Our Mission: Inspired by diverse faith perspectives to care for thenatural world and its most vulnerable inhabitants, Maine Interfaith Power and Light works to engage the faith communitiesof 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

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Warming is linked with human production of heat trapping gases…

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

PA

RTS

PER

MIL

LIO

N C

O2

YEAR

Phaseout of coal by 2030

Improved forestry and soil

Reduced oil/gas use

GETTING TO 350

*Graph from Dr. James Hansen’s *Graph from Dr. James Hansen’s paper on 350ppm. See sources.paper on 350ppm. See sources.