Will Brownsberger — State Senator, Democrat, 2d Suffolk and Middlesex District

The Global Warming and Climate Change Committee held a hearing on the climate impact of the transportation sector this week. The presentations were useful and read well as standalone documents.

Below is a text that I expect to deliver in rough form this afternoon at a rally in Concord for action on climate change sponsored by 350.org.

In this legislative session in Massachusets, we are not expecting much new legislative progress on energy issues, but at the federal level legislation is front and center. Congressman Ed Markey and Energy Secretary Chu seem to be leading us in a good direction.

Our goal should be to create an economy substantially independent of the burning of fossil fuels.

NASA scientest Jim Hansen argues that the concensus estimates of the rate and risks of global warming are understated.

To stop making the problem worse, we need to stabilize CO2 levels in the atmosphere – we need to stop putting out more CO2 than can be absorbed naturally.  Global warming is driven by the cumulative total amount of CO2 we have put into the atmosphere less cumulative natural absorption. 

2.0 degrees from pre-industrial levels — 1 to 1.5 from todays level — is a ceiling that some world organizations have viewed as troubling, but livable.

450 ppm is a stretch goal and would require average global emissions over the century to drop more than 1/3 below current emissions.

In the scientific community, genuine climate change skeptics are vastly less numerous than those who see sufficient evidence to support immediate action to address climate change. 

Reduction of vehicle emissions of carbon — through more efficient vehicles, mass transit, car pooling, cycling, etc. — also reduces all other forms of air pollution associated with vehicle exhaust.

Long before global warming began to be recognized as a major threat, we had compelling reasons to end our economic dependence on burning of fossil fuels.