Local Time: 8:34 AM AKDT (GMT -08)
Lat/Lon: 58.8° N 137.0° W
Elevation :: 33 feet
Temperature :: 52 °F
Conditions :: Overcast
Humidity :: 76%
Dew Point :: 45 F
Wind :: Calm
Pressure :: 30.17 inches (Steady)
Visibility :: 10.0 miles
UV :: 1 out of 16
Clouds :: Overcast 3000 ft
(Above Ground Level)
Earth's in the emergency room (click title to entry - thank you)
BY DAVID YARNOLD
dyarnoldedf.org
...Continuing to delay the environmental care we urgently need will make the future much, much worse. Projections show the inland United States will warm up roughly 40 percent faster than the global average, with profound implications for American agriculture. In 2007, the prestigious Science magazine published research that ''predicted a permanent drought by 2050 in many parts of the country,'' creating 1930s Dust Bowl-like arid conditions from Kansas to California. Another study found that without action to address climate change, by 2100 Oklahoma will see temperatures above 110 degrees for 60 to 80 days a year -- within the lifetime of many children born today.
Just as emergency room care is always more expensive, waiting to address climate change will cost prohibitively more. Suppose we pass cap-and-trade climate legislation this year, with the law taking effect in 2012. To comply with the emissions target by 2020, businesses would need to cut annual emissions by about 2 percent.
Now let's look at another scenario: say we pass a cap-and-trade bill in 2010, and it doesn't take effect until 2014. To meet the same target, emissions would have to fall by 4.3 percent per year -- over twice as fast -- year after year until 2020, just to get to the same place. By 2020, emissions would have to be cut 23 percent below the starting point in 2014 compared to a 15-percent reduction if we begin just two years earlier. That's the cost of delaying action while the amount of global warming pollution in the atmosphere continues to rise....
