April 2, 2011

A few climate change “facts”

1.      2005 tied 1998 as world's hottest year, and 2010 is on track to beat the record

2.      According to the 2009 "State of the Climate" report published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorology, 2000-2009 was the warmest decade in the instrumental record

3.      United States has alternative mechanisms that it can use to meet its 2020 target goal of reducing emissions by 17% below 2005 levels as promised in Copenhagen

         a.      Without relying on Congress

4.      U.S. EPA now beginning process of regulating GHG as a pollutant

         a.      Republicans and some Democrats will focus on removing or delaying EPA’s authority to set greenhouse gas pollution reduction standards

5.      The largest carbon polluting nations continued to make progress in putting in place national plans and policies commensurate with their commitments under the Copenhagen Accord

         a.      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_Accord

6.      These national plans are not yet sufficient to stabilize an emissions pathway which can meet the goal of the Copenhagen Accord – holding temperature increase to 2 degrees C over pre-industrial levels. However, they do get us more than two-thirds of the way towards the reductions by 2020 that scientists tell us are essential