Britain’s Carbon Strategy “Up in Smoke”

Nations closed the climate conference in Bali with vows to tackle climate change. Scientists are taking the government leaders at their word. Jim Hansen – director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in the US, who has long warned that global warming poses real dangers to the planet, including species extinction, raised sea levels and ruined coastlines – urges governments to back away from plans to build coal-fired power plants. If the US, Germany and the UK do not stop constructing such plants, India and China will follow their lead and build hundreds more, ending any hope of slowing climate change. “Coal presents the biggest challenge in the fight against climate change because governments around the world appear to be dead set on using it as a cheap and easy source of energy without thinking about the long-term consequences,” writes science editor Steve Connor for the Independent. Industry so far lacks technology for sequestering carbon released from burning coal, and any governments that allow construction of coal-fired plants are reckless about the dangers, both known and unknown, associated with global warming. – YaleGlobal