The results of our over-consumption of fossil fueled energy have hit the fan in a big way and we are rapidly entering a period of irreversible climate extremes. Top climate scientists are trying to bring attention to solutions that could help in stopping or at the least slowing our rapid progression to an unlivable planet.
Top climate scientists have sent a letter to the White House requesting a rapid reduction of Methane and other short lived climate pollutants. Here is text (pdf)of letter.
about the reduction of the short lived climate pollutants for years and now scientists are focusing on their rapid reduction as the best chance for rapid short-term cooling to avoid the worst effects of global warming. As written in the excerpted letter text above; in order to limit warming to 2 degree C, which is set to avoid dangerous irreversible tipping points, we must initiate a rapid short term cooling while we continue to aggressively reduce CO2, which stays in atmosphere for hundreds of years, for essential long term cooling.
Signed,
F. Stuart Chapin III, Ph.D., Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Eric Davidson, Ph.D., Adjunct Senior Scientist, Woods Hole Research Center
Bongghi Hong, Ph.D., Research Associate, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University
Robert W. Howarth, Ph.D., David R. Atkins Professor of Ecology and Environmental
Biology, Cornell University
J. David Hughes, Ph.D., President, Global Sustainability Research Inc., Retired Research
Manager Geological Survey of Canada, Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute
Anthony R. Ingraffea, Ph.D., P.E., Dwight C. Baum Professor of Engineering and Weiss
Presidential Teaching Fellow, Cornell University
Mark Z. Jacobson, Ph.D., Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Director,
Atmosphere/Energy Program, Stanford University
Chris J. Kennedy, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University
Simon A. Levin, Ph.D., George M. Moffett Professor of Biology, Department of Ecology &
Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University
Michael C. MacCracken, Ph.D., Chief Scientist for Climate Change Programs, Climate Institute
Michael E. Mann, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Meteorology and Director of the Earth
System Science Center, Penn State University
Roxanne Marino, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary
Biology, Cornell University
Duncan N. L. Menge, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental
Biology, Columbia University
Scot M. Miller, M.S., Ph.D. candidate, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University
Shahid Naeem, Ph.D., Professor of Ecology, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and
Environmental Biology, Columbia University
William H. Schlesinger, Ph.D., President Emeritus, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies,
Millbrook, NY
Drew Shindell, Ph.D., Professor of Climate Sciences, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University
Whendee L. Silver, Ph.D., Professor of Ecosystem Ecology and Biogeochemistry and Rudy
Grah Endowed Chair in Forestry and Sustainability, University of California, Berkeley
Sara F. Tjossem, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer in Discipline of International and Public Affairs, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
J. Jason West, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Science and
Engineering, University of North Carolina
Shaye Wolf, Ph.D., Climate Science Director, Center for Biological Diversity