Wednesday, January 9, 2013

While We Stand Around With...





OSLO | Wed Jan 2, 2013 1:03pm EST (Reuters) - An agreement by almost 200 nations to curb rising greenhouse gas emissions from 2020 will be far more costly than taking action now to tackle climate change, according to research published on Wednesday. 
Quick measures to cut emissions would give a far better chance of keeping global warming within an agreed U.N. limit of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6F) above pre-industrial times to avert more floods, heatwaves, droughts and rising sea levels. 
"If you delay action by 10, 20 years you significantly reduce the chances of meeting the 2 degree target," said Keywan Riahi, one of the authors of the report at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria. 
[...] 
The study indicated that an immediate global price of $20 a ton on emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas, would give a roughly 60 percent chance of limiting warming to below 2C.
Wait until 2020 and the carbon price would have to be around $100 a ton to retain that 60 percent chance... 
"The window for effective action on climate change is closing quickly," wrote Steve Hatfield-Dodds of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia in a separate commentary in Nature.
And while we're waiting, there's this.

[Image source]

3 comments:

  1. CO2 based GW is supposed to affect more northerly latitudes far greater than those closer to the equator. Temps in Alaska have been getting COLDER for the last 13 years. Plus there's been no warming for the last 16 years. Interesting data.
    PT

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2256188/What-global-warming-Alaska-headed-ice-age-scientists-report-states-steady-temperature-decline.html?ito=feeds-newsxmll

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2217286/Global-warming-stopped-16-years-ago-reveals-Met-Office-report-quietly-released--chart-prove-it.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. From the article: "New research from the Alaska Climate Research Center shows that since the beginning of the 21st century, temperatures in the snow covered land of Alaska are actually getting colder - bucking the overall global warming trend.

    From a comment on the other article: "This article is a complete misrepresentation of the data collected by the Met Office¿s Hadley Centre. The Met office has refuted the claims this article has made and accuses its backers of cherry picking data to meet their politically motivated agenda. In effect a blatant lie. Anthropogenic Global Warming is real and the temperature will continue to rise as humans continue to release CO2 into the atmosphere unabated. Dr. Jones is in agreement. Dr.Curry's claims are flawed and incorrect."

    ReplyDelete
  3. To clarify: the articles to which I refer in the above comment are the ones provided by PT, not the one I addressed in the post.

    Although I always enjoy hearing from him, PT needs to find less politically motivated news sources.

    ReplyDelete

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