Climate of Our Future

Climate Crisis Coalition
Growing Concern about Greenland Ice Melt Prompts U.N. Scientist to Call for Stiff Carbon Taxes.By Gerard Wynn, Reuters, Jun 26, 2007. “New research shows that man-made climate change could cause the Greenland ice sheet to break up in hundreds, rather than thousands, of years, the chair of a United Nations panel of scientists said on Monday. Its entire collapse would raise sea-levels globally by around 7 meters (23 feet), they said. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its five-yearly report earlier this year, and described threats from global warming including sea-level rise of up to 79 centimeters this century. It said that the entire Greenland ice sheet would melt over a period of thousands of years, if temperatures remained around 2 degrees centigrade (3.6 Fahrenheit) or more above the levels predating wholesale industrialization in the developed world. But the new research, not considered by the IPCC, could change that view, according to Bert Metz, a senior IPCC member… The new research shows rapid melting on the surface of the Greenland ice sheet. Meltwater is disappearing down huge crevasses, and theory suggests that water will lubricate the bottom of the ice sheet and speed up its flow into the sea… Metz is the co-chair of the third of the IPCC’s three reports published this year, focusing on the policy options to fight the global warming problem. One option is to penalize emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO2), for example, through a carbon tax. To make a significant difference, carbon prices should reach $50 to a $100 per tonne of avoided CO2 emissions by 2030, he said.