Climate change paper states targets are insufficent

James Hansen, NASA scientist and worldwide renowned climate scientist, has today stated that it is urgent that the EU and its international associates change current targets for cutting atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide as he believes that the scale of the problem has been seriously miscalculated.

Hansen, who is head of the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, has stated that the current EU target of 550 parts per million of CO2 must be cut to 350ppm.

Hansen has asserted that this is necessary in order to ensure that the planet is preserved in a similar state to when civilisation first developed.

A paper has been written by Hansen and eight additional scientists and today a finalised copy of the paper has been posted on the Archive website.

Hansen and his team specifically examined evidence from the history of the Earth to produce an accurate depiction of climate sensitivity than the usual theoretical modes that are examined.

Core samples were removed from the ocean bottom allowing CO2 levels to be tracked from millions of years ago.

These samples have shown that when the world initially started to glaciate, 35m years ago at the beginning of the Ice Age, atmospheric CO2 concentration stood at roughly 450ppm.

The paper has revealed evidence that if the world is exposed to CO2 levels as high as 550ppm the world could potentially warm by 6C, as opposed to initial estimates that put warming at 3C at these levels.

Hansen has also stated that should the world be exposed to levels of 440ppm for too long a period then it is likely that all the ice will be melted resulting in a rise in sea levels of 75 metres, meaning that current targets are not suitable.

Hansen is a significant figure in climate change science, in a testimony to Congress in 1980 he was one of the first scientists to bring the predicament to worldwide recognition.

He has recently been reassessing his initial analysis of the scale of global warming- he was one of the scientists involved in coordinating a 450ppm target.

His reassessment lies with the recent understanding of mechanisms that produced slow feedback.

These mechanisms intensify the rise in temperature that has been caused by an increasing concentration of greenhouse gases.

When ice and snow melt, exposed ground absorbs additional heat. When ice sheets ebb away this warming effect is exaggerated.

Over the last three years satellite technology has shown that these ice sheets are melting at an exaggerated rate, with west Antarctica and Greenland specifically losing mass.

Hansen has stated that it is completely unlikely that the reduction of the ice sheets will take the thousands of years that were expected.

He has declared that should current plans continue he doubts that west Antarctica would survive another century, with the sea rising by two metres by the end of the century.

Criticism will no doubt lie with the fact that the paper perhaps is being too idealistic with climate change campaigners finding hard to even make a 450ppm stay.

The benefits of the findings, according to Hansen, is that fossil fuel reserves are not as plentiful as expected meaning that alternative sources of energy will have to be sourced promptly.

The revised opinion on climate change will undoubtedly put pressure on the UK to build a new generation of coal power stations.