Saturday, November 29, 2008

Climate safety report

Climate Safety


The Public Interest Research Centre in the UK has just launched a 52-page advocacy report "Climate Safety", based on the Australian book "Climate Code Red".

Download the report at:


What people are saying about "Climate Safety":

“You cannot overstate the importance of this report: it has opened my eyes to levels of climate risk far beyond those of which I was aware. It shows that we have to rethink completely our responses to it. Crisp, clear-headed and profoundly shocking, this report should be read immediately by everyone who cares.”
-- George Monbiot, author and journalist

“A report to keep every policy maker awake at night, this is a devastating and unflinching exposé of the profound gap between the predictions of how climate change will impact on the planet produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the already observable impact of global warming on the ground. We need nothing less than the declaration of a global state of emergency if we are to avoid the worst. Generating the political will to act, which has so far been conspicuous by its absence across the world, is the most urgent task all of us face, so that we can have a chance of creating the social, cultural, and economic circumstances required to deal with the climate crisis.”
-- Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party

“It is becomingly increasingly clear that seeking to limit the effects of climate change to 2 degrees of temperature rise is dangerously optimistic. Climate Safety plainly shows us that we need to inject a sense of urgency into the debate about how we respond to climate change. It’s not about gradually reducing emissions any more, it’s about recognising the risks we face and cutting our emissions to zero as quickly as possible.”
-- Mark Lynas, author of ‘Six Degrees’

“Now is not the time to focus on the long-term. Every day our emissions rise, the risk of destructive climate impacts increases. Reframing the current debate away from 2050 targets to address cumulative emissions through short-term intervention will not only give us a better chance of achieving a more desirable future, but may ground the message in a timeframe within which we see our own futures.”
-- Alice Bows, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research

“Climate Safety is a cogent summary of the indisputable case for rapid decarbonisation that recognises that the only obstacle is our capacity to believe in ourselves.”
-- George Marshall, founder of the Climate Outreach Information Network (COIN)

“Every time we peep out from behind the sofa, the horror movie of climate change looks more scary. And this report shows that it is not a movie; it is real life as it will be experienced for generations to come. Unless we act now, tipping points in the climate system are likely to take us into a new world of climatic extreme. Forget polar bears; it is a modern global civilisaion that is at stake.”
-- Fred Pearce, author and journalist, New Scientist

“Finally, the generation who moved from producer to consumer, broke its connection with the land and found by doing so that life was lonelier, less fulfilling and less nourishing, has a mission. That mission is nothing less than an unprecedented effort to creatively prevent runaway climate change. Climate Safety sets out clearly where we find ourselves and what we need to do. Our mission, should we accept it, could be the making of us, revealing a resourcefulness and ingenuity we never would have believed possible.”
-- Rob Hopkins, Transition Network, author of ‘The Transition Handbook’