Top U.S. Scientists, Economists Urge Carbon Cuts

By Eli Kintisch
ScienceNOW Daily News
30 May 2008

In an open letter published online yesterday, leading American scientists and economists urged U.S. policymakers to make deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. The action comes as the Senate is poised to vote on landmark U.S. climate legislation.

"We call on our nation's leaders to swiftly establish and implement policies to bring about deep reductions in heat-trapping emissions," said the letter, whose 1700 signers included six Nobel Prize winners and 31 members of the National Academy of Sciences. "The strength of the science on climate change compels us to warn the nation about the growing risk of irreversible consequences as global average temperatures continue to increase."

Unlike previous climate science reports that have avoided making recommendations, such as those published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (ScienceNOW, 28 May), the letter calls for specific policies. It advocates slashing greenhouse gas output 15% to 20% by 2020, for example, and recommends an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050.

The Senate bill that will be debated next week, sponsored by senators Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and John Warner(R-VA), would be less aggressive, though its mandated 60% cut in emissions by 2050 is opposed by many major industries and the White House. The bill is unlikely to pass the Senate this year, yet those on both sides of the issue say that next week's debate will be important for setting the tone of what will likely be a multiyear process.

And those who organized the letter hope the call for ambitious cuts will embolden supporters of the Lieberman-Warner legislation, says official Lexi Shultz of the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Union of Concerned Scientists, a group that helped spearhead the campaign. Harvard University climate scientist James McCarthy, president of AAAS, which publishes ScienceNOW, began gathering signers last year with Columbia University economist Geoffrey Heal. McCarthy says that he wants to spur lawmakers to pass aggressive reductions by not only emphasizing the risks of climate change but also stressing the impact on the economy. "If emissions continue unabated, our nation and the world will face more sea level rise, heat waves, droughts, wildfires, snowmelt, flood risk, and public health threats," the letter says. "Many emissions reduction strategies can be adopted today that would save consumers and industry money."

Nobel Prize�winning economist Eric Maskin of Princeton University echoed those remarks in a prepared statement: "The economic and social costs of global warming could be huge. We need to act now to limit them."

Critics of mandatory action on climate change are sure to oppose the letter, but some scientists declined to sign it because it wasn't tough enough. Those include NASA's James Hansen, who, among other measures, wants an immediate ban on coal plants that do not capture and sequester their carbon dioxide.