|
Climate action soughtStrong climate change bill advocates seek lowering of carbon dioxide levelsPeter Marcus, DDN Staff WriterMonday, October 26, 2009 | |
Advocates for strong climate change legislation gathered at the Capitol Saturday to encourage citizens and lawmakers to work to lower carbon dioxide levels back to the level 350 parts-per-million.
According to supporters of the 350 Denver campaign, carbon levels are currently at 387 ppm, proof that global warming is taking place. A group of climate scientists has said that 350 ppm of carbon dioxide is the highest safe level for the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.
Scientists believe carbon levels are rising at about 2 ppm per year.
“Getting down to 350 ppm calls for dramatic and rapid changes,” said Peter Sawtell, executive director of Denver-based Eco-Justice Ministries, and an organizer of Saturday’s event.
The climate change event was one of an estimated 65 events that took place in Colorado on Saturday as part of the 350.org day of action. More than 4,500 events in 177 countries were scheduled worldwide, said organizers. Several hundred Coloradans attended the one at the Capitol on Saturday.
In addition to speeches and music, the event was also marked by taking a photo of the large group, which is being submitted as part of a “visual petition” to U.S. and world leaders. The photo was displayed in New York City’s Times Square on Saturday evening.
Six churches in the Denver area also rang their outdoor bells for an extended period of time on Saturday as an “act of public witness about the dangers of climate change,” said organizers.
The event came as Congress is debating strong climate change legislation that would include a controversial cap-and-trade system aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. With Democrats leading the charge, the House has already passed the so-called Waxman-Markey bill. Even tougher climate change legislation was introduced at the end of last month in the Senate.
Both bills call for a cap and trade system for replacing fossil fuels with alternative energies to power factories and produce electricity.
Under cap and trade, ever-declining carbon dioxide emission limits would be imposed and companies would be allowed to sell to each other, through a regulated market, the pollution permits controlling those emissions.
Critics of such a system Ń mostly Republicans and industry groups Ń argue that increased costs would be passed on to Americans, especially to low-income families.
The Senate bill Ń introduced by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. Ń would go a bit farther than the House bill by hiking emission cuts to 20 percent below 2005 levels from the 17 percent target in the House. It aims at reducing smokestack emissions of carbon dioxide 20 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050 from 2005 levels.
The bill would also answer calls by environmental groups to give the Environmental Protection Agency more control over emissions. The bill would grant the EPA the authority to set emissions standards when issuing permits for existing power plants Ń a stark difference from the House bill that would place boundaries on the EPA’s authority to regulate emissions.
Sawtell is concerned that climate change is falling off the radars of many citizens, which is why he finds rallies such as the one Saturday to be so important.
Poll
A recent poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press indicated that only 57 percent of Americans believe the world is getting warmer, down 20 points in just three years. Less Americans also believe that pollution caused by people is causing global warming.
“The poll was very clear that what it reveals is a lack of public interest and a lack of public awareness É the poll has nothing to say about the reality of global warming, it’s simply a matter of public opinion,” said Sawtell.
Speaking at the rally on Saturday, Dr. John Miller, a climate scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Earth System Research Laboratory Global Monitoring Division, said there is indisputable evidence to indicate that global warming is taking place and that man has a role to play in it.
“It used to be 280 (ppm,) now we’re at 385-387, we need to get back to 350. That increase in the atmosphere that is caused by humans, if this has occurred, then this is indisputable,” said Miller. “The second fact that is indisputable is that if you put extra CO2 into the atmosphere you’re going to warm the earth. If someone tells me that you’re going to put on a sweater and not get warmer, they’d better have a very, very complicated and convincing explanation of why that’s not the case.”
|
