Correspondence: Climate change evidence is unequivocal
March 5Fresh from training with former US vice-president Al Gore at the Asia Pacific Summit in Indonesia, Sean O’Rourke, a 26-year-old from Melbourne, Australia, urges action on climate change.
Selected from hundreds of applicants to be trained by former US Vice President Al Gore at The Climate Project – Australia Asia Pacific Summit (A-P Summit) in Jakarta, Melbournian Sean O’Rourke has returned convinced of the need to take urgent action on climate change.
“Evidence presented by Mr. Gore and IPCC member Dr. Henry Pollack showed that 2010 had an average annual atmospheric concentration of CO2 of 398.78 parts per million, far above the upper safety limit of 350 parts per million*,” Mr. O’Rourke said.
The climate science update provided by Dr. Pollack showed that the atmospheric concentration of CO2 in 2011 is set to be unparalleled,” he continued.
The A-P Summit brought together more than 350 people representing a diverse cross section of industry, advocacy and social groupings from Australasia and the Asia Pacific region. Mr Gore and a panel of international experts provided the training hosted by The Climate Project – Indonesia.
As a delegate Sean O’Rourke will join a global grassroots movement which aims to focus and reinvigorate the Asia Pacific’s regional response to climate change.
“The evidence is unequivocal, carbon and temperature are a coupled system, when the amount of carbon in the atmosphere goes up, so does temperature” Mr. O’Rourke. “The last decade has been the hottest on record since weather observations began”, he said.
However, we already have the scientific, technical and industrial capacity to address the challenge of climate change,” said Mr. O’Rourke,” all we need now is the political will to make this happen. A core part of the solution to climate change must be a restriction on CO2 emissions,” he said.
“Having completed the Climate Project training led by Mr. Gore, I hope to use the latest scientific evidence to advocate for greater action on climate change in Australia’s communities and to push for a price on carbon,” says Mr. O’Rourke. “Any effective plan to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere must include a price on carbon”, he continued.
For more information about The Climate Project see www.acfonline.org.au/climateproject
*the world’s latest unfiltered scientific data for atmospheric CO2 is available at http://co2now.org/
