WASHINGTON, DC, January 13, 2009 (ENS) – Ending the emission of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by 2050 will be necessary to avoid “catastrophic disruption to the world’s climate,” according to the Worldwatch Institute in its 26th annual assessment, “State of the World 2009: Into a Warming World,” released today.

Yet, the independent research organization based in Washington, DC says opportunities abound in renewable energy and efficiency improvements, agriculture and forestry, and the resilience of societies for slowing and managing climate change.

“We’re privileged to live at a moment in history when we can still avert a climate catastrophe that would leave the planet hostile to human development and well-being,” said Worldwatch Vice President for Programs Robert Engelman, project co-director for State of the World 2009.

“But there’s not much time left,” Engelman said. “Sealing the deal to save the global climate will require mass public support and worldwide political will to shift to renewable energy, new ways of living, and a human scale that matches the atmosphere’s limits.”

The assessment holds out hope that the gridlock that has long plagued climate policy can finally be broken with the new administration of President Barack Obama and international climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009 to craft a treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Red sunset (Photo by Mads Hansen)

“We can’t afford to let the Copenhagen climate conference fail,” said Worldwatch President Christopher Flavin. “The outcome of this meeting will be written in the history books – and in the lasting composition of the world’s atmosphere.”

In his forward to the assessment, 2007 Nobel Peace Laureate Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, said, “The strongest message from State of the World 2009 is this: if the world does not take action early and in adequate measure, the impacts of climate change could prove extremely harmful and overwhelm our capacity to adapt. At the same time, the costs and feasibility of mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions are well within our reach and carry a wealth of substantial benefits for many sections of society.”

Dr. Pachauri is director general of The Energy and Resources Institute and chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore for raising public awareness of climate change.

He will be the keynote speaker at the 13th Annual State of the World Symposium in Washington, DC on January 15.

The Worldwatch report includes contributions from 47 authors. It is based on the latest scientific assessment of the IPCC, which organizes information from thousands of scientists from around the world.

Most scientists agree that Earth’s average temperature has already risen by more than 0.8 degrees Celsius (1.4 degrees Fahrenheit) since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-18th century, with much of that increase attributed to human activities.

Nearly one degree Celsius of additional warming may already be in store, based on past emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases that have not yet made their influence felt on surface temperatures.

Half of the carbon dioxide emitted today is expected to remain in the atmosphere a century from now, and much will remain even 10,000 years in the future, scientists predict.

A chapter by climate scientist W. L. Hare concludes that in order to avoid a catastrophic climate tipping point, global greenhouse gas emissions will need to peak before 2020 and drop 85 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, with further reductions beyond that date.

Emissions of carbon dioxide would actually need to “go negative,” with more being absorbed than emitted,” during the second half of this century, Hare advises.

The Wanakbori coal-fired power plant in India’s Gujurat state. India has no greenhouse gas emissions limits under the Kyoto Protocol. (Photo courtesy Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd)

Hare’s research shows that even a warming of two degrees Celsius poses unacceptable risks to key natural and human systems, including loss of species, major reductions in food-production capacity in developing countries, severe water stress for hundreds of millions of people, and sea-level rise and coastal flooding.

A successful climate strategy will motivate rapid reductions in emissions as well as major investments in adaptation, with both efforts necessarily financed mostly by the world’s wealthier countries and people, the book argues.

Such a strategy ultimately will also need to address the warming climate’s connection to food production, population growth, and the global economy. Economists have estimated the cost of avoiding dangerous climate change at around $1–2.5 trillion a year for decades to come; yet the costs of not doing so are expected to be far higher.

In order to assess the threat the climate crisis presents and explore innovative and practical solutions, Worldwatch enlisted more authors for this book than for any previous edition of the series, many hailing from the developing countries most vulnerable to climate change. The resulting framework offers a roadmap for a world that not only survives climate change, but emerges more stable, more just, and more prosperous.

The book’s opening chapter notes 10 key challenges that must be adopted as part of any successful path to mitigation and climate change adaptation and resilience.

Ten key challenges to avoiding catastrophic climate change

1. Thinking Long-term. At the core of the climate problem is the likelihood that future generations will pay with a deteriorating global environment for the refusal of current generations to live in balance with the atmosphere. Visionary leaders will need to marshal the public to take responsibility for the impacts of today’s behavior on the future and to act accordingly.

