The US has a moral obligation to lead on Climate Crisis

EDITOR: According to a recent report by an international panel of climate scientists, the worst-case climate scenario has been revised downward. The new upper-end estimate projects about 3.5 degrees Celsius, or 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit of warming by 2100, rather than 4.5 degrees Celsius.

What is rarely discussed is that the increase in global heating is expected to continue beyond the end of the century.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, “Limiting global mean temperature increase at any level requires global CO2 emissions to become net zero at some point in the future.”

This means reducing carbon dioxide emissions enough that they are balanced by CO2 removal, such as being absorbed by forests and dissolved in the oceans. Otherwise the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will continue to grow.

Disturbingly, the earth has already warmed to the point that, instead of absorbing and storing carbon dioxide, the planet’s carbon sinks are becoming sources of CO2 emissions. Warmer oceans are less able to take up carbon dioxide. Moreover, permafrost is thawing, and forests are burning.

Imagine if the Roman Empire had possessed the power to irreparably harm much of the life on earth, yet limited its concern for sustainability to just a few generations.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions, protecting forests and wetlands because of their ability to store carbon, and funding adaptation, are among humanity’s greatest moral obligations. Even small changes in the trajectory of Earth’s warming could mean better lives for decades for millions of people.

As the world’s largest cumulative emitter and its most powerful nation, the United States has a responsibility to lead in addressing the climate crisis.

Terry Hansen
Wisconsin