Politics

Eileen Claussen, President of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change talks about the need for America to show leadership on the climate issue, and offers a comprehensive energy plan to reduce carbon emmissions. Video - 45 minutes

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Thanks to excellent media coverage based on first-rate science, a resurgent Al Gore and the impresarial genius of pr”oducer Laurie David, the U. S. public may have turned an important corner in acknowledging global warming as a real and serious threat. To see Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” in theaters alongside “Nacho Libre” and such is extraordinary indeed.

But if Americans take the next step and ask, “OK, what do we do now?”, we encounter five other truths, most of them also inconvenient. But they do tell us what we must do and by when.

First, the United States is a quarter-century late in responding to global warming; serious climate change is already underway and requires action now, not later. There were warnings from the scientific community as early as 1979 and many in the 1980’s. We frittered away that chance to respond, and here is what we are up against now. If we want to avoid leaving a ruined world to our children, we are going to have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 60 percent globally and by 80 percent in the United States and other developed countries, both by 2050. To do this, global emissions must peak by about 2020 and decline steadily thereafter. Developed-country emissions should already be declining. The United States is clearly on the wrong path. The Energy Information Administration projects that both U. S. coal use and carbon dioxide emissions are currently slated to increase by 40 percent by 2030.

Bottom line: the issue is not only real and important – it is genuinely urgent. The actions we take in the next few years will be critical.

Second, it would be comforting to think that the international community used the last two decades to build an effective international framework for climate action – comforting, but wrong. Scholars have lately been developing the concept of treaty “ossification. ” The example they cite? The climate treaty and its well-known offspring, the Kyoto Protocol. One reason is that the North-South divide has deepened in the negotiations. There has been no agreement yet on how to achieve equity in the greenhouse. Another reason, of course, is U. S. intransigence.

Bottom line: a huge effort is now required from the United States and others to revitalize international negotiations, with the aim of moving beyond the Kyoto Protocol and realizing emissions cuts such as those just mentioned. Perhaps a group of eminent international leaders outside of government should negotiate a model agreement to show that it can be done.

Third, though there are modest stirrings in Congress, we are nowhere near real action from our elected officials in Washington. Moreover, despite vigorous maneuvering by the Administration to fend off any meaningful steps to address this looming disaster, our political leaders and others in Washington are not being held accountable for failing to address a threat as serious as that of terrorism. The media still treat the climate issue primarily as a scientific, technical one.

Bottom line: it is time for this issue to become highly salient in electoral politics. Those alarmed about climate change – and that should be all of us – can start voting the issue in this year’s national elections.

Fourth, even though the public is now aware of the issue, there are only the earliest signs of a popular movement for change. The climate emergency is precisely the type of issue – long-term, complex – where far-sighted leadership from elected officials is at a premium. But we have waited long enough for that leadership, and it is time for citizens to take the helm before it is too late.

Bottom line: it is important to transform the new public awareness into a popular movement. Remember: climate change was also a Time cover story in the mid-1980’s, but no movement resulted.

Finally, the good news. The world is awash with major technological and commercial opportunities and excellent policy prescriptions to mitigate climate change – all that we need to reverse the threatening trends and prevent the direst predictions from coming to pass. And many U. S. cities, states and businesses are already showing the way. Indeed, the goal in California is precisely that noted above – an 80 percent reduction in emissions by 2050.

Bottom line: our greatest gift to the new generation can be a world sustained and whole. But only if we act now. The default option is a ruined world.

It would be interesting to know what exactly about the subject of climate change makes non-scientists have such strong opinions about the facts.

There are many other areas that have less scientific consensus and greater short-term impacts on the average American, yet are not so hotly debated and the facts not so widely questioned in the mass media and general public. Read the rest of this entry »

The Yale F&ES Project on Climate Change is pleased to offer this website as a virtual meeting place where actors from different sectors of society can engage in open dialogue and find solutions for bridging the gap between climate science and action. We hope that this site enables stronger collaboration among individuals and institutions in order to begin implementation of the recommendations for action that came out of our 2005 Conference, and to spotlight or augment other actions already underway.

Since the Conference, there has been an increase in media coverage of climate change (e.g. the April 3 Time Magazine, the 60 Minutes segments on the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment and rewriting the science, increased New York Times coverage and the HBO documentary Too Hot Not to Handle airing this month).

Momentum for translating the documented increase in public concern about the issue into action is growing. But attention has spiked before, and there remains a real risk that climate change will be treated as the news story of the week if we do not take steps to sustain and build civic awareness and engagement on the issue. What needs to be done to service the demand for information on climate change science, as well as on adaptation and mitigation efforts? These are the kinds of questions that we are hoping to answer in our dialogues on this site. Additional questions are listed on each domain page as a starting point for discussion.

I encourage you to become involved in one or more of the Action Items. Of the 39 action items generated at the Conference, which do you believe will have the greatest impact? Which should be given greatest priority? What challenges and obstacles will impede an action item from proceeding forward effectively? What can you do specifically, both alone and collectively, to advance its implementation?

I look forward to reading your comments.

How concerned are visitors to this site about this issue, given the recent publicity surrounding James Hansen, the prominent NASA climate scientist ? Read the rest of this entry »