Statements and Quotations
Statements und Zitate
Quotation; ReferencePerson; ReferenceDocument
"Changes in Congress are needed if we want our children and grandchildren to win this one." ; James Hansen; Carbon Tax and 100% Dividend – No Alligator Shoes!
"Despite the array of groups and organizations working on global warming, we are still missing a key element: the movement." ; Bill McKibben; Fight Global Warming Now.
"What we do in the next two to tree years will determine our future. This is the defining moment." ; Rjenda Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); ?
"It is a revolutionary world that we live in — and thus, it is young people who must take the lead"; Barack Obama (quoting Robert Kennedy); Strasbourg town hall meeting, 2009, Spiegel TV, Youtube.
"We are in a revolutionary moment, on par with any in our nation’s history; it has the potential for systemic change. [But] just like past revolutionary moments, [like the era of the New Deal], change does not just happen - people make it happen. Climate science calls for a drastic change in the way we run our societies; in the way we live our lives. Solving the climate crisis can only be done by moving our society from one of ecological destruction and economic inequity to one that is sustainable and just. We have a window of opportunity, but we must open it." Joshua Kahn Russell Rainforest Action Network (RAN); RAN pamphlet, "Get Some Action: Taking Our Place in the History of U.S. Social Movements", seac.org (2008), http://seac.org/ ; http://seac.org/uploads/get_some_action.pdf
NASA's chief climatologist and the world's preeminent climate scientist James Hansen called for the jailing of oil executives. ; Ran pamphlet (above)
"We have to change laws, not lightbulbs!" ; Al Gore, the we-campaign, initial speech, call to re-power america, a plan to convert the US-american power supply to be free of carbon emissions, July 2008
Humanity's response to climate change must be driven by the geophysical limitations of the planet and the urgency with which global warming must be stopped. We can no longer afford for it to be dominated by special interests and hindered by the limitations of our political institutions their inertia and the selfishness or incompetence of its representatives.
Our poltical institutions are not capable of responding to the threat in the time we have. Not to oppose the political institutions means to accept the status quo.
If you think that governments and corporations won't fix the problem, do not rely on governments and corporations to fix the problem.
"The biggest task in all of human history cannot be solved by individuals. Masses of people are required. Everyone is needed."
The fight against climate change is not a spectator sport.
"Saving civilization is not a spectator sport." ; Lester R. Brown, Earth Policy Institute, Washington
"I can’t understand why there aren’t rings of young people blocking bulldozers, preventing them from constructing coal-fired power plants." ; Al Gore (RAN pamphlet, above)
It‘s time for us to move beyond empty rethoric. We need to act now, and we need to act boldly. This is a generational moment. A moment when we decide our own path and our own collective fate. [...] Of course, there are those who will tell us that this [to make US electricity production 100% carbon free within 10 years] can‘t be done. Some of the voices we hear are from the defenders of the status quo, the ones with the vested interests in perpetutating the current system, no matter how high a price the rest of us will have to pay. ; Al Gore, 100% clean electricity in 10 years (the we-campaign, initial speech).
"Those who, for what ever reason, refuse to do their part in such times must be persuaded to join the effort or asked to step aside. This is such a moment." (Al Gore, opening speech, the we [can solve it] campaign.)
Not only can we no longer accept that people stand in our way. We can no longer accept that not everybody is with us, with the movement to fight climate change.
"It's now very clear that in order to actually win the fight against climate change, making big changes to the way we each live our own lives is not going to be enough; we’re also going to have to actively confront powerful vested interests who will stop at nothing to prevent the changes we need from taking place." ; Leo Murray in wake up, freak out. wakeupfreakout.org
"We have to be more than just consumers." ; Leo Murray in wake up, freak out. wakeupfreakout.org
"We have to actively confront the powerful vested interests which stop at nothing to prevent the changes we need from taking place." ; Leo Murray in wake up, freak out. wakeupfreakout.org
"These are extraordinary times. Preventing runaway global warming is the single most important task in all of human history — and it has fallen to us to do it. If we don’t, then everything else we work to achieve in our lives will be destroyed, or become meaningless. Those who came before us didn’t know about this problem, and those who come after will be powerless to do anything about it. But for us, there’s still time! We’d better get a move on though." ; Leo Murray in wake up, freak out. wakeupfreakout.org
"Politicians need the support from the people. They need the pressure from the people." ; Nicholas Stern, Premiere of 'The Age of Stupid'; vimeo; 2009.
"Basta de gritar contra al viento - toda palabra es ruido si no está acompañada de acción."
