Lee/Mike- I'm not familiar with 'cap and trade'...I'm guessing it has to do with 'credits' that get exchanged by one large polluting corporation needing credits, with another having credits? That's always sounded bogus to me, fraught with cheating... -Don
> Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2009 17:09:54 -0500 > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > Subject: [ENTS] Re: High elevation forest response to climate change and > other factors > > > Mike: > > I have some figures for the U.S.: about 44% of CO2 emissions result from > burning petroleum products, 20% from natural gas and 36% from coal. > > Natural gas only emits 50-55% as much CO2 per unit energy obtained when > burned compared to coal. Gasoline and similar products are somewhere > between natural gas and coal. If we had enough natural gas and used only > that in place of petroleum and coal, we could reduce CO2 emissions by > 30-40% even if we kept all else in society the same. > > Geo-engineering is being looked at more seriously these days than a few > years ago. I think low tech geo-engineering like using crops with > variegated leaves in the vast agricultural lands of central North > America (what I call 'The Corn Ocean', which lies to the south and west > of Minneapolis) to reflect more sunlight would work best. For most > crops, the intensity of summer sunlight is beyond their saturation point > anyway. > > Incidentally, I agree that cap in trade would not be a good solution to > the CO2 problem. Surely we can think of something simpler. > > Lee > > Mike Leonard wrote: > > > > Lee, > > > > How about the occasional Krakatoa or that Philippine volcano Pinatubo? > > > > Aren't the emissions from one of those big volcanic blasts equal to > > many years of CO2 emissions in an average year? > > > > Do you know what the breakdown is for fossil fuels: oil, coal, natural > > gas? > > > > So if you want to reduce emissions enough to make a difference we all > > need to drive electric vehicles charged with electricity generated by > > nuclear, wind, or solar power; heat our homes, schools, and factories > > with something other than fossil fuel; stop deforestation; and become > > vegetarians. All these are highly commendable but a tall order. > > > > How about if we think of "geo-engineering" the weather if global > > warming does in fact get worse such as: seeding the oceans with iron > > to grow more plankton; building giant reflectors in space; creating > > more dust in the upper atmosphere to dim sunlight; or finding some > > economical way to extract CO2 from the atmosphere to keep the > > percentage constant. > > > > Mike > > > > Paul and Mike: > > > > I found some figures on the proportion of CO2 entering the atmosphere: > > > > Soils (except for agriculture), weathering of rocks, oceans and > > > > vegetation are a net sink for CO2 out of the atmosphere. > > > > Net sources are deforestation/agriculture: 35% of the new CO2 going into > > > > the atmosphere > > > > fossil fuels: 65% > > > > volcanoes: 1% > > > > (Note this adds to 101% due to rounding error when rounding to the > > > > nearest 1%) > > > > It looks like Bush's DOE figures are off by a couple orders of > > > > magnitude, but then thats what happens when you compare the amount of > > > > CO2 in fossil fuels that are burned to the flux of carbon rather than > > > > the pool of carbon in the atmosphere to deliberately mislead the public. > > > > Comparing CO2 relative to other greenhouse gases and aerosols in heat > > > > retention (global average heat trapping change since 1750): > > > > CO2: +1.5 watts per square meter > > > > CFC, N2O and methane: +1.2 watts per square meter > > > > Ozone: +0.4 watts per square meter > > > > Black carbon (soot): +0.6 watts per square meter > > > > Output from the sun, change since 1750: +0.3 watts per square meter > > > > Lee > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail® has ever-growing storage! Don’t worry about storage limits. http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/Storage?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_Storage_062009 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
