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A 'terraformed' Mars, with astronauts standing on its moon Deimos: Might we eventually transform a sweltering Earth via geoengineering?
RON MILLER

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Deliberately alter Earth's environment? Let's prepare BUYING TIME ON GREENHOUSE GAS

Emergency Preparedness for Climate Change

Date published: 3/16/2008

SPRINGFIELD--

The realists in the global warming debate have a new mantra: Too Little, Too Late and Too Much, Too Soon.

According to Jim Hansen of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, to whom many political and environmental leaders turn on climate-change questions, we must reduce greenhouse gases by 80 percent within 12 years or it will be too late to prevent a climate catastrophe. Hansen thinks this won't happen because it simply costs too much, He knows the citizens of the world won't give up their dream of a better life--a life that stands on the shoulders of cheap electric power and affordable trucks and cars.

Indeed, Hansen is partly correct. Surveys show that citizens are not willing to pay the price of massive greenhouse-gas reduction. After all, who wants to limit their automobile use to one day every two weeks--or one day a week if we can double gas mileage to 44 miles per gallon? Who wants to throw away all but one electronic device among their cell phones, BlackBerrys, laptops, DVD players, and HDTVs?

Which neighbor will take only one bath a week; which will wash dishes in the sink; which will hang clothes to dry; and, which will use window fans instead of air conditioning? Who is prepared to condemn the struggling nations in Africa and Asia to continued poverty?

'tipping point' reached

Yet this is what we would have to do to reduce greenhouse-gas emission by 80 percent, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's target reduction.

We are also too late. The world has already exceeded the greenhouse-gas emissions "tipping point" beyond which catastrophic warming cannot be stopped. To prevent catastrophic warming we had to keep greenhouse gases below a level equivalent to 450 parts per million of carbon dioxide. We passed that point in 2005. The Virginia plan to reduce greenhouse gases by a mere 30 percent by 2020 is too little, too late, and so is the even more aggressive IPCC proposal to reduce them by 80 percent.


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David Schnare is the senior fellow for energy and the environment for the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. He has a Ph.D. in environmental management. His blog site is TheHard Look.com. Ron Miller of South Boston is a writer and creator of space art.



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Date published: 3/16/2008


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More BS..Anyone who believes this rot (posted by slarrivee , Mar. 18, 2008 8:36 am)   
can also come buy this hot lane I got for sale....It's time the climate change extremists dropped the chicken little act using the flawed science they swear by and quit trying to scare billions out of the people so they can research global warming through the next ice age...Man's impact on climate change is negligable compared to Solar activity ,research all you want, you will not control the Sun...Maybe you can build a giant sunshade for us to hide under. Get a life and a real job.

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