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limpyhobbler

(8,244 posts)
2. ug.
Wed Dec 5, 2012, 03:58 PM
Dec 2012
If Canada proceeds, and we do nothing, it will be game over for the climate.

Canada’s tar sands, deposits of sand saturated with bitumen, contain twice the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by global oil use in our entire history. If we were to fully exploit this new oil source, and continue to burn our conventional oil, gas and coal supplies, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eventually would reach levels higher than in the Pliocene era, more than 2.5 million years ago, when sea level was at least 50 feet higher than it is now. That level of heat-trapping gases would assure that the disintegration of the ice sheets would accelerate out of control. Sea levels would rise and destroy coastal cities. Global temperatures would become intolerable. Twenty to 50 percent of the planet’s species would be driven to extinction. Civilization would be at risk.
...
James Hansen directs the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and is the author of “Storms of My Grandchildren.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/opinion/game-over-for-the-climate.html?
Susan Rice's TransCanada Ties [View all] matthewf Dec 2012 OP
Big problem Kolesar Dec 2012 #1
ug. limpyhobbler Dec 2012 #2
Latest Discussions»Retired Forums»Video & Multimedia»Susan Rice's TransCanada ...»Reply #2