(Enough of shouting against the wind - all words are noise if not accompanied by action)
- Gloria Anzaldúa -
[....] the greatest obstacle [to meeting the challenge of 100 percent renewable electricity in 10 years] may be the deep dysfunction of our politics and our self-governing system as it exists today. In recent years, our politics has tended toward incremental proposals made up of small policies designed to avoid offending special interests, alternating with occasional baby steps in the right direction. Our democracy has become sclerotic at a time when these crises require boldness. (Al Gore, opening speech the we campaign, see also: http://www.sustainability.com/researchandadvocacy/analysis_article.asp?id=1542)
Millions of people, powered by sorrow, rage and fear, determined and mostly young —they will be the biggest movement ever— will prevent catastrophic climate change. Or it won't be prevented. (Pulls, 2009)
In the UK, Greenpeace Director John Sauven remarks that “[Gordon] Brown will say to you, he’s said to me before: ‘What are you doing to mobilise the public? Why aren’t you getting the public on board? Why aren’t you opening up the political space?’” (climatesafety; http://www.climatesafety.org/, 2008)
I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants. (Al Gore, 2008; BeyondTalk.net, 2009)
"I agree with you, I want to do it. Now make me do it!" Franklin Delano Roosevelt to organizer presenting him with a set of demands. (BeyondTalk.net, 2009)
We can’t change the science. We need to change the politics. (Fake 29 December online issue of The Herald Tribune, Greenpeace International, 2009)
As David Korten said, 'the relationship of capitalism to the market is the same as the relation of cancer to a healthy body'. (transmitted by Chris Keene)
To poison the city well was in older times one of the most severe crimes one could imagine. Today the authorities look more mildly upon the ones that contaminate our common water and air. (from: http://www.blackcross.dk/leve_i_faengsel/survival_guide_english.pdf)
"Coal fired power stations are death factories. Close them." (James Hansen, NASA; Greenpeace UK, 'the bigger picture'-flyer)
"
Nothing short of every one of us joined together is needed to overcome the resistance of the powerful special interests blocking our path to a clean energy future, settling for the dangerous status quo.
But the time for politics is over. We have the power to force change in America.
" (Al Gore in 'Meet me at the wall' Repower America, newsletter, 29 Ocotber 2009, repoweramerica.org)
Dies naehrt die Annahme, dass dem UNFCCC Sekretariat der Protest ganz recht kommt – auch die Blockade vor den Tueren war geduldet worden, und von Yvo de Boer ist ein Zitat ueberliefert, dass er sich bei den Ergebnissen der Verhandlungen wundere, dass die Zivilgesellschaft nicht die Scheiben des Verhandlunsortes einwerfe. (http://www.gegenstromberlin.net/2009/11/06/kp-abschlussplenum-gestoert/#more-411 , on climate talks in Bacelona, Nov. 2009 "KP Abschlussplenum gestoert")
“The earth is not dying. It is being killed, and the people killing it have names and addresses.” - Utah Phillips
"The golden rule is to act fearlessly upon what one believes to be right." (Mahatma Gandhi)
"Science will have to drive decisions at both ends of the social ladder" (Copenhagen summit on climate change, 2009, Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the IPCC; http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/video/2009/dec/17/copenhagen-rejendra-pachauri )
"You cannot solve the problem with the same kind of thinking that created the problems." Albert Einstein
Even the President of France has declared that "laissez-faire is over"; Sarkozy said: "the idea that the market is always right is a crazy idea." (from: David Spratt: Global warming - No more business as usual: This is an emergency! http://links.org.au/node/683)
Britain's Nicholas Stern says global warming is the greatest market failure of all time. (from: David Spratt: Global warming - No more business as usual: This is an emergency! http://links.org.au/node/683)
In December 2007, James Hansen spoke of his very similar conclusions. He says, "Recent greenhouse gas emissions place the Earth perilously close to dramatic climate change that could run out of our control, with great dangers for humans and other creatures. There is already enough carbon in the Earth’s atmosphere for massive ice sheets such as West Antarctica to eventually melt away, and ensure that sea levels will rise metres in coming decades. Climate zones such as the tropics and temperate regions will continue to shift, and the oceans will become more acidic, endangering much marine life. We must begin to move rapidly to the post-fossil fuel clean energy system. Moreover, we must remove some carbon that has collected in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution." (from: David Spratt: Global warming - No more business as usual: This is an emergency! http://links.org.au/node/683)
In September 2008, John Schellnhuber, director of Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and advisor to the German government and the European Union, told David Adam of the British Guardian that only a return to pre-industrial levels of carbon dioxide would be enough to guarantee a safe future for the planet. He said that current political targets to slow the growth in emissions and stabilise carbon levels were insufficient, and that ways may have to be found to actively remove carbon dioxide from the air. Adam reported: “[Schellnhuber] said even a small increase in temperature could trigger one of several climatic tipping points, such as methane released from melting permafrost, and bring much more severe global warming. `It is a very sweeping argument, but nobody can say for sure that 330 ppm [parts per million carbon dioxide] is safe,’ he said. [The present level is much higher at 387 ppm.] ‘Perhaps it will not matter whether we have 270 ppm or 320 ppm, but operating well outside the [historic] realm of carbon dioxide concentrations is risky as long as we have not fully understood the relevant feedback mechanisms’.” (from: David Spratt: Global warming - No more business as usual: This is an emergency! http://links.org.au/node/683)
“You don’t communicate with anyone purely on the rational facts or ethics of an issue... It is only when the other party is concerned or feels threatened that he will listen—in the arena of action, a threat or a crisis becomes almost a precondition to communication... No one can negotiate without the power to compel negotiation... To attempt to operate on a good-will basis rather than on a power basis would be to attempt something that the world has not yet experienced.”
