A recent 6,700 page report funded by the United States Army, World Bank, and others states that without bold and immediate action, "billions of people will be condemned to poverty and much of civilization will collapse"[1] as a result of global climatic disruption.

NASA's top climatologist, James Hansen, set the goal by stating that atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide of 350 parts per million (PPM) is the highest suitable level for civilization.[2] Prominent scientists agree that stabilizing CO2 at 450PPM (the current political consensus) is "inadequate to sustain the integrity of global climate and to hold the risk of ruinous climatic change to an acceptably low level."[3]

Yet current political actions fail to live up to even the conservative 450PPM target. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated that to stabilize carbon dioxide below 450 PPM, developed nations like the U.S. need to reduce emissions 25-40% below 1990 levels by 2020.[4] Developing countries demand that rich nations reduce their emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2020. The European Union and Japan approach but fall short of this conservative target, each committing to 20-25% reductions below 1990 levels by 2020. Yet right now, America puts them both to shame.

The American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) that recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives aims for 1990-level reductions of 1% by 2020.[5] If replicated around the world, this would see atmospheric concentrations of CO2 stabilize at over 650PPM.

With CO2 already at 390PPM, this is woefully inadequate. Global destabilization as a result of rapid climate change is the single greatest known threat to the human race. No effort should be spared to stop emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and instead start removing carbon out of the atmosphere, to return to the safe level of 350PPM.

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• [1] 2009 State of the Future. The Millennium Project. Jerome C. Glenn, Theodore J. Gordon, and Elizabeth Florescu. http://www.millennium-project.org/millennium/sof2009.html
• [2] Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim? Hansen et al. http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/2008/TargetCO2_20080407.pdf
• [3] An Open Letter to the President and Members of Congress. Strong Leadership Needed Now on Climate. Woods Hole Research Center. http://www.whrc.org/pressroom/PDF/Climate_Scientists_letter_6.19.09.pdf
• [4] IPCC 4th Assessment. Chapter 13, Policies, Instruments, and Co-operative Arrangements, 776. http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg3/ar4-wg3-chapter13.pdf
• [5] Emission Reductions under the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. Larsen and Heilmayr. World Resources Institute. http://pdf.wri.org/usclimatetargets_2009-05-19.pdf. This refers to the cap-only. If all the offsets market exceeded all expectations and functioned perfectly, reductions could hit 17%, still well below IPPC levels.