A year ago this November 5, Energy Action’s Billy Parish stood in front of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, and demanded sound energy policy from our federal government. Behind him stood over six thousand students and young people who converged on Washington for the first Power Shift conference. As he chanted “Eighty By Fifty”, the committee chairman tried to avoid meeting his eyes.
Today, a year later (attributable, no doubt, to the slow travel speed of sound), these words were truly heard. But not by the United States. Sure, the legislature kicked it around a little, but nothing stuck.
Across the Atlantic, today’s headlines read: “Britain is to sign up to a legally-binding pledge to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050.” The Independent writes, “The move, announced today by the new Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband, makes the UK the first country in the world to commit to such swinging cuts in the production of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming. It comes after the Government-appointed climate change committee chaired by Lord Turner last week recommended that the UK raise its target from 60 per cent to 80 per cent cuts in emissions compared to 1990 levels, covering all sectors of the economy, including shipping and aviation. In his first statement to the House of Commons in his new role, Mr Miliband told MPs: “The Government accepts all of the recommendations of the Committee on Climate Change. We will amend the Climate Change Bill to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, and that target will be binding in law.”
So. What are the Brits putting in their tea?
Perhaps the zealous pursuit of a new climate change policy is not unrelated to the information on climate change being published in British newspapers. More than two weeks ago, British papers reported on the latest climate science: Preliminary findings of scientists aboard a research ship that has traveled the entire length of Russia’s northern coast report that “massive deposits of sub-sea methane are bubbling to the surface as the Arctic region becomes warmer and its ice retreats.” “Methane chimneys” have arrived: Columns of gas bubbling up from the sea floor containing a gas twenty times the warming capabilities as carbon dioxide. In other words, we are already surpassing some “worst case scenario” predictions by the IPCC, triggering feedback mechanisms that will advance warming beyond critical systems tipping points. So far, the reports from the Siberian continental shelf are unpublished, but they are great cause for worry.
Dr Gustaffson of Stockholm University puts methane chimneys in perspective: “The conventional thought has been that the permafrost ‘lid’ on the sub-sea sediments on the Siberian shelf should cap and hold the massive reservoirs of shallow methane deposits in place. The growing evidence for release of methane in this inaccessible region may suggest that the permafrost lid is starting to get perforated and thus leak methane… The permafrost now has small holes. We have found elevated levels of methane above the water surface and even more in the water just below. It is obvious that the source is the seabed.” To recap: Britain is actually listening to scientists, and amending its national policy to correlate with new scientific findings stressing the urgency of the immediate need to cut our emissions.
How Can We Get Some?
Two weeks have elapsed since the publication of this and similar articles in the British news. Not one major US news publication has picked up methane bubbles as a feature story. Allow me to repeat. Not one major United States media conglomerate has bothered to cover in any detail the sudden release of a gas twenty times more powerful than carbon dioxide from the (huge) Siberian ice shelf, one of the runaway warming mechanisms most feared by scientists for decades now. Britain’s actions are commendable, but without the cooperation (and dare I say leadership?) of the United States in the world community, forget it. (and yes I am preaching to the choir)
Once again, the mission falls to young people to educate and engage our public. Youth must continue to bird-dog our political leaders during the election and into the First 100 Days of the new Presidency. As we put pressure on our leaders at home and abroad, let us remember what Billy told Congress: “We will be heard because we are quite literally fighting for our lives. This can no longer be a political issue. We must put aside partisan politics and come together as humans, to heal our people and our planet.” (And get some policies in place fast.)
Right. On it.
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An artistic video-explanation of the danger of climate feedback mechanisms: www.wakeupfreakout.org
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The two Independent stories mentioned here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/exclusive-the-methane-time-bomb-938932.html
The Silence of the Heavens
The pot on the stove has now begun to boil. As the Republicans were chanting “Drill baby Drill”, the Gas vents of Methane were at that moment boiling to the surface of the newly iceless arctic expanses. The science gives us twenty years before the heat extinguishes life as we know it. The last time this happened, (the Permian-Triassic extinction) it killed everything including the insects. It took life 100 million years to reestablish itself.