—Saul Alinsky, RULES FOR RADICALS
http://jayhanson.us/america.htm
"Theoretically, it cannot be ruled out that an intensive change in value perceptions could alter consumer behaviour to such a degree that the equilibrium equation would lose its validity. However, it must be borne in mind that the equilibrium equation is built on the past consumer behaviour of a half a billion people. It seems somewhat unlikely that the behaviour of such a large percentage of the Earth’s population would all of a sudden no longer be based on price, income and utility considerations, but instead on idealistic concerns." Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker and Jochen Jesinghaus in "Ecological Tax Reform, A Policy Proposal for Sustainable Development" on consumer response to price signals. (http://esl.jrc.it/dc/etr/ecological_tax_reform.htm)
The simple fact of the matter is that the only hope for keeping a planet that resembles the one of the Holocene, the past 10,000 years, is to halt any new CO2 emissions from coal and to phase-out existing coal emissions promptly. I suppose it is possible that some people honestly do not understand that no goal for future CO2 emissions allowing construction of new coal plants will solve the problem and that "capture-ready" is a subterfuge. Fortunately, young people are beginning to catch on to what is happening, and I do not think they will allow the shenanigans to continue much longer. (James Hansen, Listserve Post, November 14, 2008; Subject: Target CO2 Paper and Switzerland Letter) {Sogar unter den Ländern, die wir als die in Umweltfragen gebildetsten und fortschrittlichsten erachten, gibt es welche, die, wie die Schweiz, die Niederlande und Schweden, Dinge zulassen, die, werden sie umgesetzt, es fast unmöglich machen, dass Kipppunkte im Klimasystem überschritten werden, mit desaströsen Folgen. [...]
Die Essenz ist: Die einzige Hoffnung, dass es gelingen kann, einen Planeten zu erhalten, der demjenigen des Holozän gleicht, also den letzten 10'000 Jahren, besteht darin, dass alle CO2-Emissionen aus Kohle gestoppt werden und dass alle bestehenden Anlagen, die Kohle verwenden, schnell stillgelegt werden. Ich halte es für möglich, dass manche Leute ehrlich nicht verstehen, dass keine Zielsetzung, die den Bau von neuen Kohlekraftwerken zulässt, das Problem lösen kann und, dass die Behauptung der Nachrüstbarkeit von CO2-Abscheidetechnologie ["capture-ready"] ein Vorwand ist. Glücklicherweise fangen junge Menschen an zu begreifen, was geschieht und ich glaube nicht, dass sie den Schwindel noch viel länger zulassen.}
Besser [als Energieeffizienz mittels Subventionen zu fördern] wäre es, mit marktwirtschaftlichen Instrumenten zu lenken. Dazu braucht es Lenkungsabgaben, die Öl, Gas, Kohle und Atomstrom massiv verteuern und so der langfristigen Verknappung dieser Ressourcen Rechnung tragen. Ohne einen Subventionsfranken könnte der Staat damit energiesparende Sanierungen unbürokratisch fördern und energieverbrauchendes Bauen bremsen. Dieses Konzept hat nur einen Haken: Es gibt dafür weder eine unheilige Allianz noch eine politische Lobby. (Hanspeter Guggenbühl, Kommentar "Lieber Lenken als Verschenken" in Energie-Label : Fördern oder behindern sie das intelligente Bauen und Sanieren? [http://www.edelmann-energie.ch/publikationen/documents/06-07_Energielabels.pdf])
Wissen verpflichtet weit mehr als es nützt. (Carlo Girolamo Fagagnini) {Knowledge is much more obligation than benefit.}
Scientists could and should have done more to correct the misinformation that was being spread. Many scientists think that their “real work” is in the field or the laboratory, and that communicating science in plain language is someone else’s job. We think that should change. (Naomi Oreskes, author of "The Merchants of Doubt" speaking about global warming denialism on behalf of herself and coauthor Erik Conway, responding to the question: "Don't scientists bear some responsibility for not doing more to communicate clearly?"; [http://www.merchantsofdoubt.org/faq.html])
"During this trial we have heard from people on the frontline of our changing climate, and from a company that is still burning the most dirty form of fossil fuel for their economic benefit. These worlds are not compatible. Taking action is not an issue of moral righteousness but an act of self-defence. If we're to stand a chance of avoiding irreversible climate change we've got to realise that to bring about a better world we'll need to do it ourselves." (Clare Whitney, one of the campaigners among the Ratcliffe activists found guilty of planning direct action ("conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass") against E.ON's Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal power station. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/dec/14/ratcliffe-coal-station-activists]
Another of those convicted, Chris Kitchen, said, "We are in solidarity with all those around the world fighting for climate and social justice. Together we need to stop the root causes of climate change, we need to stop profit being put before people. It's big business and politicians that are the real criminals and we will not stand by as we are robbed of our future." (Chris Kitchen, one of the campaigners among the Ratcliffe activists found guilty of planning direct action ("conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass") against E.ON's Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal power station. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/dec/14/ratcliffe-coal-station-activists] (Dan Glass, another defendant in the case, said: "This ruling won't stop emissions. But the huge support we have received from the people of Nottingham and internationally, does demonstrate that public opinion is increasingly turning against the liberties that governments are taking with our future.")
