Climate: Who, If Not Us?

In this show: a new speech by Thomas Homer-Dixon, author of "Ingenuity Gap" and "Updside of Down" Toronto 080320.

Homer-Dixon says a carbon surge threatens the world, breaking IPCC predictions.

He outlines the latest science, and makes an odd suggestion of how the Internet might help save us.

This is one of the most powerful speeches I have heard this year. It was recorded by John-Paul Warren of Toronto - an example of the kind of recording and exchange that is pushing exchange of new climate knowledge, via the Internet. Thanks John-Paul for sending this in to Radio Ecoshock. Look for more from John-Paul, including a new speech by Tim Flannery...

Plus, this week we have an Ecoshock interiew with climate modeller Andreas Schmittner. He is an ocean science specialist who is working the world's best computer model - looking up to 500 years into the future. According to British scientist James Lovelock (who summarizes the science of others in this case) - our atmosphere was formed by tiny organisms in the sea. Without them, we wouldn't have an oxygen layer to breathe.

Now Schmittner has published research saying we haven't taken into account the full force of ocean life, once the oceans heat up. Will plankton blooms add to carbon? Can a warmer ocean accept as much of our excess carbon? Schmittner's models show, so far, that even if we stopped producing all carbon emissions by 2100 - the world would continue to heat up, a lot, for the next one or two hundred years! The science isn't certain, but it's a huge red warning flag - and another reason we need to act very quickly to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

All in all, this show is a stunning, scary look at gap between the new atmosphere, and human inaction.

Ecoshock show 080404 1 hour CD quality 56 MB or Lo-Fi 14 MB

Production notes: no station IDs. Clips from "Turn Off the Light" by Nelly Furtado (Canadian) and "Mother Earth" by Shane Philip (Cdn). Clip of Pres candidate John Edwards in New Orleans on climate.