President Obama's Climate Challenge

And so our eight-year interlude from reality draws to a close, and the job of cleaning up begins. The trouble is, we're not just cleaning up after a failed presidency. We're cleaning up after a two-century binge.

Barack Obama won an historic victory yesterday, and with it the right to take office under the most difficult circumstances since Franklin D. Roosevelt. Maybe more difficult, because while both FDR and Obama had financial meltdowns to deal with, Obama also faces the meltdown meltdown -- the rapid disintegration of the planet's climate system that threatens to challenge the very foundations of our civilization.

Do you think that sounds melodramatic? Let me give it to you from the abstract of a scientific paper written earlier this year by one of the people who now work for Mr. Obama, NASA scientist James Hansen. "If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleo-climate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 [in the atmosphere] will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm [parts per million] to at most 350 ppm." In other words, if we keep increasing carbon any longer, the earth itself will make our efforts moot.
Read the full story here.

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Comments

[GoVeg]

Wake up everyone!! The answer to our global warming crisis is here. Just be open-minded and do your research about this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ol_6Ju3oYI

[LeiftheLucky]

But wait! A growing number of legitimate scientists say global warming is a hoax! And we should levy stiff carbon foot print taxes, and start centering every economic decision on carbon emissions? Insanity.

http://allanerickson.wordpress.com/2008/11/18/global-warming-the-lie-the-fraud-the-swindle/

[zaza]

What we need is a stiff carbon tax TO ENCOURAGE A REDUCTION IN THE CONSUMPTION OF FOSSIL FUELS. Further, the revenue raised from the carbon tax should be spent exclusively on developing america's rail system, and investing in wind an solar energy. This will be an enormous challenge but if anyone is capable of leading us there it is Obama with his intelligence, charisma and superior communication skills. I hope he (and we) can rise to the challenge.

[LeiftheLucky]

The climate is changing all right. Record cold. Fewest hurricanes. That whole cyclical thing is confounding eh? Like the ebb and flow of history. Climate is changing all right. In the name of hope, as yet undefined, we insist on change, vaguely familiar, the change we must have because we are simply seeking change. Anyone opposed to this change is the enemy, as are all those who dare disagree with the academy, secular wisdom, Darwinism, or socialism----cavemen and religious zealots all, worthy only for the ash heap, shoveled from the ovens perhaps?

http://allanerickson.wordpress.com/2008/11/10/no-intelligence-allowed-no-freedom-of-inquiry/

[mergina]

He will have it in his power to hire strong people to get Americans motivated to change IMMEDIATELY, so that we can lead the world in healing ourselves and our planet. The world still waits for America to lead. Sadly the past 8 years have not only been squandered, but is if the powers that be DELIBERATELY made more of a mess of things. That 8 years is tantamount to 80 years now. IMMEDIATE ACTION IS NEEDED. THIS MUST BE A #1 PRIORITY.

[AynRand123]

Yeah, and don't forget about these ridiculous hurricane seasons... Um, wait. No, let's forget about that part of the "modeling".

[nogimmicks]

His first challenge is avoid appointing war hawks like Rahm Emmanuel to the key position of his cabinet. Let us see what mistake he does next when he appoints the EPA head.

[berryessence]

believe me Emmanuel WILL NOT BE a part of the EPA

THANK GOD....

LOOK FOR THAT POST TO GO TO

VAN JONES

[hortonhearsawho]

go away my friend....

[Overtone]

The urgency of this issue has not yet permeated the public consciousness. Hansen suggests we have at most 8 to 10 years to wind down the use of fossil fuels. The head of the International Commission on Climate Change stated: "What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment."

Revolutionary new energy conversion systems tapping abundant, renewable, sources of energy never before commercialized are under development and can be manufactured worldwide in the near future.

Room temperature Ultraconductors will soon be able to replace copper wire and transmission lines which currently lose substantial power in the form of heat.

See: magneticpowerinc.com for additional information.

[Chironomid]

It's a little interesting that so many posts on HuffPo are swamped with comments but this one, which goes to the heart of all of our major problems -- energy, quality job creation, domestic security and defeating terrorism -- creates no traffic.

This is the number one issue of our time, bar none. All of our other problems track back to our oil consumption and our direct and indirect support of petrodictators.

Government is not the answer to every problem, but it is the answer to this one. The shift to alternative energy will require a central organizing force. The number of "alternatives" in and of itself requires this. Nations that have made successful moves away from fossil fuels as their dominant energy source made a decision about what sources they would use, and then went deep on one or two alternatives.

One major societal move we will have to make: we absolutely have to get off the "not in my backyard" syndrome. By relying on foreign sources, we hide our energy use from our daily view. We don't see the overseas places we've utterly trashed in pursuit of oil. When we "bring our energy home", we are going to have to look at it and get comfortable with it. We will see windmills, endless fields of grass for cellulosic ethanol, new power lines, nuclear towers, 500-acre solar steam generators, and the like. We will have to reconfigure our idea of what constitutes an aesthetic view of the landscape.