LONDON — The world has less than a
decade to take decisive action in the battle to beat global warming or
risk irreversible change that will tip the planet towards catastrophe, a
leading U.S. climate scientist said on Tuesday.
And the United States, the world' biggest polluter but major climate
laggard, has a vital role to play in leading that fight, James Hansen,
director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told Reuters on a
visit to London.
"The biggest problem is that the United States is not taking an active
leadership role -- quite the reverse," he said.
"We have to be on a fundamentally different path within a decade," said
the man who earlier this year caused an outcry when he revealed that
scientific warnings on the climate crisis were being rewritten by White
House officials.
He said reliance on -- and growing use of -- fossil fuels like coal both
in the United States and in boom economy China had to be stopped and
reversed to avoid the planet's climate tipping into catastrophe with
floods, droughts and famines.
Scientists say that unless action is taken to stop emissions of greenhouse
gases like carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels for power and
transport, global temperatures will rise by between two and six degrees
Celsius by the end of the century.
But the United States under President George W. Bush has argued vehemently
that such actions would cripple its economy and in 2001 turned its back on
the Kyoto Protocol -- the only global pact on curbing carbon emissions.
However, a report last month by former World Bank chief economist Nicholas
Stern said that while actions now to curb carbon emissions would cost one
percent of world economic output, delay could push the price up to 20
percent.
"We need to be at 25 percent less CO2 emissions by mid-century," Hansen
said. "If we begin now it can be much less painful and have possible
economic, health and developmental gains."
"We need gradual, progressive change starting now not abrupt, drastic
changes in a decade or so," he added.
Hansen was in London to receive the Duke of Edinburgh Conservation Medal,
awarded annually by environmental group WWF for outstanding services to
the environment.
He said there were signs of movement in the United States, particularly at
state level, and rumours of imminent changes from the Bush administration.
But so far these were just rumours.
With Bush having only two more years in office and with his Republican
Party having lost control of both U.S. houses of parliament in a voter
rejection of the war in Iraq, there has been speculation Bush might make
some move on the environment.
"The great danger is that they will take some minimal steps that give the
appearance of doing good but in fact do very little or even some damage
because they fool people into relaxing," Hansen said. "Cosmetic acts are
no solution."
"On the other hand it would be good for Bush's legacy if he did take
constructive action on the environment," he added.
