IPCC CO2 Reductions

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently issued its 5^th assessment on climate change, essentially reaffirming that disaster awaits the world if CO2 emissions aren’t cut worldwide to 50% below 1990 levels by 2050.

The various sections of the assessment have been issued piecemeal so as to gain maximum media coverage.

The fundamental message remains the same: The world must cut CO2 emissions 50% below 1990 levels by 2050, however, developed countries, such as the United States, must cut their emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2050 so that developing countries can continue, albeit at a slower rate, to increase their CO2 emissions.

In spite of this nod to developing countries, China, a developing country, refuses to accept the demands of the IPCC.

The critical question, aside from whether CO2 has a significant effect on climate, is what it would mean for the United States to cut its emissions 80% by 2050.

Here’s what’s involved for the United States¹.

Factually, 2.3 MT/person is an absurdly low level of per-capita CO2 emissions for the United States.

To put it in context, it’s the level of U.S. per-capita CO2 emissions at the turn of the last century, i.e., 1900 … before the First World War.

There were very few automobiles, no commercial airplanes, no tractors and fossil-fueled power equipment for growing the food we need, no TVs, few electric lights, or any other powered equipment, such as refrigerators or air-conditioning units.

In other words, radical environmentalists want Americans to return to the “good old” days of virtual poverty.

This is the level that must be reached, or, according to the IPCC, there will be a calamity.

By definition, as explained in Carbon Gauntlet, a worldwide disaster is unavoidable; because it’s impossible for the United States to reach this level of CO2 emissions, while worldwide CO2 emissions continue to increase with China, and other developing countries, continuing to increase their CO2 emissions.

These are incontrovertible facts … the real Inconvenient Truth.

Cutting emissions by something less than 80% is futile, because, according to the IPCC, they MUST be cut 80% in developing countries and 50% worldwide, or there will be a disaster. Cutting CO2 emissions by less than 50% worldwide won’t prevent the disaster.

When viewed in this context, the entire IPCC exercise is bizarre. How can it be anything else?

Why are radical environmentalists and this administration² trying to coerce Americans into cutting CO2 emissions to the point where Americans become impoverished?

1.  Calculations in Carbon Gauntlet, based on 2004 emissions data and slightly different population estimates, arrived at essentially the same conclusion, i.e., 2.4 MT/person.
2. The EPA has made 80% reductions by 2050 its target.

*  *  *  *  *  *

These articles can be delivered directly to your mailbox. Subscribe by clicking below the photo on the right side of the article where it says email subscription, and entering your email address. You can unsubscribe at any time.

If you know someone who would be interested in these articles you can send him/her a link to the article and suggest he/she subscribes by clicking on the email subscription link under the picture on the right side of the page, and entering their email address.

To find earlier articles, click on the name of the preceding month below the calendar to display a list of articles published in that month. Continue clicking on the name of the preceding month to display articles published in prior months.

© Power For USA, 2010 – 2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author, Donn Dears, LLC, is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Power For USA with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

(2)

Please follow and like us: