Word: usual
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...itself to becoming carbon neutral-the first major bank to do so-by January 2006. The principle is simple: the bank spends its cash on green energy projects that reduce CO2 emissions by the same amount the bank creates. "We realized we had to go above that 'business as usual' scenario," says Francis Sullivan, HSBC's adviser on the environment, speaking from the corporation's towering London HQ. The bank was already spending $7 million annually to boost the energy efficiency of its buildings but, says Sullivan, "we cannot generate all the electricity, heating, cooling and lighting we need from...
...probably adapt to. In order to limit change to that level we need to get on a track that I call the alternative scenario, which requires that we begin to slow emissions this decade and substantially reduce them before mid- century. If we stay on a business-as-usual path for another decade, the alternative scenario becomes impractical if not impossible...
...Hansen: Business-as-usual will yield warming of 6 to 9?F by the end of the century and that will have two major impacts. First, sea level will rise. The last time it was 5?F warmer than now sea level was at least 80 feet higher. It may take a few centuries for most of that rise to occur, but once started, the ice sheets would continue to disintegrate out of our control, so every several decades we would need to rebuild above a higher shoreline. Those costs would dwarf any costs associated with learning to use energy...
...Hansen: We can't give up, no matter what the odds look like. Another three years of business as usual will make it much harder to avoid large changes...
...Hansen: They are useful practice, but, yes, it is absolutely essential that the U.S. take a real leadership role. Until that happens, it is basically business as usual...