The Climate Conservancy was founded by scientists who understand the power of a free market to change the world. Yet industrialization and globalization can also threaten our quality of life when the full costs of products we buy are not taken into account. The brunt of unrecognized, or externalized, costs are borne by the environment. Thus, while cheap oil and vast coal supplies have favored Americans with a high standard of living, the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in our atmosphere has increased substantially since the industrial revolution, and is now higher than at any time in the past 650,000 years. The scientific community is in agreement that the concentration of these gases is warming the globe and altering its climate. To learn more about the science of climate, how GHGs warm the planet, and the climatic changes we've observed and expect, visit our page on Global Climate.
Abatement of GHG emissions may represent the greatest challenge modern humans have ever faced, and it's very unlikely that there will be a single solution to the problem. Beyond allowing us to observe and understand changes in global climate, science is the foundation of the technological developments in energy efficiency, sources of renewable energy, and carbon sequestration. Science is therefore critical to meeting the challenge of reducing GHG emissions and reinventing a more sustainable economy. We'll soon publish here a primer on state of the art energy technologies and some of the more promising lines of research. Stay tuned.
Selected References:
Summaries of Climate Science:
Understanding and Responding to Climate Change. Highlights of National Academies Reports. National Academy of Sciences. Available on the online at http://dels.nas.edu/basc/Climate-HIGH.pdf
Summary for Policymakers. Fourth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, February 2007. Available online at http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf
Summaries of Energy Technology:
Winning the Oil Endgame. Rocky Mountain Institute, 2007. Available online at http://www.oilendgame.com
The Clean Tech Revolution. Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder, 2007. Visit the website for the book at
http://www.thecleantechrevolution.com
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