The climate has to be top priority

[Zeno Swijtink]

My View: The climate has to be top priority
Sacramento Bee – 12/6/08
By Mike Chrisman
State resources secretary Mike Chrisman is a fourth-generation Californian.
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How the world adapts to climate change takes center stage this month as international leaders meet in Poznan, Poland for the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Just as it did last month in Los Angeles, during Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Global Climate Summit, the world will again come together in the face of its most pressing common problem.
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No longer is the science in dispute. No longer can there be debate about the link between climate impacts and human behavior. No longer are these problems ours alone. Success in the face of this great challenge will be achieved only through working together with the world community.
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In the days prior to the U.N. Conference and the Governors' Global Climate Summit, Schwarzenegger signed executive orders to improve planning for sea-level rise and to streamline renewable-energy projects. During the summit, the governors of California, Illinois and Wisconsin signed an agreement with governors from six states and provinces in Indonesia and Brazil to reduce and eliminate unsustainable deforestation.
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California's climate is expected to shift dramatically during the next several decades. In an effort to be well ahead of these predictions, the governor signed a directive that instructs California's Resources Agency to initiate the state's first comprehensive climate-adaptation strategy. This effort will improve coordination within state government and more effectively address climate impacts from sea-level rise, increased temperatures, shifting precipitation and extreme weather events. It will also allow us to adapt to climate impacts on human health, the environment, the state's water supply and the economy.
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Under the renewable portfolio standards directive, expedited project approval will increase the state's renewable-energy standard to 33 percent renewable power by 2020. California's transition to a clean-energy economy will be enhanced and state agencies are creating plans that prioritize renewable projects based on an area's renewable resource potential and the level of protection for plant and animal habitat.
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The deforestation agreement is the first state-to-state, sub-national agreement focused on reducing emissions from deforestation and land degradation. The pact will focus on improving how we account for forest carbon and will link state greenhouse mitigation programs with efforts to reduce deforestation and land degradation in Brazil and Indonesia. For any country to trade in our market, California's strict standards would have to be met.
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According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, tropical deforestation, the cutting and burning of trees to convert land for crops and livestock, accounts for more than 20 percent of all human-caused carbon emissions in the world. Signatories to the agreement from Indonesia and Brazil represent 60 percent of the world's tropical forests.
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More than ever, being good stewards of our precious natural resources means that we must adapt to climate impacts, not just in our state or across the country, but around the world. Everything we do – from managing the state's water supply to fighting forest fires to protecting sensitive species and habitat or safeguarding our oceans and coasts – must always involve the consideration of climate change impacts.
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I'm reminded of something Teddy Roosevelt said in 1907. He was uaware, of course, of climate change's effects or its causes, but he was an ardent champion of conservation.
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"The conservation of natural resources is the fundamental problem," he said. "Unless we solve that problem it will avail us little to solve all others."
Now, more than 100 years later, it is correct to say that unless we aggressively adapt to our climate problem and its impact upon our natural resources, both here in California and around the world, it will avail us of little to solve all others.

[Hot Compost]

I have emailed with a few of the environmental scientists who are quoted in these articles.

One of the questions I asked was about the "latent heat of melting". That is, it takes a lot of energy to convert ice at 32 degrees to water at 32 degrees. Once that change is complete, the energy goes into heating up the water, instead of converting it from ice to liquid. Like an ice cube in a glass in the sun on a summer day - once the ice cube melts, the temperature starts to rise much more quickly.

The general impression that I got from these emails is that the public statements made by most climate change scientists are "conservative" - understated, that is. In other words, they are generally more alarmed than their public statements would indicate.

"It's really serious, isn't it ?" was the feeling I got. Like if someone just told you the cancer you thought was treatable, is spreading. A serious, edge-of-tears feeling.

I think James Lovelock's 350 goal is "good science" - I believe him when he says we need to reduce atmospheric CO2 content to 350 ppm (parts per million) to avoid a catastrophic global warming.

https://www.350.org/

However, I don't think we're going to get there. Right now, the atmosphere is at about 389 ppm - and rising. In order to reverse that, we need collective lifestyle changes to be implemented worldwide - by (almost) everybody. I don't see that people are making those changes.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't try.