The venerable Dr. James Hansen of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, whom Representative Markey referred to in his introduction as “the Paul Revere of the global warming crisis,” had the air of a lion of the climate change movement as he addressed the gathering of congressional aides and the public at his commemorative briefing of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. He wasn’t there to drop any bombs on congress or even convince any global warming deniers, rather he emphasized the sorts of changes that should be made, when we need to make these changes (pretty much right now) and how we might go about accomplishing these changes.
He hit all the big points: cutting CO2 emissions, getting back to 350ppm, raising efficiency standards and moving to a low-loss grid, but many ears perked up in the hearing room when he mentioned that we should take it as a foregone conclusion that all the oil currently accessible would be burned. Wait, what? But we can pass fuel efficiency standards, move to plug-in electric cars powered by a renewable grid. We won’t use Tupperware, I’ll cut down on my use of WD-40. We’re going to burn all the oil?!
Yes. He said that the interests controlling the oil supplies such as the vast state owned operations in Russia, Venezuala and Iran have such a stake in oil that they would never let anything interfere with converting their oil into revenue. End of story.
We should focus instead, he suggested, on making sure that no new coal plans are built in the US (you hear that, Dominion?). This goal is accomplishable and can help curtail the acceleration of CO2 emissions immediately. This comment seemed especially apt considering that the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board votes Wednesday on Dominion Virginia Power’s permit to build a big honkin’ coal-fired power plant in Wise County, VA. The members of the board would be wise to heed Dr. Hansen’s advice. There is no greater authority on climate change in the world. We all owe him a debt of gratitude for his courage.
