HomeMy WebLinkAboutMaterials From 11-18-19 MeetingI am very pleased to see the South Bend Climate Action Plan becoming a reality and already getting
national attention in coverage of the presidential campaigns. I am disappointed, however, to see that it
follows the IPCC timelines. Because of the intense scrutiny and vetting processes involved in preparing
such a government science report, the published conclusions are invariably highly sanitized and out-of-
date by the time those reports get to print. The IPCC reports suffer from this problem in that they greatly
understate the rapidity with which climate change is unfolding and this severely underestimate the
timescales on which climate mitigation plans should set their goals. A much more current and accurate
picture of the scientific understanding of climate change may be found in the new report released earlier
this month from some 11,000 scientists from around the world. In it which they tell it like it is: seriously,
urgent action is necessary:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/11/05/more-than-scientists-around-world-declare-climate-
emergency/?wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1
https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/biz088/5610806?searchresult=1
I therefore urge a reassessment of the Climate Action Plan timelines and goals based on this new and
much more accurate report: We should work towards zero carbon emissions by 2030, rather than
delaying until 2050.
I should emphasize that these conclusions are not at all liberal hysteria as has been alleged by some
detractors.. The conclusions are simply what you get if you take the climate data and analyses at face
value.
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Philip J. Sakimoto, Ph.D.
Director, Program for Academic Excellence, First Year Advising
Instructor, Sustainability Minor
B-026 Malloy Hall
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN 46556-5670
firstyear.nd.edu
(574) 631-6578
Schedule an appointment:
firstyear.nd.edu/sakimoto