As the Paris U.N. Climate Conference winds down, negotiators are still hammering out the details of a global deal to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. With close to 200 governments a part of the conversation, it’s important to remember perspective, in this case a global one. However, most of the negotiators are pinned to the ground. Besides images and videos, it’s safe to say a majority have never seen the blue marble called Earth from the vantage of space.
Speaking with Popular Science, astronaut Scott Kelly, R&D Magazine’s Scientist of the Year, threw in his two cents regarding what negotiators in Paris should consider when making these decisions.
“When you’re standing on the ground and you look up, the sky just looks enormous, but up here it doesn’t,” he said. “It looks…very thin and fragile and something that we need to protect because it’s the only thing that’s really protecting us from space.”
He noted that from the International Space Station, it’s very easy to see pollution in certain parts of the world, especially in Asia where it is almost “constant.” Additionally, he’s seen weather patterns and systems crop up in unexpected places.
“I would just hope that they recognize…that this is something that’s…critical to our survival and is something we need to fix now before it’s too late,” he told Popular Science.
The new agreement draft is 29 pages, a reduction from the previous 48-page draft, which was the result of four years of talks that began in 2011, according to BBC News. Still, pertinent decisions need to be made before the meeting’s close.
“Negotiators will have to choose between warming targets: ‘below’ 2 C, ‘well below’ 2 C or an ambitious target of 1.5 C,” reports Nature.
But The Washington Post reports that even if an agreement is reached, the Earth itself may complicate the plans. The culprit is permafrost. “As the planet warms, this frozen northern soil is going to continue to thaw—and as it thaws, it’s going to release carbon dioxide and methane into the air. A lot of it, it turns out,” reports Chris Mooney. “Potentially enough to throw off the carbon dioxide budgets that have been calculated in order to determine the maximum emissions that we can release and still have a good chance of keeping warming to 2 C or below it.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry also announced the U.S. will double down on its funding for countries struggling to adapt to climate change, bringing the total to more than $800 million. “No one country can solve this problem or foot the bill alone,” he said, according to Bloomberg. “That’s not rhetoric. It’s just physically impossible to do so.”
John Vidal, of The Guardian, reports that a new draft text is not expected to be published until around 7 p.m. tonight.
No comments:
Post a Comment