In a breath-taking move the top NASA climate scientist James Hansen recently ridiculed the EU CO2 emissions target as being too-little-too-late (PDF).
Hansen says the EU target of 550 parts per million of C02 -- the most stringent in the world -- should be slashed to 350ppm. He argues the cut is needed if "humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilisation developed" -- Guardian
Not so long ago there was a massive argument about the 'safe limits' in the last IPCC report. Hansen's limit is now even lower than the lowest figures argued for a year ago. Given that we are already beyond this, if Hansen is correct, we have already gone beyond the tipping point of 350 ppm. But, Celsias readers will already know this (see also).
So, we cannot collectively suggest that just slowing down the growth of our emissions is enough. We actually have to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, and Hansen's suggestion to do that is to close all of the coal-fired power stations in the world.
It is a pretty sobering thought -- we not only have to reduce our own personal emissions, but we have to get everyone else to as well. We need to make some serious changes in our lifestyles -- not just replacing one polluting vehicle with a slightly less polluting one. Not just assuming that we can replace petroleum with biofuels and then thinking that we can continue with business as usual. Not just installing the odd solar panel. If we don't all change, we are screwed. Chronically, irreversibly, totally and royally screwed.
And then to top it all, a recent scientific report in the journal Risk Analysis suggests that giving people more information about climate change does not positively affect their habits. Actually, it does. Negatively. People care less after they're told about the effects of climate change than they did before.
Now before we take this to heart, it is important to note that this is a small sample survey taken in 2004. But to me it smells like the truth: if we tell people they're going to hell in a handcart, at some point they give up trying to make a difference. The psychology works something like this. Faced with a massive problem, people look at the change that would be required. They then decide that even if they make massive changes in their own lives, it will make precious little impact overall. So they don't bother. And the tragedy is that because so many people think like that, nothing changes. We go and get some comfort food whilst the planet dies around us.
How did we get to this point and does anyone, beyond the deepest green eco-warrior, really want to contemplate the cost of inaction to their own lives?
