Posted on 12/25/2007 4:09:27 PM PST by ricks_place
19 December 2007
Prime Minister Gordon Brown 10 Downing Street London SW1A 2AA
Dear Prime Minister,
Your leadership is needed on a matter concerning coal-fired power plants in your country, a matter with ramifications for life on our planet, including all species. Prospects for today’s children, and especially the world’s poor, hinge upon our success in stabilizing climate.
For the sake of identification, I am a United States citizen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University Earth Institute. I am a member of our National Academy of Sciences, have testified before our Senate and House of Representatives on many occasions, have advised our Vice President and Cabinet members on climate change and its relation to energy requirements, and have received numerous awards including the World Wildlife Fund’s Duke of Edinburgh Conservation Medal from Prince Philip.
I write, however, as a private citizen, a resident of Kintnersville, Pennsylvania. I was assisted in composing this letter by many colleagues, including Europeans, Americans and others, who commented upon a draft letter. Because of the urgency of the matter, I have not collected signatures, but your advisors will verify the authenticity of the science discussion.
I recognize that for years you have been a strong supporter of aggressive forward-looking actions to mitigate dangerous climate change. Also the United Kingdom has been active in pressing the international community to take appropriate actions. We are now at a point that bold leadership is needed, leadership that could change the course of human history.
Global climate is near critical tipping points that could lead to loss of all summer sea ice in the Arctic with detrimental effects on wildlife, initiation of ice sheet disintegration in West Antarctica and Greenland with progressive, unstoppable global sea level rise, shifting of climatic zones with extermination of many animal and plant species, reduction of freshwater supplies for hundreds of millions of people, and a more intense hydrologic cycle with stronger droughts and forest fires, but also heavier rains and floods, and stronger storms driven by latent heat, including tropical storms, tornados and thunderstorms.
Feasible actions now could still point the world onto a course that minimizes climate change. Coal clearly emerges as central to the climate problem from the facts summarized in the attached document. Coal caused fully half of the fossil fuel increase of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air today, and on the long run coal has the potential to be an even greater source of CO2. Due to the dominant role of coal, solution to global warming must include phase-out of coal except for uses where the CO2 is captured and sequestered. Failing that, we cannot avoid large climate change, because a substantial fraction of the emitted CO2 will stay in the air more than 1000 years.
Yet there are plans for construction of new coal-fired power plants in Great Britain, plants that would have a lifetime of half a century or more. Your leadership in halting these plans could seed a transition that is needed to solve the global warming problem.
Choices among alternative energy sources – renewable energies, energy efficiency, nuclear power, fossil fuels with carbon capture – these are local matters. But decision to phase out coal use unless the CO2 is captured is a global imperative, if we are to preserve the wonders of nature, our coastlines, and our social and economic well being.
If the West makes a firm commitment to this course, discussion with developing countries can be prompt. Given the potential of technology assistance, realization of adverse impacts of climate change, and leverage and increasing interdependence from global trade, success in cooperation of developed and developing worlds is feasible.
Great Britain, the United States, and Germany have contributed most to fossil fuel CO2 in the air today, on a per capita basis. This is not an attempt to cast blame. It only recognizes the reality of the early industrial development in these countries, and points to a responsibility to lead in finding a solution to global warming. A firm choice to halt building of coal-fired power plants that do not capture the CO2 would be a major step toward solution of the global warming problem. Germany has strong interest in solving the climate problem. Citizens in the United States are stepping up to block one coal plant after another, and the next national election is less than a year away.
If Great Britain and Germany halted construction of coal-fired power plants that do not capture and sequester the CO2, it could be a tipping point for the world. There is still time to find that tipping point, but just barely. I hope that you will give these considerations your attention in setting your national policies. You have the potential to influence the future of the planet.
Prime Minister Brown, we cannot avert our eyes from the basic fossil fuel facts, or the consequences for life on our planet of ignoring these fossil fuel facts. If we continue to build coal-fired power plants without carbon capture, we will lock in future climate disasters associated with passing climate tipping points. We must solve the coal problem now.
For your information, I plan to send a similar letter to Chancellor Merkel.
Sincerely,
James E. Hansen
Kintnersville, Pennsylvania
United States of America
cc: Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth
cc: Sir David King, Sir John Houghton, John Beddington, Martin Parry, Robert Watson
Attachment
The guy is a kook and thinks he speaks for the US government. Loose canons like this should be fired.
David Hansen needs to hold onto his job, so he has to generate media attention with these foolish antics!
In fact the earth cooled during the 1940 though the 70 during “rapid” increase’s in CO2.
To me going from 250 part per million to 400 ppm of CO2 is like going from owning 1 cents to owning 2 cents....you doubled your wealth..but no one would call you rich.
Possibly?
From one flake to another. I’m sure Gordon Brown will be delighted to hear about this.
Of course, there is a little problem with the Coal Miners’ Union, but still. . . .
This fruitcake is a U.S. government employee with NASA, presuming to use his exalted position to correspond with the head of a foreign government, concerning local matters that he has absolute no say in. Someone please fire this guy...!
No doubt the queen will drop him a thank you note.
Yep, and a legend in his own mind.
A feat never before evidenced in all of Earth's history. Humanity is so omnipotent and wonderful that mankind will accomplish something nature has been unable to do - stabalize the climate.
Where the determination of "optimal" conditions at which point, presumably the climate will be maintained, is anybody's guess.
It’s James Hansen, media whore from NASA. Not to be confused with Victor David Hanson, historian and Hillsborough scholar.
If I, as a military officer, wrote the head of another state to express political views, I’d be lucky if all that happened to me was being fired. When you hold a job in the US government, you lose the right to write foreign heads of state to recommend courses of action related to your job - unless you clear it first with your government.
Such letters can be interpreted as official statements for the US government, and this bozo should be fired immediately.
Thanks, my bad - Merry Christmas!
Mammams account for 99.8+ percent of CO2 just by breathing. The world population has done what in the past 1000 years? Grown a hellava lot, that’s what. We actually destroyed all life on earth several centuries ago. Howszat for efficiency? This turdbucket needs to just die and get it over with. Idiot! He sounds stupid enough to take my advice.
He probably knew it at the time, but it was in the Algoron's favor, so he didn't fix the data until he was exposed.
Hey! ALgore got the nobel. This bozo deserves at least a Knighthood.
With these morons’ track record, I’m preparing for a new ice age.
Shows to go you that even ‘brainiacs’ can be clueless fools and MAROONS.
David Hansen is actually James Hansen.
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