Greeny News

use conference in Edinburgh International Science Festival to call for worldwide tax on all carbon emissions

avoid the worst impacts of climate change induced by man is a "great moral issue" on a par with slavery, according to leading NASA scientist Jim Hansen Professor.

argued that store up to a costly and destructive to society in the future is an "injustice from one generation to another."

Hansen, who on Tuesday presented the prestigious Edinburgh medal for his contribution to science, is also in his acceptance speech to call for a global tax on carbon emissions.

In his lecture, Hansen argues that the challenge facing future generations of climate change is so urgent that a flat tax is needed to force immediate reductions in fossil fuel use. Before receiving the award - which has already been given to Sir David Attenborough, environmentalist James Lovelock, and the economist Amartya Sen - Hansen told the Guardian that recent climate models have shown that the planet was on the emergency item. He said that humanity is facing recurrent natural disasters from extreme weather events that affect large areas of the planet.

"The situation we create for the younger generations and the future is that we are delivering an air conditioning system that is potentially out of control," he said. "We are in an emergency situation: you can see what is on the horizon in the coming decades, with the effects it will have on ecosystems, sea levels and extinction of species. "

70 years, Hansen is considered one of the most influential figures in climate science, the creator of a leading global climate models, his pioneering role in warning on global warming is often cited by proponents of climate change such as former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and former scientific prizes, including $ 1 million Dan David Prize. He was arrested more than once for his role in protests against coal power.

energy users richer and libertine, people with multiple homes, private planes and vehicles or fuel starvation, would also be forced to change radically their energy consumption. In the new study, Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and colleagues note that to reduce CO2 emissions by 6% today means that by the year 2022, annual reductions should achieve a more drastic 15% per year.
took a similar measure in 2005, when the Kyoto Protocol on climate change took effect, reductions in CO2 emissions would have been more manageable 3% per year. The objective was to return to levels of atmospheric CO2 to 350 parts per million, below its current level of 392ppm. The paper, "scientific arguments to avoid dangerous climate change to protect young people and nature," also argues that the challenge is growing due to the acceleration fever to find new and more difficult to obtain for sources oil, gas and coal in the deep ocean, gas reserves in the Arctic, and shale.