The UN Orders Climate to Stop Changing

                                              King Canute orders the tide to stop rising


Atmospheric CO2 concentrations have risen from ca. 280 ppm at the start of the industrial revolution to almost 400 ppm today---an increase of about 40%.   Average global temperatures have gone up by about 1° C over the same time period.  There is no sign that the global community of nations is going to take any concrete measures to reduce CO2 emissions----indeed atmospheric CO2 levels continue to rise by about 2 ppm each year, and the recent and much ballyhooed agreement signed by President Obama and Premier Xi of China actually allows China to greatly increase their CO2 emissions 

Nonetheless, there are still a few scientists and politicians who think CO2 emissions need to be capped.   A group called 350.org advocates keeping atmospheric CO2 levels below 350 ppm in order to minimize climate disruptions.  The 350 ppm target comes from a scientific evaluation by Dr. James Hansen of the maximum level that CO2 concentrations can reach without triggering climate disruptions.

Of course, since atmospheric CO2 is already at 400 ppm, targeting a maximum concentration of 350 ppm might be seen as quixotic.  Others think 400 ppm should be the absolute limit.  For instance, Al Gore twitted:  

"Atmospheric CO2 levels breached 400ppm for first time in history of human civ. A sad milestone. A call to action."

Still others who worry about global warming don't focus on CO2 at all, but instead hope that restrictions can be placed on the amount of global warming that will be allowed to occur.  In a dramatic shift, world leaders, including President Obama who met at the 2009 UN climate treaty meeting in Copenhagen abandoned the 20-year-long drive to craft a binding UN climate treaty to replace the non-binding UN Kyoto accords on CO2 emissions, and instead issued a statement saying that average global temperatures should not be allowed to  increase by more than 2° C.

Another UN climate meeting is going on right now in Lima, Peru with the next UN climate conference planned for 2016 in Paris.  Just five years after the UN Copenhagen meeting the 2° limit on temperature increases set in 2009 is coming into question.  A debate has begun in scientific journals and at the Lima conference whether or not to ditch the 2° limit on the maximum global average temperature increase that can be allowed and instead set some higher limit at which global warming has to be stopped.  

The annual UN climate treaty negotiations no longer even try to set firm limits on CO2 emissions.   Their new message is:  Let the word go forth!  Climate shall not rise any more than 2°C!  Or maybe 3°C!  Or some other number!  But climate must stop warming!  Let the word go forth!

It all reminds me of King Canute, who ordered the tide to stop rising.