September 4, 2008

Ending Coal: Climate Science That Matters

Coal use must end or we all dieLeading climate science Dr. James Hansen [search], who heads NASA's noted Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has called for an immediate halt in the construction of coal-fired power stations [ark | more\ark]. This is something Ecological Internet has strongly supported for years, and this political ecology represents climate science that matters. When being is threatened, it is time for expert academics to come down from their ivory towers and engage in sufficient ecological policy responses.

Dr Hansen is in England as a defense witness in the trial of six Greenpeace activists charged with damaging the Kingsnorth coal power plant in October last year. Energy giant E.on wants to build UK's first coal-fired plant for more than 30 years, and there have been major protest and direct action against Kingsnorth this summer. The trial's defense strategy seeks to establish the important and worthy precedent that direct action climate protests are justified [ark] to prevent 'much larger crimes' being committed against the Earth. Shall we all sit by peacefully as creation is destroyed, or will we do what we know is necessary to maintain being?

There is zero chance of achieving global ecological sustainability and avoiding calamitous global ecological collapse if global plans for new coal plants [search] move forward, and existing coal plants are allowed to continue operating. Clean coal is an untested PR line, with no indication it will be available, dependable and scalable any time soon. To maintain a habitable Earth, global change scientists will need to follow Hansen's example and move past studying the issue to using their expertise within the policy-making environment to achieve sufficient measures necessary to maintain an atmosphere, biodiversity, water and oceans. Humanity simply must find a way to shake the ecocidal coal habit or we all die.

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