As the world turns its attention this week to Copenhagen and the latest climate change talks, Repower South Dakota says time is running out.

“It is truly a ticking time bomb,” said Rick Hauffe, communications director, on the threat of global warming.

“Its devastating effects probably we’re not going to see in the next few years, but we’re certainly seeing things change in a way that is very disturbing,” he said.

Repower South Dakota’s parent organization is the Alliance for Climate Protection, the nonprofit group founded by former Vice President Al Gore.

Lack of action in limiting carbon emissions worldwide could lead to catastrophes with far-reaching and damaging consequences for generations, Hauffe said.

“This generation has to change the way we generate energy and how we use it,” he said at the Beadle County Democratic Forum on Thursday.

For the eight years of the Bush administration, little has been done to advance the goal of voluntary controls on greenhouse gases first espoused in a 1992 treaty.

Carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, automobiles, burning forests and other sources are 29 percent higher than just nine years ago.

Climate change could lead to unusual droughts, powerful storms, loss of some species, tropical diseases and flooding.

“In the United States of America, we’ve really put our head into the lion’s mouth on this issue, particularly with foreign oil consumption,” Hauffe said.

It is a double threat not only to the climate, but to national security, he said.

China and the United States lead the world in greenhouse gas emissions.

South Dakota is not much of a contributor of carbon. “But we all have one sky,” Hauffe said. “We all breathe the same air. It doesn’t matter where you live, it’s the same.”

California, Texas, Pennsylvania and Ohio are the leading emitters of carbon dioxide in the nation.

While many throw doubt on a problem with greenhouse gases, Hauffe said between 1993 and 2003 there were 928 peer-reviewed scientific studies on global warming. Not one of them raised a doubt it exists.

In his presentation, Hauffe showed photographic examples of how glaciers are receding or disappearing altogether, mountains no longer have snowcaps and pine beetles are flourishing because of warmer temperatures. They are devastating trees as close as the stands in the Black Hills.

There are fears of coastal flooding, more violent weather and changing rain patterns that could force the central flyway to the east and impact duck hunting.

Climate change can come about if the industry can determine how to burn coal without emitting carbon, or find a way to capture the carbon and store it, Hauffe said.

“We have not as a nation figured that out to where it becomes financially feasible,” he said.

In South Dakota, wind power would create a huge economic boon with thousands of new jobs over the next 10 years. There are differing estimates on how many jobs would be created.

Solar energy is practical in the southwest United States, wind energy is ideal for the middle corridor from North Dakota to Texas and nuclear energy is a resource that leaves a low carbon footprint and is embraced by those in the South, Hauffe said.



For the complete article see the 12-06-2009 issue.

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