THE LESSON OF LESS

Living With Limits
Rudy Baum (Editor-in-Chief), February 9, 2009 (Chemical & Engineering News)

"The Global financial crisis and recession is providing those who do not want to address global climate change another excuse for inaction. It is a familiar refrain. It is also a tired one.

"It seems that whenever a concrete proposal that would limit the amount of CO2 being poured into the atmosphere is floated—whether it's California's effort to limit tailpipe emissions from cars or the Supreme Court ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency should regulate CO2 as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act—someone is sure to respond, "We just can't afford to do that. It will put us at an economic disadvantage." Now it is the recession…"

click to enlarge

"…CO2 is unique among greenhouse gases in that climate change as a result of CO2 emissions is largely irreversible on a 1,000-year time scale… [A National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration paper:] "Among illustrative irreversible impacts that should be expected…are irreversible dry-season rainfall reductions in several regions comparable to those of the 'dust bowl' era and inexorable sea level rise." …

"…According to the [Monaco Declaration of 155 ocean scientists from 26 nations], ocean acidification is under way, it is already detectable—the pH of ocean surface waters has dropped…and it is accelerating. Severe damages to marine organisms is imminent because of acidification. It will have socioeconomic impacts …By the end of this century, if atmospheric CO2 is not stabilized, the level of ocean acidity could increase to three times the preindustrial level. Recovery from this large, rapid, human-induced perturbation will require thousands of years…"

"This is an emergency, folks. We have to begin the painful and difficult process of ceasing to treat the atmosphere and the oceans as a carbon dioxide sewer…And here's the hard truth: To do it, we're going to have to live with less, and we are going to have to accept some limits on our endless acquisition of goods because we cannot afford all the material stuff we produce and consume…[W]e are not paying the full cost of the material goods we consume. The only way that will change is through imposition of a carbon tax or a CO2 cap-and-trade system that will internalize the cost of burning fossil fuels into the products we consume. That is not going to be painless…[I]t has to be done. And done soon…"