There was a Cambridge Forum Mini-Conference on January 28, 2010 called “After Copenhagen: Global Climate Change”. After a break for dinner, James Hansen gave the keynote address called “After Copenhagen: Looking for Real Solutions” at 7:00 pm at the First Parish (Unitarian Universalist). I hope to post a link to his slides shortly.
Hansen is revered as the most important figure in the science of climate change having rung the alarm on global warming over 20 years ago. It is well worth some time at his website to get a deeper understanding of his work.
CLIMATE CHANGE
The world sees natural rhythms of increasing and decreasing CO2 levels over very long periods of time that result in 1/10,000 PPM/yr changes. The problem we have today is that we are seeing 2 PPM/yr changes or 20,000 times the natural variation in CO2 levels. “The fundamental problem is that fossil fuels are the cheapest fuels due to subsidies as well as their absence of liability for the health and environmental damage they cause.”
The science of climate change has gotten much clearer over recent years, but those who would like to continue to burn fossil fuels are effective at misinformation.
FEE and DIVIDEND
Hansen believes that the way forward is a fee and dividend model. A carbon fee would be collected and rise annually according to a plan that would be stated and understood for long term planning purposes. The fees collected would be distributed back “to the people”. For example, if each individual were to receive a dividend of $1,000 then a couple would receive $2,000 and a family of three or more would receive $3,000.
British Columbia tried this successfully with the dividend being paid out in reduced payroll taxes to stimulate their economy. Hansen hopes to talk with U.S. congressional leaders as he would like to see a model like this one adopted by the U.S. and China as well as the rest of the world.
KEY POINTS from Q&A
Acknowledging that nuclear power is controversial, Hansen recommends that the U.S. lead the world in the research, construction and operation of fourth generation nuclear power plants. These plants use 99% of the energy in uranium so there is much less waste compared to current plants. Despite the risks, countries around the world are going to build and operate nuclear power plants and these plants will be most beneficial to mankind if America leads the way. The current choice in India and China is either coal or nuclear power.
One four foot tall sophomore girl from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School asked, “Since climate change will have a big impact on my life, is there anything that I can do?” Hansen thought for a moment and explained how much older people love their children and grandchildren and recommended that she ask them to help today. I have always liked the idea of educating our kids about climate change and positioning them in their homes, like trojan horses, to champion conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy.
STORMS OF MY GRANDCHILDREN
Despite the fact that Hansen loves science and does not like public speaking, he has just published “Storms of my Grandchildren” and continues to speak out in order to try to head off the continued impact of man on the planet’s climate. As a grandfather of three, he thought it was his responsibility to write his first book in a further attempt to address climate problems for children being born today.
