Over at Planet Gore, Henry Payne explains that "enviro-activists" are only talking up the dangers of carbon dioxide because other air pollution has been cleaned up over the years--no word on why that might be--and now the greens need a new boogeyman, since "their power relies on keeping the public spooked." (It's not always apparent, but "enviro-activists" are incredibly powerful people.) Fascinating. Here I thought all those CO2 concerns had to do with stuff like this:
Even "moderate additional" greenhouse emissions are likely to push Earth past "critical tipping points" with "dangerous consequences for the planet," according to research conducted by NASA and the Columbia University Earth Institute.
With just 10 more years of "business as usual" emissions from the burning of coal, oil and gas, says the NASA/Columbia paper, "it becomes impractical" to avoid "disastrous effects." ...
The forecast effects include "increasingly rapid sea-level rise, increased frequency of droughts and floods, and increased stress on wildlife and plants due to rapidly shifting climate zones," according to the NASA announcement.
That's the latest research, and it's even more dire than the IPCC's recent reports. And recently, the national science academies of the G8 nations, plus Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, China, and India (representing, well, just about all of the world's scientists) issued a unanimous statement about how "our present energy course is not sustainable," and "minimizing further climate change will need all the determination and ingenuity we can muster." No doubt they're just saying that because they're hell-bent on world domination or something.
--Bradford Plumer