20 years ago yesterday

Yesterday (June 23), the Toronto Star published an article about scientist James Hansen. Exactly 20 years earlier, Hansen had become the first leading scientist to warn of the dangers of global warming before a congressional committee. Now he warns that Earth is nearing a tipping point. He is calling for a national carbon tax and says that "CEOs of energy companies may be guilty of crimes against humanity and nature."

Hansen says that we “have reached a point of planetary emergency." He reports that the world’s safe level of atmospheric carbon dioxide has been exceeded.

In these 20 years, Hansen points out, "no major U.S. law restricting greenhouse gas emissions has been passed, 21 new coal-fired generating units have been built at power plants in this country and total U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide have climbed by about 18 per cent." He warns of greater forest fire risk in Canada, the extinction of polar and alpine species, danger to the coral reefs and the ocean life that depends on them because of carbon dioxide in the oceans, and refugees from melting ice sheets in Greenland and the western Antarctic.