhhhhh
If only disgraced, impeached former president clinton had submitted the Kyoto treaty for ratification when he received it, the world wouldn't be in such peril today.
Non-partisan my A#$! Again, this article just confirms everything Crichton wrote about the fear mongers. If they really had truth on their side, there would be no need of scare tactics and propaganda. This is another attempt to cripple the western economy, especially the US, by those commies in disguise in the enviro-whacko movement.
POTFPIMP!!!!
I love the claim that it is our fault and it cannot be stopped. It is a win win claim. They get to blame modern man while being able to say we told you so if the warming trend continues. So, when all their foolish little treaties fail to change one degree of temperature, they can sit back and say we can't stop nature even though it is all our fault.
Well, since we are past the tipping point then there is no use crying about it, right? The greenies will just shut up about it now that we are all doomed and going to die./sar
Global Warming Scientist: "we should stop greenhouse gas emissions immediately"
Reporter: "Should we switch to nuclear power like the French because it does not produce any such gasses?"
Global Warming Scientist: "No, nuclear power sucks also...we just want all the little people to go live in a cave"
WRI Board of Directors: Members
James A. Harmon (Chairman of the Board) Chairman, Harmon & Co., LLC; former President of the Export-Import Bank, United States
Alice (Tish) F. Emerson (Vice-Chair) President Emerita, Wheaton College, United States
William D. Ruckelshaus (Chairman Emeritus) Strategic Director, Madrona Venture Group; former Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, United States
Gay Barclay Founder and Board Member, PAVA Foundation, United States
Fernando Henrique Cardoso Former President of Brazil; currently Professor-at-Large at the Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies at Brown University., United States
Jessica Catto President, Crockett Street Management, LLC; President, Elk Mountain Builders, Inc., United States
Leslie Dach Vice-Chairman, Edelman Worldwide, United States
José Maria Figueres Former President of Costa Rica, Costa Rica
David Gergen Professor of Public Service and Director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; Editor at large, U.S. News and World Report, United States
Al Gore Chairman of Generation Investment Management, London; and former Vice President of the United States, United States
Denis Hayes President, Bullitt Foundation, United States
Aditi Kapoor Fellow, Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD); Independent journalist and Media/Development Consultant, India
Jonathan Lash President, World Resources Institute, United States
Gretchen Long Trustee and former Chair, National Parks Conservation Association, United States
Preston R. Miller, Jr. Partner, The Tremont Group, LLC, United States
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Minister of Finance, Government of Nigeria, Nigeria
Michael Polsky President and Chief Executive Officer, Invenergy, United States
C.K. Prahalad Harvey C. Fruehauf Professor of Business Administration, The University of Michigan Business School, United States
Qian Yi Professor, Department of Environmental Engineering, Tsinghua University (Beijing), China
Peter H. Raven Director, Missouri Botanical Garden , United States
Theodore Roosevelt IV Managing Director, Lehman Brothers, United States
José Sarukhan Professor, Institute of Ecology, National University of Mexico (UNAM) and National Coordinator, Mexican Commission on Biodiversity (CONABIO), Mexico
Scott M. Spangler Chairman, Chemonics International, Inc., United States
James Gustave Speth Dean, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies; former Administrator, United Nations Development Programme, United States
Ralph Taylor President of Greenleaf Composting Company, United States
Lee M. Thomas President and Chief Operating Officer, Georgia-Pacific Corporation, United States
Todd S. Thomson Chairman & CEO, Global Wealth Management Sector, Citigroup, Inc., United States
Diana H. Wall Professor & Senior Research Scientist, Natural Resource Ecology Lab, United States
Wren Wirth President, The Winslow Foundation, United States
Okay, then lets not bother with Kyoto and enjoy warmer weather and longer growing seasons.
I have always been led to believe that no matter what steps we take to curb CO2 emissions, they will persist in the atmosphere for years, no matter how much they are absorbed by forests and oceans. We've also known about the steadily warming planet and rising ocean levels for at least 60-50 years now, and in the time since then, new enviromental laws and stricter standards have been introduced. You're all better informed on this issue than I am, but I have a feeling that the tipping point was nearly least a century ago, long after the Industrial Revolution, and there's very little we can do without making things worse.
Cool! Time to rev up my SUV!
Thank goodness. Now we can stop hearing all the whining from the Kyoto kooks.
Heh-heh.
And if we don't stop it now, it will reach another cliche catch phrase.
Is "finance minister" Ngozi the guy who keeps sending me those emails?
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