Photo Arnold Adler / NASA James Hansen - director, NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies; James Hansen heads the NASA Institute for Space Studies in New York City, which is a division of Goddard Space Flight Center.

Thanks for the in-depth appraisal, mate. Nothing like a character reference from the top. Hansen isn’t a melodramatist. He’s referring to our antiquated approach to carbon economics. The Daily Telegraph:

Prof Hansen said goals and caps on carbon emissions were practically worthless because of the long lifetime of carbon dioxide in the air.

“Instead a large part of the total fossil fuels must be left in the ground. In practice, that means coal,” he wrote.

“Nobody realistically expects that the large readily available pools of oil and gas will be left in the ground.”

Prof. Hansen also thinks Australia’s emissions cuts targets won’t work. He’s not alone there, nor do many Australian environmentalists. The problem is that Australia is a resource exporter. China and Japan want our coal. It’s a multi billion dollar export, even at $100 or so a ton. He’s not wrong about it not getting left in the ground. Nobody is disputing the effects of CO2 in the atmosphere. Quite the opposite. The low emission cuts targets raised a howl in Australia. The problem, Prof. Hansen, is antiquated energy industries, where switching carbon to non combustion uses is proceeding at its usual dinosaur like rate. The whole concept of energy economics, and the training of most of the people in the industries, is stuck in the Model T era. Stage 2 should be explaining to President Obama how to get the industries functioning as ecological saviors, not destroyers. The oil industry has the best distribution system on Earth. It can sell any form of fuel or energy source. It doesn’t actually have to sell carbon as fuel. Nor does the coal industry. The stuff’s more valuable in almost any other form than stuffing it into an engine and detonating it, anyway. Carbon chemistry isn't quite a secret. The other uses are worth millions a week to BHP Billiton alone. Bucky balls (designer carbon molecular lubricants) have been around for years, etc. Now all they have to do is start training these morons in other uses for their product. Oil and coal have been one trick wonders for so long it's like nobody's ever heard of polymers. Hansen isn’t wrong. He’s just taken one side of an argument as the talking point. I agree with his basic concept. The continuing use of carbon based combustion is eco-suicide. The solution has to be getting the Corporate Carboniferous Cornucopia doing something useful, not destroying the thermal properties of the atmosphere. Even people with commerce degrees can understand basic high school physics, surely? Eventually? Thirty years after the issues were raised? Maybe? If America happens to stumble across its own basic alternative energy technology that it's had for decades, that will become the model for everyone else. Even our sheep in suits will get the message. Once they can see carbon as a paying proposition in other forms, it will take off. Really, this shouldn't have to be explained to adults. It really is high school stuff, and we have gigantic industries getting pennies for a material worth billions. Are we sure they teach energy industry people to read, or what? Might have been slightly more appropriate to mention some of the other major carbon producers, though.