Publikasjon - 18 mai, 2010
This open letter to Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg was published in Dagsavisen May 19th 2010.
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Executive summary:
Now is a critical moment in our planet's history. Leaders speak of a "planet in peril" as climate zones shift, ice sheets disintegrate, and species are stressed, some pushed toward extinction. It is now clear that we cannot burn all fossil fuels without destroying life on our planet as we know it.
The future for young people and later generations is in our hands. Climate can be stabilized only if we phase out coal emissions and leave the horrendously polluting tar sands and oil shale in the ground.
Yet world leaders dawdle, allowing business as usual, pretending not to understand what is needed.
Norway, a small nation, stands today at a crossroads for the world. Norway could lead the way down a path of destruction, initiating a continual unfolding of climate disasters over the course of this century, by developing the tar sands -- and, incidentally, decimating Canada's carbon-storing boreal forest, wasting massive quantities of fresh water and natural gas, and violating human rights of Canada's Indigenous people.
Or Norway could stand tall among nations, renouncing exploitation of the tar sands. Norway would then have the moral authority to badger and cajole the great economic powers, drawing world attention to the actions that are needed to preserve our planet with its remarkable life.
Is it fanciful to think that you may affect the course of the world? I do not know, Prime Minister Stoltenberg, but the world's children and grandchildren wait hopefully. Yours and mine will remember your choice.
James E. Hansen
James E. Hansen is member of the National Academy of Sciences, an adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University and at Columbia’s Earth Institute, grandfather and winner of the Sophie Prize 2010.
Statoil’s General Assembly will be held in Stavanger today from 17.00. James E. Hansen will visit Norway June 22 and 23 2010 to receive the Sophie Prize.
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