The paleoclimate record does not provide a case with a climate forcing of the magnitude and speed that will occur if fossil fuels are all burned. Models are nowhere near the stage at which they can predict reliably when major ice sheet disintegration will begin. Nor can we say how close we are to methane hydrate instability. But these are questions of when, not if. If we burn all the fossil fuels, the ice sheets almost surely will melt entirely, with the final sea level rise about 75 meters (250 feet), with most of that possibly occurring within a time scale of centuries. Methane hydrates are likely to be more extensive and vulnerable now than they were in the early Cenozoic. It is difficult to imagine how the methane clathrates could survive, once the ocean has had time to warm. In that event a PETM-like warming could be added on top of the fossil fuel warming. After the ice is gone, would Earth proceed to the Venus syndrome, a runaway greenhouse effect that would destroy all life on the planet, perhaps permanently? While that is difficult to say based on present information, I’ve come to conclude that if we burn all reserves of oil, gas, and coal, there is a substantial chance we will initiate the runaway greenhouse. If we also burn the tar sands and tar shale, I believe the Venus syndrome is a dead certainty. (James Hansen, Storms of my Grandchildren, p. 236)
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In der Klimageschichte gibt es bezüglich Mass und Geschwindigkeit keinen Fall eines Antriebs von Klimawandel ["climate forcing"] wie das, was stattfinden wird, wenn alle fossilen Energieträger verbrannt werden. Die Berechnungsmodelle sind nicht annähernd so weit entwickelt, als das sie zuverlässig vorhersagen können, wann die Auflösung oder der Kollaps von grossen Eiskappen einsetzen wird. Genauso wenig können wir vorhersagen, wie nahe wir daran sind, dass Methanhydrate instabil werden. Aber dieses sind Fragen von wann, nicht von ob. Wenn wir alle fossilen Energieträger verbrennen, werden die Eisflächen fast mit Sicherheit schliesslich alle schmelzen, mit 75 Meter Anstieg des Meeresspiegels als Folge, möglicherweise überwiegend in einem Zeitraum von Jahrhunderten. Es gibt wahrscheinlich heute mehr Methanhydrate, und sie sind anfälliger, als dies im frühen Känozoikum der Fall war [Während des Erdzeitalters, vor 65 bis 50 Millionen Jahren, als es hohe Temperaturen und eine langsame weitere Erwärmung gab; Anmerkung des Übersetzers]. Es ist schwierig vorstellbar wie die Methanhydrate überleben könnten, wenn der Ozean Zeit gehabt haben wird, sich zu erwärmen. In diesem Fall könnte sich eine PETM-artige Erwärmung zur globalen, durch fossile Energieträger verursachten Erwärmung addieren. Würde, nach der Auflösung der Eismassen, die Erde in einem sich unaufhaltsam verstärkenden Treibhaus ["runaway greenhouse effect"], auf das Venus-Syndrom zusteuern, was alles Leben auf dem Planeten zerstören würde, wohl für immer? Obschon das aufgrund der verfügbaren Information schwierig zu beurteilen ist, bin ich zum Schluss gelangt, dass, sollten wir alle Erdöl-, Erdgas- und Kohlereserven verbrennen, die Wahrscheinlichkeit erheblich ["substantial"] ist, dass wir eine unaufhaltsame Erwärmung auslösen. Wenn wir auch alle Vorkommen aus Ölschiefer und Ölsanden verbrennen, glaube ich, ist das Venus-Syndrom tödliche Gewissheit ["a dead certainty"]. (Übersetzt aus: James Hansen, Storms of my Grandchildren, S. 236)