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Nature 458, 1117-1118 (30 April 2009) | doi:10.1038/4581117a; Published online 29 April 2009

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Climate change: Too much of a bad thing

Gavin Schmidt1 & David Archer2

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There are various — and confusing — targets to limit global warming due to emissions of greenhouse gases. Estimates based on the total slug of carbon emitted are possibly the most robust, and are worrisome.

It is one thing to agree on a goal of international policy, quite another to achieve it. The 192 signatories of the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (including the United States) have committed themselves to reducing the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to avoid "dangerous interference in the climate system".

  1. Gavin Schmidt is at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 2880 Broadway, New York, New York 10025, USA.
    Email: gschmidt@giss.nasa.gov
  2. David Archer is in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
    Email: d-archer@uchicago.edu

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