Green | June 22, 2009 | 4 comments

Obama Must Show More Personal Leadership on Climate Change: 20 Leading Scientists Say in Open Letter

source: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/06/obama-must-show-more-personal-leadership-climate-cha...

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If there's one thing that continues to stand out to me in the politics of climate change is the yawning chasm between what scientists say is needed in terms of emissions reductions to prevent catastrophic climate change and what politicians are proposing. Finally though, scientists are speaking up; 20 of the United States' leading climate and environmental scientists have written an open letter to President Obama and Congress highlighting the gap between what science says is necessary and what politics deems feasible. The full letter is available from The Woods Hole Research Center, but here's the gist of it:

Waxman-Markey is Just a Small First Step
Waxman-Markey can only be viewed as first step, and must be enacted this year. However, the bill needs to be strengthened wherever possible (and certainly not weakened). Furthermore, the President must show personal leadership to "lead the American public into recognition of the scale of climate disruption so that the US will embrace still stronger policies to do what we know from scientific investigation is necessary to prevent disastrous climate alteration."

450ppm is Not Enough to Prevent "Ruinous Climate Change"
The scientists also expressed that the international political consensus that constraining atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations of 450ppm is adequate, is far from that. Without going so far as James Hansen, Bill McKibben and others in specifically saying that we really should be reducing CO2 levels to 350ppm, the scientists urged stronger action on the part of the United States:

We and many other are of the view that these objectives [holding CO2 to 450ppm] are inadequate to sustain the integrity of global climate and to hold the risk of ruinous climatic change to an acceptably low level. United State policy must provide a fully satisfactory US contribution to global greenhouse gas reductions that move beyond these inadequate international limits.

For more info on who signed the letter click the link
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4 comments // Obama Must Show More Personal Leadership on Climate Change: 20 Leading Scientists Say in Open Letter

  • estee_arie
    • 0
      estee_arie  

    • glad im not president- i deffinetly didnt build my company in 100 days- infact im still building today. change takes time. took bush 8 years to completely destroy us. give the man some time. maybe he can rebuild in 8 :)

    • 2 years ago
  • JimboTheHippo
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • About time scientists as a group started speaking up. Unfortuntately, I don't have faith that politicians will listen. They are too tied to the dollar bill. Quite a predicament when the ability of the human species to sustain itself is on the line.

    • 2 years ago
  • SeaJade
    • 0
      SeaJade  

    • Obama won't show more personal interest until a great deal more people - the public, show more interest and act upon their beliefs by supporting local, non corporate clean industries (once a company becomes public on Wall Street, forget it, they are legally bound to make as much profit as possible, so there goes consideration for the people and the planet).
      The collective needs to wake up (many still snoozing) and get off normal television (where minds are so easily manipulated), get off junk food (makes one sick and fat), and stop buying junk from China (no offense to China). We, collectively, have to get together, and turn the tide by being responsible for our own selves, in integrity and with integrity, and with respect to this planet and other people.
      Obama's hands are tied by those that rule behind the scenes... oh, that would be The Corporation, a seemingly psychotic group that would see us all completely enslaved, sick, and miserable as we fill their coffers whilst we buy their murky tainted stuff, work for them, and have no quality of life. We are the ones that can stop this, those who have somehow taken the rule of the land, will not, they are having a blast watching the rest of us squirm and suffer apparently and certainly won't help with the medical bills!
      Congress and the Senate have sold us out, except for perhaps a few who work so hard to stand up for what is right.

    • 2 years ago
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