Transcript Our Mission - Maine Interfaith Power & Light

Our Mission: Inspired by diverse faith perspectives to care for the
natural world and its most vulnerable inhabitants,
Maine Interfaith Power and Light works to engage the faith communities
of Maine in efforts to counter climate change through
education, advocacy, energy conservation
and the use of clean renewable power.
Global Climate Change:
Where are we now?
Climate Change slides borrowed with thanks to
Katharine Hayhoe, IPCC climate scientist
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Summer 2010: record-breaking heat
1,218 weather stations in the U.S. with data since 1895
In 2010: 153 locations w/ record-breaking heat, 1 in 3 in top five hottest
Source: NOAA,
Natural Resources
Defense Council
Warming is linked with human
production of heat trapping gases…
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What type of impacts might we be
seeing already?
• On biodiversity
• On humans
• On the planet
September 2010: Coral Reef Bleaching could
impact fisheries & ocean food chains
Source: NOAA, N.Y. Times
Summer 2010: Extreme weather events in
Russia & Pakistan consistent with global
climate change
Source: National Geographic, UPI.com
August 7, 2010: Huge ice island breaks from
Greenland glacier
 Thousands of icebergs calve
from Greenland's glaciers every
year.
 A giant block of ice measuring
100 sq miles, larger than the
island of Manhattan, broke off in
August 2010.
 The largest iceberg to break off
from Greenland since 1962.
Source: BBC News
Projected Sea Level Rise, Portland
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Where do we go from here?
“If humanity wishes to preserve a
planet similar to that on which
civilization developed and to which life
on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate
evidence and ongoing climate
change suggest that CO2 will need to
be reduced from its current 387ppm to
at most 350ppm.”
- NASA climatologist
Dr. James E. Hansen, 2008
PARTS PER MILLION CO2
GETTING TO 350
YEAR
*Graph from Dr. James Hansen’s
paper on 350ppm. See sources.