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06/09/2008: "Efforts to help keep world temperature rises under 2C will fail, says thinktank"

Britain will find it 'impossible' to meet its target as part of the world's battle to ensure temperatures do not rise more than 2C - a key threshold for dangerous climate change, according to a study by a panel of leading experts.

The report 'Carbon Scenarios' by the Stockholm Network thinktank says that if existing policies and hopes of international agreement on reducing emissions were implemented, there would still be a 90 per cent chance the temperature rise would reach about 3C, a level that experts fear would provoke 'feedback' of more carbon by melting permafrost, threatening the world's forests.

If governments let policies 'stall and backslide' - as many appear to be doing - the rise would be 4.8C, says the study, to be published tomorrow. 'The two-degree target is impossible, and [a] three-degree target is implausible,' said Paul Domjan, energy fellow at the London-based European thinktank and an author of the report.

[ What can you expect when we elect corrupt politicians? ]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/08/climatechange.greenpolitics

Replies: 1 Comment

on Tuesday, June 10th, Dental Plan said

I think it's already too late for the nice "safe" green policies to do any good now. Rising global temperatures aren't the problem. Pollution isn't the problem. Not even overpopulation is the problem, although it is an excellent problem-maker. These are all merely symptoms of one root problem.

As far as I can tell, the cackle about Kyoto and related treaties is bullshit designed to stall and NOT solve, as is the case with nearly every "eco-friendly" time-buying product belched out by our highly cynical corporate interests. I find it disgusting the way our society continues to lie to itself instead of dropping the "something for almost nothing" bullshit and facing the rock-hard truth: Either Western(ized) Civilization goes or most life on the planet goes. Nobody of importance dares say that, of course, because they're all concerned with keeping the almighty money wheel spinning for as long as they can. People in general would rather continue to retain some of history's higher living standards for another 20 years or so before a catastrophic collapse kills most of them than scrap everything that they've inherited from industrialized civilization and live MUCH harder lives for several thousand, perhaps several million, years to come.

With all of that in mind, I think it's safe to say that nobody with any real power is going to be serious about this until it's too damn late to do anything (perhaps it already is). Have a nice day.