2. Innovation. The emissions shift will require technologies that break the carbon link to energy consumption with as little sacrifice of price and convenience as possible. A range of renewable technologies can produce electricity and meet heating and cooling needs. Such technologies include buildings that produce more energy than they consume and “smart grids” that use information technology to match renewably produced electricity precisely to demand.

3. Population. Rarely addressed in the context of climate change, future population trends could make the difference between success and failure in the long-term balance of human activities, atmosphere, and climate. The world’s population is likely to stop growing and then gradually decline for a period when women gain the full capacity to decide for themselves whether and when to have children.

4. Changing Lifestyles. The assumption that the “good life” requires ever more individual consumption, more meat-eating, ever larger homes and vehicles, and disposable everything will need to fade. A spirit of shared and equitable material sacrifice can replace it – with no loss of what really matters, such as active good health, strong communities, and time with family.

5. Healing Land. Managed for the task, the Earth’s soil and vegetation can remove billions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere. Agricultural landscapes can accomplish this while improving food and fiber production and minimizing the need for artificial fertilizer and fossil-fuel-driven tilling and raising farmer incomes.

6. Strong Institutions. As with the deteriorating global economy, the global nature of climate change demands international cooperation and sound governance. The strength and effectiveness of the United Nations, multilateral banks, and major national governments are essential to addressing global climate change. These institutions – and those emerging from the hoped-for Copenhagen climate agreement in 2009 – require strong public support for their critical work.

7. The Equity Imperative. No climate agreement will succeed without support from those countries that have so far contributed little to human-induced climate change, have low per-capita emissions, and stand to face the biggest challenges in adapting to the coming changes. A pact that is fair to developing and industrialized countries alike is essential.

8. Economic Stability. With the world now fixated on the sputtering global economy, addressing climate change will demand attention to costs and the promise of improving rather than undermining long-term economic prospects. A climate agreement will have to operate effectively during anemic as well as booming economic periods, facing squarely the challenges of poverty and unemployment while continually reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

9. Political Stability. A world beset by conflict and terrorism is far less likely to prevent dangerous climate disruption than one at peace. Security and climate must be addressed simultaneously. On the positive side, negotiating an effective and fair climate agreement offers countries a needed opportunity to practice peace and re-frame international relations along cooperative rather than competitive lines.

10. Mobilizing for Change. The way to deal with climate change we ourselves are causing is to see the opportunity for a new global economy and new ways of living in the effort to bring net greenhouse gas emissions to an end. There’s no guarantee such a transition will be easy – or even possible. But a global movement to make the effort is needed now, and could yield new jobs, new opportunities for peace, and global cooperation beyond what humanity has ever achieved.

Worldwatch states in its report, “Simultaneously addressing these interlinked and challenging issues could lay the groundwork for a world that will not merely bounce back from both the economic and climate crises, but surge forward.”

Find “State of the World 2009: Into a Warming World,” at: www.worldwatch.org

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NEW YORK, New York, September 25, 2008 (ENS) – The first Kids Gorilla Summit, which is happening on Friday in New York City will enlist young people to make a commitment to help endangered mountain gorillas and the people of Africa. The summit will explore the connection between the urgency of wildlife preservation and inter-related humanitarian issues.

This event and the gorilla conservation campaign it spearheads were born out of a commitment to action made at the 2007 Clinton Global Initiative shortly after last summer’s massacre of 10 of the world’s remaining 720 mountain gorillas, of which, 380 live in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Virunga National Park.

A project of the William J. Clinton Foundation established by the former U.S. president, the Clinton Global Initiative convenes global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges, such as the planet’s dwindling biodiversity.

An endangered mountain gorilla in the
DRC. (Photo by Paul Taggart courtesy
Wildlife Direct)

The gorilla conservation campaign brings together some of the world’s most respected names such as Kenyan conservationist Dr. Richard Leakey, founder of Wildlife Direct, and South African Anglican Archbishop, activist and Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu.

Turtle Pond Publications and Scholastic, in association with Dr. Richard Leakey’s Wildlife Direct and the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation through the catalyst of the Clinton Global Initiative, are the partners in this effort to protect the mountain gorillas.

