<![CDATA[RealClimate » Exeter conference: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change:
The conference last week in Exeter on “Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change” grew out of a speech by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. He asked “What level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is self-evidently too much?” and “What options do we have to avoid such levels?”. The first question is very interesting, but also very difficult. As Roger Pielke has noted the conference organisers actually choose three “key questions”:
1. For different levels of climate change what are the key impacts, for different regions and sectors, and for the world as a whole?
2. What would such levels of climate change imply in terms of greenhouse gas stabilisation concentrations and emission pathways required to achieve such levels?
3. What technological options are there for achieving stabilisation of greenhouse gases at different stabilisation concentrations in the atmosphere, taking into account costs and uncertainties?
This is a must-read if you happen to be in the middle of Jared Diamond’s Collapse, as I am. It’s an important thing for anyone else to read, for that matter.]]>