At least there's one potential bright spot in the U.S. culture
wars.... Think I'd rather have an opera, though.
Barry
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/18/opinion/a-second-front-in-the-climate-war.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha211
Editorial
A Second Front in the Climate War
Published: February 17, 2012
Year after year, the world’s nations gather to find ways to reduce
carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, with little meaningful
progress. Frustrated by this slow pace, the United States and five
other countries announced this week a modest but potentially game-
changing initiative to cut three other pollutants that also contribute
significantly to climate change.
The three pollutants — methane, soot (also known as black carbon) and
hydrofluorocarbons — together account for about 30 percent to 40
percent of the rise in global temperatures. Unlike carbon dioxide,
they do not remain in the atmosphere for a long time, but, while they
are there, they drive temperatures upward.
Mainstream scientists believe that to avoid disastrous increases in
the sea levels and widespread drought, the rise in global temperatures
by 2050 should not exceed 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial
levels. Though cuts in carbon dioxide will also be necessary to reach
that goal, curbing these three pollutants will help enormously.
Officials hope further that by tackling these pollutants they can
achieve relatively quick and measurable reductions in emissions
without waiting for politicians to act or the United Nations process
to produce a global agreement on carbon dioxide.
The plan’s founding members are the United States, Canada, Sweden,
Mexico, Ghana and Bangladesh. Washington and Ottawa will jointly
underwrite a $15 million start-up fund. Clearly, the program must be
scaled up over time, with many more countries participating. In the
short term, officials say their purpose is to educate and test
inexpensive and technologically accessible ways of capturing these
gases.
Soot, a huge health hazard, can be reduced by installing filters on
diesel engines, replacing traditional cookstoves with more efficient
models and banning the open burning of agricultural waste. Methane can
be captured from oil and gas wells, leaky pipelines, municipal
landfills and wastewater treatment plants.
Significantly reducing hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, could be harder.
These compounds, widely used in air-conditioners and originally
developed to replace the refrigerants that were damaging the ozone
layer, turned out to be a potent greenhouse gas. Efforts to find less-
harmful substitutes have met resistance from countries like India and
China, where most HFCs are manufactured.
Governments everywhere should obviously be pushing to reduce carbon
dioxide, the most dangerous greenhouse gas. In the meantime, opening
an important second front in the climate war will demonstrate that
progress is possible.
A version of this editorial appeared in print on February 18, 2012, on
page A22 of the New York edition with the headline: A Second Front in
the Climate War._______________________________________________
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