Dr. Leakey started Wildlife Direct in 2005 to raise awareness and funds for conservation in some of the worlds most endangered and dangerous places. Operating deep in the jungles of eastern Congo, blogs written by rangers last year alerted the world to the crisis facing mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Funds raised through the blogs have enabled the Congolese wildlife authority, the Congolese Nature Conservation Institute to continue wildlife conservation activities on the ground despite the ongoing crisis that pits rebels and government troops against each other for control of the area inhabited by the gorillas.

“Wildlife Direct was conceived as a way of facilitating exchanges between the front lines of conservation and the rest of the world, to create a community of people concerned about conservation and to allow for direct interaction with and support to the conservationists on the ground,” Dr. Leakey says on his blog.

The Kids Gorilla Summit will now be part of that community. Participants will discuss the new children’s book, “Looking for Miza: The True Story of the Mountain Gorilla Family Who Rescued One of Their Own, published by Scholastic Press. It was written by the best-selling team of Craig, Isabella and Juliana Hatkoff, photographer Peter Greste, and ecologist Dr. Paula Kahumbu who is in charge of conservation, policy and partnerships at Wildlife Direct.

Some 180 students in grades five to seven will view short videos of the gorillas, as well as special animated “Gorillasodes” that were created by students from the United States and Rwanda to help spread the word about the gorillas’ plight.

The young people will discuss the issues with Leakey, Kahumbu and Hatkoff, and they will meet four reporters who are members of the Scholastic Kids Press Corps, reporting from Africa.

After learning about the gorillas and the region, the students will develop their own ideas for solutions with the help of educational, web-based technological tools.

At the end of the summit, participants will be asked to sign the Kids Global Act Pact, which will declare their commitment to taking action to make a difference.

Students nationwide can participate via a live national webcast at http://www.scholastic.com/miza and will be able to email questions to participants.

In addition, http://www.scholastic.com/miza and http://www.miza.com, created jointly by Turtle Pond and Scholastic, will offer students up-to-date information on the gorillas brought from Wildlife Direct’s field-based blogs written by the Mountain Rangers and other activities and resources.

The new curriculum and online portal will be distributed to a million students to teach them about the gorillas, their habitat and the Mountain Rangers, and is intended to empower them to become advocates for change.

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WASHINGTON, DC, July 18, 2008 (ENS) – “Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years,” said former Vice President and Nobel Peace Laureate Al Gore Thursday.

Speaking to an audience at the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall in Washington, Gore said, “This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative. It represents a challenge to all Americans – in every walk of life: to our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, and to every citizen.”

Gore says America is at a turning point and immediate action is required to utilize the abundant supplies of wind, solar and geothermal energy that exist right now in the United States.

“There are times in the history of our nation when our very way of life depends upon dispelling illusions and awakening to the challenge of a present danger,” Gore said.

“In such moments, we are called upon to move quickly and boldly to shake off complacency, throw aside old habits and rise, clear-eyed and alert, to the necessity of big changes. Those who, for whatever reason, refuse to do their part must either be persuaded to join the effort or asked to step aside,” he said.

“This is such a moment. The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk. And even more – if more should be required – the future of human civilization is at stake.”

Al Gore emphasizes the urgency of
immediate action to reverse climate
change. July 17, 2008 (Photo by
Matthew Bradley)

The speech was given to draw public attention to Gore’s latest project, the We Can Solve It Campaign, a project of the Alliance for Climate Protection, a nonprofit, nonpartisan effort founded by Gore, with the ultimate aim of halting global warming.

Gore said transformation must happen within 10 years because the climate crisis is worsening more quickly than predicted.

“Scientists with access to data from Navy submarines traversing underneath the North polar ice cap have warned that there is now a 75 percent chance that within five years the entire ice cap will completely disappear during the summer months. This will further increase the melting pressure on Greenland,” Gore told the audience at Constitution Hall.

“According to experts, the Jakobshavn glacier, one of Greenland’s largest, is moving at a faster rate than ever before, losing 20 million tons of ice every day, equivalent to the amount of water used every year by the residents of New York City.”

Gore cited two studies from military intelligence experts warning about “the dangerous national security implications of the climate crisis, including the possibility of hundreds of millions of climate refugees destabilizing nations around the world.”

“Just two days ago, 27 senior statesmen and retired military leaders warned of the national security threat from an “energy tsunami” that would be triggered by a loss of our access to foreign oil. Meanwhile, the war in Iraq continues, and now the war in Afghanistan appears to be getting worse.”

