Posted on 05/31/2017 11:34:05 AM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
Earth is likely to reach more dangerous levels of warming even sooner if the U.S. retreats from its pledge to cut carbon dioxide pollution, scientists say. That's because America contributes so much to rising temperatures.
President Donald Trump, who once proclaimed global warming a Chinese hoax, said in a tweet Wednesday that he would make his "decision over the next few days" on whether the United States stays in or leaves the 2015 Paris climate change accord in which nearly every nation agreed to curb its greenhouse gas emissions.
Leaders of seven wealthy democracies, at a summit in Sicily, urged Trump to commit his administration to the agreement, but said in their closing statement that the U.S., for now, "is not in a position to join the consensus."
"I hope they decide in the right way," said Italy's prime minister, Paolo Gentiloni. More downbeat was German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said the leaders' talks were "very difficult, if not to say, very unsatisfactory."
In an attempt to understand what could happen to the planet if the U.S. pulls out of Paris, the Associated Press consulted with more than two dozen climate scientists and analyzed a special computer model scenario designed to calculate potential effects.
Scientists said it would worsen an already bad problem and make it far more difficult to prevent crossing a dangerous global temperature threshold.
Calculations suggest it could result in emissions of up to 3 billion tons of additional carbon dioxide in the air a year. When it adds up year after year, scientists said that is enough to melt ice sheets faster, raise seas higher and trigger more extreme weather.
"If we lag, the noose tightens," said Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer, co-editor of the peer-reviewed journal Climatic Change.
(Excerpt) Read more at weather.com ...
It’s one of the very few that ALWAYS stays loaded on my iPad Pro :-)
Despite all the finger pointing US carbon emissions have been going down since 2008 because fracking made natural gas so cheap. One of the easiest ways to reduce carbon emissions worldwide would be to expand fracking worldwide, but the environmentalists hate fracking.
Despite all the finger pointing US carbon emissions have been going down since 2008 because fracking made natural gas so cheap. One of the easiest ways to reduce carbon emissions worldwide would be to expand fracking worldwide, but the environmentalists hate fracking.
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