Scientists Warn Doing Nothing Will Likely Lock in Worst Consequences of AGW

WASHINGTON – Three top U.S. climate scientists stressed on a telephone press conference today the United States must rapidly reduce its global warming emissions to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. The scientists, all of whom have been involved in U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports, were speaking during a telephone press briefing organized by UCS.

The prospects for federal action on climate are uncertain. Some senators have suggested the Senate may not consider a climate bill this year. Meanwhile Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has introduced a resolution that would undermine the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) authority to regulate heat-trapping emissions under the Clean Air Act.

“Policymakers must understand that unlike a steel tariff, action on climate change is not something that can be postponed a year,” said Richard Somerville, a research professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and co-author of the Copenhagen Diagnosis, a synthesis of the most policy-relevant climate science since the 2007 IPCC report. “The longer we delay in reducing our emissions, the higher the global temperature increase we lock in.”

Common Dreams