Climate scientist says Obama has four years to save planetby Patrick J. Kiger
 New President Barack Obama faces scores of daunting challenges, from ending the war in Iraq to reviving the sinking U.S. economy. But he also must confront a problem that's potentially far more serious than any of those crises- climate change due to the burning of carbon fuels across the planet. And one of the world's leading experts on global warming says he's got to act quickly, or else.
James E. Hansen, longtime director of NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies and a widely-respected climate change expert, told the Guardian (UK) that Obama essentially has four years left to save the planet from the devastating consequences of a continued rise in global temperature. "We cannot afford to put off change any longer," Hansen told the British newspaper, which published the interview in its January 18 edition. "We have to get on a new path within this new administration. We have only four years left for Obama to set an example to the rest of the world. America must take the lead." Hansen, who made headlines in 2006 by revealing that the Bush Administration tried to prevent him from speaking out publicly about the need for a drastic reduction in carbon emissions, told the Guardian that the U.S. has no choice at this point but to take immediate action. During his campaign for the Presidency, Obama advocated imposition of a cap-and-trade system, in which the government would set a ceiling on carbon emissions and then auction off permits to release them to manufacturers and utilities. The European Union established such a system in 2003. Since then, Europe’s emissions of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, have decreased slightly, according to EU data. Nevertheless, Hansen told the Guardian that cap-and-trade has been a failure, and should be replaced by a carbon tax imposed on all producers of fossil fuels. At the same time, Hansen said, there must be a moratorium on new coal-burning power plants, the major source of carbon emissions. More than half of U.S. electricity is generated by burning coal, which accounts for 36 percent of U.S. carbon emissions, making it the second biggest source, according to the federal Energy Information Administration. Petroleum, which is mostly burned by automobiles and trucks, accounts for 44 percent of U.S. carbon emissions, with the remaining 20 percent coming from the use of natural gas as an energy source. More Stories |
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