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     WHAT THE EXPERTS ARE SAYING ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING

There are still some naysayers who profess that global warming is a myth. However the vast majority of scientists conclude the planet is warming because of man's behavior. The evidence and science only accumulates. We need to hear what they have to tell us - the alternative could be costly to our children and grandchildren and future generations.

“The scientific basis for the Greenhouse Effect and the potential impact of human emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2 on climate is well established and cannot be denied.”  Energy industry scientists in 1995 whose conclusions were denied by corporate leaders.   Original document

             click here
            click here		Over 250 U.S. scientists and economists’ call for swift and deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions - March 2010 - pdf
'Tipping Points' may arrive without warning, says top forecaster - link
May 2007 - NASA puts Global Warming Tipping Point within 10 years - link
(more on Tipping Points below)

We cannot repeal the laws of nature. If we continue to do nothing, the floods, wildfires, heat waves and extreme weather that have wreaked havoc across our nation — at a cost of tens of billions of dollars annually — will increase and intensify. And future generations will never understand why we squandered our shrinking opportunity to protect the planet. Henry Waxman  link


"Make no mistake, global warming is happening right now.   It is only going to get worse. My generation has failed - we are handing over the problem to our children. They, and their children, will live with the worst consequences of climate change. What we need more than anything else is a mass movement of young people."  Peter Goldmark, retiring from Environmental Defense Fund Climate & Air Program at the end of this year. link

                                                                                                                                         "In the past few centuries, atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased by more than 30%, and virtually all climatologists agree that the cause is human activity, predominantly the burning of fossil fuels, and to a considerable extent, land uses such as deforestation."  Stephen Schneider, professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies at Stanford University - died July 2010   read 

"Warming is unequivocal. The evidence for a human footprint is very, very strong, and the prospect of continued warming in the future is very strong," Chris Field, director of the department of global ecology at the Carnegie Institution of Washington and a co-chair on the new IPCC report due in 2014. "There are important unknowns, but many of the unknowns are in the direction of risks that are potentially higher." link 


‘Today’s young people will bear the brunt of the impacts of climate change. The Copenhagen conference is probably our last chance to tackle climate change before it spirals out of control.'  
EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas    

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 Revising an earlier call for 450 ppm goal  - "What is happening, and what is likely to happen, convinces me that the world must be really ambitious and very determined at moving toward a 350 target."  link    Rajendra Pachauri - IPPC president and Nobel Laureate   ."  

"We have only seven years left in which to reverse the global curve of greenhouse gas emissions. That's very little time .. to contain the rise in temperatures below 2-2.4 degrees C, which, according to our studies, is the threshold not to be crossed without putting us in serious danger"   link  

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"Those that have opposed a deal on climate, which would include elements of the fossil fuel industry, have clearly made making a 2C target much, much harder, if not impossible. They've clearly put the world at risk of far more adverse effects of climate change." Prof. Bob Watson, UK chief scientist at the department for environment and rural affairs.

Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters. (THE PENTAGON REPORT ON CLIMATE CHANGE: An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security)
See more

"If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm."
 Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim? pdf
“I think we have a very brief window of opportunity to deal with climate change ... no longer than a decade, at the most,”  James Hansen  - Head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.


"We have to deal with greenhouse gases . . . From Shell's point of view, the debate is over. When 98 percent of scientists agree, who is Shell to say, 'Let's debate the science'?” John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Co. at the National Press Club.   Washington Post - November 25 2006

"Coal is my worst nightmare. If the world continues to use coal in the way that we are using it today and by the world, I mean in particular, not just the United States, but China, India, and Russia, it's a pretty bad dream."  Secretary of Energy Steven Chu.   link

 Humans are too stupid to prevent climate change.
"I don't think we're yet evolved to the point where we're clever enough to handle a complex a situation as climate change." In an issue as severe as a war, "it may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while." more
Planet Earth is unwell, argues James Lovelock. Emissions of greenhouse gasses  and other environmental changes have, he says, brought humanity and the natural world to the edge of crisis. James Lovelock - Author of the GAIA theory   [more]  


By December 2016  "if we are lucky, and based on a quite conservative estimate, we could reach a tipping point for the beginnings of runaway climate change."   Andrew Simms - Guardian: August 1 2008  http://onehundredmonths.org/
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"Rio Tinto believes that emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are contributing to climate change and that avoiding human caused changes to the climate is an important international goal."
Testimony of Preston Chiaro on behalf of Rio Tinto, second largest coal producer in USA, to Senate Climate hearings - October 2009: read

Tipping points - or the "Point of no Return':  Scientists widely agree that global climate change is already causing major environmental effects, such as changes in the frequency and intensity of precipitation, droughts, heat waves and wildfires; rising sea level; water shortages in arid regions; new and larger pest outbreaks afflicting crops and forests; and expanding ranges for tropical pathogens that cause human illness. And they fear that worse is in store. Many scientists are looking for the warning signs that herald sudden changes in natural systems, in hopes of forestalling those changes, or improving our preparations for them," said UC Davis theoretical ecologist Alan Hastings. "Our new study found, unfortunately, that regime shifts with potentially large consequences can happen without warning - systems can ‘tip’ precipitously. "This means that some effects of global climate change on ecosystems can be seen only once the effects are dramatic. By that point returning the system to a desirable state will be difficult, if not impossible."  link

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