The Climate Solutions Consensus

What We Know and What To Do About It

David Blockstein, Leo Wiegman
The Climate Solutions ConsensusPublished: 12/01/2009
Publisher: Island Press
336 p. 7 x 10
Tables. Figures. 15 boxes.
Appendix. Index.
ISBN: 9781597266741
Paperback: $30.00
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Biographies | Table Of Contents

In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize (with former Vice President Al Gore) for its reporting on the human causes of climate change. In 2008, the National Council for Science and the Environment reported that the acceleration of climate change is already faster than the IPCC projected only a year earlier. How we deal with the rapid environmental changes, and the human forces that are driving these changes, will be among the defining issues of our generation.

 

Climate Solutions Consensus presents an agenda for America. It is the first major consensus statement by the nation’s leading scientists, and it provides specific recommendations for federal policies, for state and local governments, for businesses, and for colleges and universities that are preparing future generations who will be dealing with a radically changed climate. The book draws upon the recommendations developed by more than 1200 scientists, educators and decision makers who participated in the National Council for Science and the Environment’s 8th National Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment.

 

After presenting a lucid narrative of the science behind climate change and its solutions, Climate Solutions Consensus presents 35 practical, results-oriented approaches for minimizing climate change and its impacts. It clearly spells out options for technological, societal, and policy actions. And it deals head-on with controversial topics, including nuclear energy, ocean fertilization and atmospheric geo-engineering.

 

One of the book’s key conclusions is that climate solutions are about much more than energy sources. They involve re-examining everything people do with an eye toward minimizing climate impacts. This includes our eating habits, consumption patterns, transportation, building and housing, forestry, land use, education, and more. According to these scientists, the time to act is now. With clarity and urgency, they tell us exactly what needs to be done to start reversing the driving factors behind climate change, minimizing their consequences, and adapting to what is beyond our power to stop.

 

Biographies

The National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) is a nonpartisan organization working to improve the scientific basis of environmental decisionmaking.
 
David E. Blockstein is senior scientist with NCSE, and served as its first executive director.
 
Leo Wiegman is founder of E to the fourth, an environmental communications firm.
 

Table Of Contents

Tables and Text Boxes
Preface
Thirty-nine Reasons Why We Have to Act Now
Introduction: This Is Not Global Warming!
 
Part I Background
1 The Dance of the Mice and Elephants
2 Three Questions Every Citizen Should Ask 
3 Human Carbon as the Smoking Gun 
4 Rising Carbon, Rising Oceans 
 
Part II From Science to Policy
5 The Five Horsemen of Extinction
6 The Cheapest Carbon 
7 No Silver Bullet, but Many Silver Wedges 
8 Energy and Material Life Cycles 
9 The Efficiency and Intensity of Energy Use 
 
Part III Engaging Key Stakeholders
10 Carbon Meets Wall Street 
11 Public Support for Action 
12 Think Globally, Incubate Locally 
13 Where the Scientist, Policymaker, and Public Meet 
14 Scaling Up Amidst the Curse of Knowledge 
15 All of the Above! Solutions in Perspective 
 
Part IV Thirty-Five Tasks for Immediate action
Action Items 1–20: Strategies for Stabilization, Mitigation, and Adaptation
Action Items 21–28: Guiding and Fostering Multidisciplinary Research
Action Items 29–35: Expanding Understanding — Information,Education,and Communication
 
Appendix 1: Climate Change Time Line
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