350 ppm or bust

Hansen paper released; WaPo fails to link to Grist 8

Several posts on this site have mentioned a recent paper from James Hansen et al. -- Target CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim? (PDF) -- which argues that the official E.U. target of 550 ppm global atmospheric CO2 is far too high, and that anything over 350 ppm risks putting human beings in a world radically different than anything they've ever known.

The final version of the paper is now up, and there's been some good news coverage. For a good overview, see Ed Pilkington in The Guardian.

Juliet Eilperin at the Washington Post picks out the crucial part of Hansen's message -- "New Focus on Coal's Part in Warming" -- and pulls in backup from Gore:

Former vice president Al Gore said in an interview last week that he backs Hansen's approach, with one modification: Because carbon capture and storage technology is still not widely available, he said, "I think we ought to have a moratorium on any coal-fired power plant that doesn't have the capacity to capture carbon."

One thing that strikes me as rather ... odd is that Eilperin's story spends several 'graphs discussing an exchange of letters between Hansen and Jim Rogers of Duke Energy -- an exchange that occurred on Gristmill and, as far as I know, only on Gristmill. Yet the piece never links to either letter.

Guess Jack Shafer is onto something.

David Roberts is staff writer for Grist. You can follow his Twitter feed at twitter.com/drgrist.

Related Stories

Advertisement
Advertisement
  1. Biodiversivist's avatar

    Biodiversivist Posted 2:10 am
    07 Apr 2008

    Unlike the world of academiawhere great effort is put forth to keep scientists from stealing ideas, the blogosphere is the wild wild west. And the last thing a newspaper wants to do is link to a blog in an Ezine. Newspapers are having a tough time staying solvent. Blogs are killing them. Printing words on trees is expensive. The articles trade accuracy and completeness for entertainment, advertiser approval, and page space. Bloggers are tormented by commenters who force them to be honest and thorough, or at least more so.

    In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

    Permalink

  2. josullivan58 Posted 2:20 am
    07 Apr 2008

    RealClimate covers it tooRealClimate discusses the science in an excellent post

    Target CO2

    http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2008/04/tar ...

    Permalink

  3. Biodiversivist's avatar

    Biodiversivist Posted 2:30 am
    07 Apr 2008

    "There's nothing slipperier than agreased Irishman. Grease me up woman!"--Groundskeeper Willy


    In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

    Permalink

  4. sindark's avatar

    sindark Posted 2:31 am
    07 Apr 2008

    350ppmWe can only hope that 350ppm isn't the concentration where real danger sets in. Just stabilizing below 550ppm requires enormously more action and political will than exists at present.

    a sibilant intake of breath

    Permalink

  5. Biodiversivist's avatar

    Biodiversivist Posted 2:38 am
    07 Apr 2008

    WhoopsThe above comment goes with JMG's post about waste grease theft : (.

    In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

    Permalink

  6. josullivan58 Posted 3:27 am
    07 Apr 2008

    Whoops againBiodiversivist, Groundskeeper Willy is Scottish not Irish :( .

    Permalink

  7. Biodiversivist's avatar

    Biodiversivist Posted 3:37 am
    07 Apr 2008

    Crap and double crap.My mind is the wrong place to go for Willy quotes:
    http://www.geocities.com/groundskeeper3/quotes.html

    In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

    Permalink

  8. susannablog Posted 6:37 am
    08 Apr 2008

    hansen way ahead of the packHansen has always been ahead of the pack on climate science.  When he started talking about climate change in the 80s nobody took action, but now millions of people are starting to demand changes from our industry and government in the way we use energy.  I'm excited to talk to Hansen about his ideas at this upcoming event in DC: http://www.chesapeakeclimate.org/climaterally.

    Permalink

Add a Comment

You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have an account, log in. If you don't have an account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.

Hello, Visitor!    Why not register?

Viewed
More
Commented
More
Advertisement