The consequences of global warming have been severely underestimated, leading scientists have claimed.
Former NASA director James Hansen, who teamed up with Aberdeen University to conduct his research, said the expected target rise of 2C by the year 2100 could be more dangerous than thought.
Yesterday he warned that “urgent” and “immediate” strategies must be implemented within the next decade to achieve a more sustainable goal of 1C.
Dr Hansen, former boss of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said that it was not a question of what effect rapidly rising CO2 levels would have on the world, but how soon they would begin.
“Meeting this target of 1C requires major reforestation as well as 6% emission reduction per year, starting almost immediately,” said Dr Hansen.
“Delay until 2020 means that more drastic measures are then required, with major reforestation and 15% emission reduction a year.
“The situation is very urgent.”
Dr Hansen worked alongside Aberdeen University’s professor of soils and global change Pete Smith to conduct the research.
The pair said they questioned the 2C global warming target set by the United Nations Framework Convention after they evaluated the rise in fossil fuel exploitation.
They said that if the world continues to burn fossil fuels at the same rate, knowing what damage it will cause, people will be committing their children and grandchildren to a dangerous future.
“Instead of finding ever more ingenious ways of extracting every last drop of increasingly climate-damaging fossil fuel from the earth, we should be using our skills and talents to develop alternatives to fossil fuels,” said Prof Smith.
“The window of opportunity for action is closing. We simply cannot wait until we have burned all of the fossil fuel before we take action.
“We need to take rapid and decisive action now for the sake of our children and their children.”
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