Climate Change Strategies Not Working Quickly Enough: UCI's Steve Davis and Fellow Scientists
Categories: Environment, School Daze
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Davis and his paper collaborators Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution for Science, Long Cao of China's Zhejiang University and Martin Hoffert of New York University examined the "wedge" approach to tackling climate change outlined in a 2004 study by Princeton scientists Stephen Pacala and Robert Socolow.
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| Steve Davis |
"We have enormous respect for that earlier work," says Davis in a UCI release. "But almost a decade after wedges made a solution to climate change seem doable, we now know that holding emissions steady, difficult as it would be, is literally a half-measure--and one that we have yet to take. Our emissions are not being held constant or even slowing; they're growing faster than ever."
Davis and his co-authors figure as many as 31 wedges could be required to stabilize the Earth's climate to safe CO2 levels and sharp reductions in total emissions must begin sooner rather than later. Current technologies cannot sustain the amount of power being used worldwide now, let alone enough affordable, carbon-free energy to keep up with demand, they add.
"We urgently need policies and programs that support the research, development, demonstration and commercialization of new energy," the Davis team concludes.
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