[Coral-List] Halfway to Copenhagen, no way to 2 deg C

[Douglas Fenner]

I recently discovered an interesting article on the Nature magazine website:

"Halfway to Copenhagen, no way to 2 deg C"

http://www.nature.com/climate/2009/0907/full/climate.2009.57.html

They reviewed the national plans of all nations that have plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Here are a few quotes:

"National targets give virtually no chance of constraining warming to 2 °C and no chance of protecting coral reefs."

"The latest research indicates substantial risk to calcifying organisms at atmospheric CO2 concentrations of 450 parts per million (p.p.m.), with all coral reefs halting their growth and beginning to dissolve at concentrations of 550 p.p.m. (ref. 12). The best Halfway to Copenhagen emissions pathway would result in CO2 concentrations above this level shortly after 2050."

"Unless there is a major improvement in national commitments to reducing greenhouse gases, we see virtually no chance of staying below 2 or 1.5 °C. Coral reefs, in addition, seem to have certainly no chance if the work of Jacob Silverman and colleagues12 is correct." 

Silverman, J., Lazar, B., Cao, L., Caldeira, K. & Erez, J. Geophys. Res. Lett. 36, L05606 (2009).

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"Now is the time to confront [the climate change] challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option. 
Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high. The consequences, too serious." 
Barack Obama, Nov. 18 2008

For information on the scientific basis for climate change see:
National Academy of Sciences
http://dels.nas.edu/dels/rpt_briefs/climate_change_2008_final.pdf
www.nas.edu

Environmental Protection Agency
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
http://www.ipcc.ch/

Past President of the American Meteorological Society
http://www.nbcwashington.com/weather/stories/Bob-Ryan-Global-Change-Series.html

Wikipedia

An Inconvient Truth.  A. Gore (book, movie)
Co-winner of Nobel with IPCC