We are living in a World without consequence. There will be no one to remember us. If we wrote our story in stainless steel, by the time someone evolved to read it, it would be unrecognizable. The impetus for decency must now only come from within.
According to science life automatically generates under the right conditions. If life is an automatic feature of certain landscapes why is it not “out there”? Why do we get not answers to our queries, why are the heavens silent?
Life’s evolutions across the universe is an inefficient process that leaves unused energy behind as a byproduct. By the time life evolves to the point where it can “send a signal”, it has already figured out how to harness this energy for its own uses. It is like a teenager on a motorcycle with the sudden influx of free calories. Wheeeeeee ! By the time life figures it out, it is too late. We evolved to the point where we could send a signal 50 years ago. In twenty we will be gone and silent. The probability of life “out there” contacting us has to include the factor of a 100 year time frame. The heavens are silent because they, the ones capable of sending such a signal, are dead. And now we set upon the path to follow in the mode for the same reasons.
Does this mean it is too late for us to lead the industrialized world? Has GB beaten us to it?!
nah, we’re gonna be the first to do 80 by 30.
Fantastic words – lets hope this step can catalyse some changes elsewhere too, and the US gets on it!
Yeah, 80 by 30 and 100% renewable electricity in 10 years. Take that GB. (that is, if we lead our country)
First of all, i’ll declare i’m a Brit…
Trouble is, unless British politics changes its economic model, then the 80% announcement is largely greenwash. The reason being that all political parties in the UK are committed to economic growth, so one day that 80% reduction will have to be 90% and then eventually 100%.
In fact if you told the UK ‘Treasury’ that we have to cut consumption, they would ignore you or laugh.
Don’t get me wrong, setting an 80% target is important and what was missed by most of the media is that Milliband also committed the government to ‘feed in’ tariffs.
This is incredible news. Greenwash or no (let’s hope no!), it sets off a strong signal of forward motion.
Just in response to the imperative for economic growth no matter what, I agree with you, but just wanted to add that i dont think economic growth need be synonymous with energy consumpton any longer.
With a growing pressure towards a low carbon economy coming from both energy security and climate change concerns, we are beginning to say a rapid change of direction across the board. I know there is a long(!) way to go, but I hope this target, rather than simply being greenwash, will act as an additional catalyst towards a ‘clean’ economy.
The Silence of the Heavens
The pot on the stove has now begun to boil. As the Republicans were chanting “Drill baby Drill”, the Gas vents of Methane were at that moment boiling to the surface of the newly iceless arctic expanses. The science gives us twenty years before the heat extinguishes life as we know it. The last time this happened, (the Permian-Triassic extinction) it killed everything including the insects. It took life 100 million years to reestablish itself.
We are living in a World without consequence. There will be no one to remember us. If we wrote our story in stainless steel, by the time someone evolved to read it, it would be unrecognizable. The impetus for decency must now only come from within.
According to science life automatically generates under the right conditions. If life is an automatic feature of certain landscapes why is it not “out there”? Why do we get not answers to our queries, why are the heavens silent?
Life’s evolutions across the universe is an inefficient process that leaves unused energy behind as a byproduct. By the time life evolves to the point where it can “send a signal”, it has already figured out how to harness this energy for its own uses. It is like a teenager on a motorcycle with the sudden influx of free calories. Wheeeeeee ! By the time life figures it out, it is too late. We evolved to the point where we could send a signal 50 years ago. In twenty we will be gone and silent. The probability of life “out there” contacting us has to include the factor of a 100 year time frame. The heavens are silent because they, the ones capable of sending such a signal, are dead. And now we set upon the path to follow in the mode for the same reasons
What a great source of new energy. Methane hydrate will be the fuel of the future.
Just an update:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/article938932.ece;jsessionid=5E34E2E6E3119D405A81E0165E916FD3?postingType=posting&mode=thanks&postingId=939148#postcomment