Erosion and melting permafrost
topples Shismaref house
Shishmaref Relocation Coalition
If people want to slow global warming and avoid catastrophic changes to the Earth’s ecology, they must cut emissions — even if it means taxing carbon and slowing the world economy.
The recommendations came from the third chapter of the fourth assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations group that periodically marshals the world’s top climate scientists to evaluate the status and risks of climate change.
- IPCC News
- New York Times
- London Times
- From the BBC
The 35-page summary for policy makers was released last week, explaining how people and their governments can mitigate the rise in greenhouse gases. It boiled down to this:
It’s the carbon, stupid.
We must reduce emissions or suffer. And that will mean swallowing an economic pill: The IPCC report suggested that each ton of carbon produced by combustion engines and power plants be taxed so that it costs an extra $50 to $100 — as much as a $1 per gallon on gas. This incentive to reduce emissions could ultimately slow the world’s economy by a few percentage points.
The alternative may be unthinkable: The global concentrations of carbon dioxide, now higher than they have been in 650,000 years, could keep rising until they are 90 percent beyond 1970’s levels, triggering vast shifts in climate and a devastating rise in sea level.