Renewables AND radical reductions: NASA
Radical CO2 reduction targets and urgent switchover to renewables energy sources is NASA’s opinion.
In a new report released today (12/5/08), James Hansen, head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, said that the EU and its international partners must urgently rethink targets for cutting CO2.
Fears we have grossly underestimated the scale of the problem are emerging.
not technology
Along with other leading climate scientists, Hansen insists that the major obstacle to saving the planet is not technology. The good news, he said, is that reserves of fossil fuels have been exaggerated, so an alternative source of energy will have to be rapidly put in place in any case.
“The work of Hansen and others makes it blindingly clear. We have burnt quantities of carbon into the atmosphere that are already resulting in major climate damages. We can no longer contemplate stabilising the concentrations even higher than we currently have. Hansen’s call to the EU should be read with the utmost urgency and our response should be nothing less than a zero carbon Europe.
CAT initiative
“The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) last year produced the Zero Carbon Britain report and is now coordinating a project entitled Zero Carbon Europe.
“We will be inviting contributions from research centres and think tanks regarding all aspects of Europe’s transition to a zero carbon community. We welcome Hansen’s calls to the EU and will be backing this up with a robust action plan to achieve a Zero Carbon Europe,” said co-author Tim Helweg-Larsen.
enter politics
“Climate campaigners should stop trying to persuade people into lifestyle changes and start dealing with the politics.” A view on the temptations to harrangue individuals instead of push the people who actually have the power to change things.
opinion:
It is nice to see renewables AND reductions urged on the same page. So many viewpoints seem to be single-answer focussed, when the complexity of the situation means that many aspects all need work at the same time.
This applies to politics versus people, too: we need to work with both. People are reacting against green issues and politicians are reacting to vested interests [see Jonathon Porrit saying: “Stop taking orders from the energy supply companies by going back on your commitment to compel them to provide RTDs.” on Real Time Displays for energy consumption].
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