Dr. James Hansen, leading climatologist for NASA, recently spoke to a packed house at CU’s Macky Auditorium. He noted that one of the biggest problems in addressing the unfolding crisis of climate change is the huge gap that exists between the serious urgency contained in the facts that scientists are discovering daily, and the acute lack of this information being communicated to the public.
Climate scientists the world over are in unanimous agreement: we are facing an urgent crisis of vast proportion. Dr. Hansen and numerous climatologists are predicting worldwide disruptions to the world’s food and fresh water supply in as little as 8 to 10 years from now. Any of us can do a little research on-line, at the library, or by buying some of the latest books addressing climate change and discover the magnitude of the problem.
In Boulder and Boulder County, many of our elected officials and their environmental affairs departments are doing that research for us. They have obviously become convinced that the problem is very serious. This is why the Boulder City Council just unanimously agreed to raise the current carbon tax from about $11 per year for the average household to about $21 per year, essentially doubling the revenue for 2010 to fund Boulder’s ClimateSmart programs. This is a necessary change, and still just a beginning. Through our ClimateSmart programs and the efforts of many local businesses and the efforts of individuals and families, we have begun to reduce our carbon emissions. Yet Boulder’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 7% below 1990 levels by 2012 actually needs to be strengthened 12 times over to effect cuts of 70 to 80 percent by 2050, though probably much sooner, to have any hope of stabilizing our climate. Still, I passionately support doing anything we can to increase our efforts to fight global climate change. We all need to get involved. Go to www.beclimatesmart.com and read the “Community Guide to Boulder’s Climate Action Plan”.
Tom Wells
Boulder
I thought that people would stop quoting James Hansen when he was exposed as a fraud for fudging temperatures to make his climate model work. I guess not. In the 1970′s, Hansen is the one who brought us the global cooling theory based on his belief that hydrocarbon particles in the atmosphere were reflecting solar energy back into space.
http://hennessysview.com/2009/01/06/ill-say-it-again-james-hansen-is-a-fraud-and-a-liar/
“Climate Scientists the world over are in unanimous agreement” – this statement is a lie. Real scientists, not the ones that have their Grant Money tied to the prevailing politics, realize that a ‘consensus’ does not prove a Theory. If you notice the actual temperature numbers have been showing a cooling trend over the last decade or so – this and other reasons are why ‘Global Warming’ is being replaced by ‘Climate Change’. Now the social engineers can cover all the bases in case it actually does cool. A recent revelation by NASA ‘scientists’ was that the sun’s activity – that would be sunspots – is actually responsible for the heating and cooling and therefore changes in climate and that the human contribution to any of it was lost in the round-off. By the way the entire premise for CO2 being the cause of Global Warming is wrong. Look closely at the graphs – temperature rises and falls before the CO2 goes up or down. I wonder why that happens? Scientists – anybody??
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