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As you may, or may not know, Greg and Connie are both certified presenters for a group called The Climate Project. We just returned from The Climate Project’s North American Summit in Nashville, TN., where we spent 4 days with 500 fellow presenters listening to lectures from individuals like Mr. Al Gore, R.K. Pachauri, IPCC Chair; Don Henry Executive Director, Australian Conservation Foundation (a former guest on this program); Larry Schweiger, CEO, National Wildlife Federation; and Dr. David Suzuki host of PBS’s The Nature of Things. We also took part in several workshops and information sessions centered around Climate Change.

Here is a summary of some of the take-aways from the conference:

R.K. Pachauri

• Climate change will most adversely effect low-latitude, less developed nations. ie. the poor, marginalized people of the world. It will effect them largely because they lack the resources to adapt. In areas where it used to flood once every 15-20 years it will start to flood every 4-5. This does not give the people in these areas time to recover.
• Sea Level Rise has historically occurred at a rate of 1.8mm/yr, it is now rising at a rate of 3.1mm/yr
• The Arctic that has seen a 40% reduction in sea ice in the last 20 years is warming at a rate 2x as fast as the rest of the world.
• Food Yield in Africa is expected to fall 50%, Central and Southern America 30%
• Climate Change effects animal life as well. 1 million species will be lost if we don’t act.
• We can address Climate Change by curtailing the use of fossil fuels and undertaking reforestation on a grand scale. This will cost 3% of global GDP over the next 20 years. This means the growth we would expect to see by 2030 we will not see until 2031. A one year delay.

Mr. Gore

• In the last 4 years Climate Project Presenters have given the Inconvenient Truth Slide show 50,000 times to 50 million people.
• When we went to the moon in 1969 the average system engineer in the control room was 24. That means that in 1964 when President Kennedy issued the challenge to put a man on the moon the engineers were 18 at the time they heard that message.
• Based on history we confuse the improbable with the impossible
• The North Pole could be gone in the summer in a little as 5 years
• The sum total of all waste, industrial, household, manufacturing works out as 141 lbs/per person/per day
• The EPA was not able to provide a good reason for not regulating CO2 as a pollutant until now.
• China is changing. It’s budget for renewable energy currently far exceeds our own. They are moving forward.

Dr. David Suzuki

• Humans are now the most abundant mammal on the planet. More humans than rabbits or mice.
• Think about it: What is the collective impact of the billions of humans on earth?
• Because there are so many of us, just the act of living, supplying our survival needs, makes us a geological force.
• Foresight is what allowed Man to succeed. The ability to envision the future and make plans for it. It is what has the potential to save us now if we use credible information when making our plans.
• What caused man to lose some of his/her gift of foresight? Perhaps the speed in which we now live and the abundance of information. A loss of connectedness.
• Ecology – the study of home
• Economics – the management of home. Put the “eco” back in economics.
• Current economics is flawed for 2 reasons: The externalization of natural resources (they have no value on a balance sheet until they are used) and the myth of unlimited growth. Logging industry sees a forest as having no value until it is cut down and shipped.

Science Panel with: Dr. George Woodwell, Howard Frumpkin, CDC, and a Scientist from Harvard Public Health who’s name I missed.

• New York Times economist concludes, “It’s time to save the planet”.
• Climate models often under estimate the effects. In every case, actual data matches, or is higher than the predictions of the models.
• Those who say the problem is in the future are mad. It is already costing us billions.
• There are 2 ways to turn down the heat: management of forests (stop deforestation), and management of fossil fuels.

• CO2 increases allergens.
• CO2 increases production of allergens as opposed to good crops like wheat and other food products (“God has a sense of humor”)
• The Kidney Stone belt is found in areas where it is dry and there is more dehydration. As these areas become dryer, we are seeing that Kidney Stone belt get bigger.
• Threat to agriculture and food supply effects the US as well as developing nations. 11% of households may experience decreased food supplies.

Solutions

• National Smart Grid for moving power on low-loss power lines from the areas where we can generate clean renewable energy using things like solar and wind will have a construction cost of 400 billion. The projected losses from climate change in the USA are currently estimated to be 120 billion per year
• Biofuels like ethanol look promising for aviation, not so much for cars given the increased need for agriculture and the increase in ozone
• Electric motors are 90% efficient vs. internal combustion engine at 15% efficient
• EnergyStar standards getting tougher
• Vegetarian – 3-5 times less energy over eating meat
• 90% of energy currently used is wasted

Waxman Markey Bill

• Establishes the first ever Carbon Cap & Trade regulations: 17% by 2020, 83% by 2050 (Science must determine the “cap”. Policy can determine the “trade”).
• Allowance to developing nations for reforestation 4-5 billion/yr 2012-2050
• Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) incentives
• Renewable Energy standard 20% by 2020 (5% through efficiency measures)
• Polluter Penalty: 10% back to States for renewables, 15% to consumers, 44% to Utilities to reduce rates to consumers, 2% back to oil companies < over 12 years, 4% to preservation and technology export to developing nations
• $750billion in consumer rebates (story)

There is so much more to tell but we will leave you with the information above for now. We wish you could all have been there to hear the things that we heard.  Suffice it to say, we  are reasonable people, and we believe there is enough sound information to declare that there is a global warming problem and we must act now to solve it. We are also not particularly political but unfortunatley we must become so in order to move forward. This problem is global and it requires global political action. It is no longer up to the scientists. They have already provided the information that we need. It is now up to us. Please get involved however you can.