Earth Equity News

Hansen Tells Congress Tipping Point Could Happen Soon, Carbon Tax Needed ASAP. By Donna Smith, Reuters, June 23, 2008. "The U.S. scientist who 20 years ago first told Congress that the Earth's climate was warming said on Monday that urgent action was needed to cut greenhouse gases and proposed a tax on carbon emissions. James Hansen, the director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said at a congressional briefing that a carbon tax would be the most efficient way to cut global warming emissions and encourage non-fossil energy sources. 'We have to level with the public that there has to be a price on carbon emissions,' Hansen said. 'That is the only way we are going to begin to move toward a carbon free economy.'... Hansen said world leaders had only one or two years to act before the Earth reaches a 'tipping point' with major consequences to the global climate and species survival. 'We have reached an emergency situation,' Hansen said." Read Hansen's testimony: Global Warming Twenty Years Later: Tipping Point Near (PDF, 4 pp).