Gore says the answer is to stop relying on carbon-based fuels.

“In my search for genuinely effective answers to the climate crisis,” he told the audience, “I have held a series of ’solutions summits’ with engineers, scientists, and CEOs. In those discussions, one thing has become abundantly clear: when you connect the dots, it turns out that the real solutions to the climate crisis are the very same measures needed to renew our economy and escape the trap of ever-rising energy prices.”

“They are also the very same solutions we need to guarantee our national security without having to go to war in the Persian Gulf,” he said.

Gore says American can use fuels that are not expensive, do not cause pollution and are abundantly available within the United States.

“We have such fuels,” he said. “Scientists have confirmed that enough solar energy falls on the surface of the earth every 40 minutes to meet 100 percent of the entire world’s energy needs for a full year. Tapping just a small portion of this solar energy could provide all of the electricity America uses.”

“And enough wind power blows through the Midwest corridor every day to also meet 100 percent of U.S. electricity demand,” said Gore.

“Geothermal energy, similarly, is capable of providing enormous supplies of electricity for America.”

One by one, Gore set up the possible criticisms his plan might face and knocked them down.

“To those who argue that we do not yet have the technology to accomplish these results with renewable energy: I ask them to come with me to meet the entrepreneurs who will drive this revolution. I’ve seen what they are doing and I have no doubt that we can meet this challenge,” he said.

“To those who say the costs are still too high: I ask them to consider whether the costs of oil and coal will ever stop increasing if we keep relying on quickly depleting energy sources to feed a rapidly growing demand all around the world. When demand for oil and coal increases, their price goes up. When demand for solar cells increases, the price often comes down.”

Gore says his plan will not only free the country from the shakles of foreign oil but also build back the faltering economy.

“When we send money to foreign countries to buy nearly 70 percent of the oil we use every day, they build new skyscrapers and we lose jobs. When we spend that money building solar arrays and windmills, we build competitive industries and gain jobs here at home,” he said.

“Of course there are those who will tell us this can’t be done,” said Gore. “Some of the voices we hear are the defenders of the status quo – the ones with a vested interest in perpetuating the current system, no matter how high a price the rest of us will have to pay. But even those who reap the profits of the carbon age have to recognize the inevitability of its demise.”

“To those who say 10 years is not enough time, I respectfully ask them to consider what the world’s scientists are telling us about the risks we face if we don’t act in 10 years,” said Gore.

“The leading experts predict that we have less than 10 years to make dramatic changes in our global warming pollution lest we lose our ability to ever recover from this environmental crisis. When the use of oil and coal goes up, pollution goes up. When the use of solar, wind and geothermal increases, pollution comes down,” he said.

“To those who say the challenge is not politically viable: I suggest they go before the American people and try to defend the status quo. Then bear witness to the people’s appetite for change,” Gore said.

“I for one do not believe our country can withstand 10 more years of the status quo. Our families cannot stand 10 more years of gas price increases. Our workers cannot stand 10 more years of job losses and outsourcing of factories. Our economy cannot stand 10 more years of sending $2 billion every 24 hours to foreign countries for oil.”

“And our soldiers and their families cannot take another 10 years of repeated troop deployments to dangerous regions that just happen to have large oil supplies.”

Gore said the 10 year target he proposes is the right amount of time to allow for focused action without losing sight of the goal.

“Some of our greatest accomplishments as a nation have resulted from commitments to reach a goal that fell well beyond the next election: the Marshall Plan, Social Security, the interstate highway system. But a political promise to do something 40 years from now is universally ignored because everyone knows that it’s meaningless,” Gore said. “Ten years is about the maximum time that we as a nation can hold a steady aim and hit our target.”

Gore served as vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He served first in the U.S. House of Representatives (1977–85) and later in the U.S. Senate (1985–93) representing Tennessee before becoming vice president.

In 2007, Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for “efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.”

He is the author of the 2006 text, “An Inconvenient Truth,” a slide show on global warming and starred in the Academy Award-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” released in conjunction with the book. He helped to organize the July 7, 2007 set of Live Earth benefit concerts to combat global warming.

Gore is currently the cofounder and chairman of Generation Investment Management, cofounder and chairman of the Emmy award winning American television channel Current TV, a member of the Board of Directors of Apple Inc., and a Senior Advisor to Google. He is also a partner in the venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, heading that firm’s climate change solutions group.

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