Retreating glaciers, stronger hurricanes, hotter summers, thinner polar bears: the ominous harbingers of global warming are driving companies and governments to work toward an unprecedented change in the historical pattern of fossil-fuel use. Faster and faster, year after year for two centuries, human beings have been transferring carbon to the atmosphere from below the surface of the earth. Today the world's coal, oil and natural gas industries dig up and pump out about seven billion tons of carbon a year, and society burns nearly all of it, releasing carbon dioxide (CO₂). Ever more people are convinced that prudence dictates a reversal of the present course of rising CO₂ emissions.

The boundary separating the truly dangerous consequences of emissions from the merely unwise is probably located near (but below) a doubling of the concentration of CO2 that was in the atmosphere in the 18th century, before the Industrial Revolution began. Every increase in concentration carries new risks, but avoiding that danger zone would reduce the likelihood of triggering major, irreversible climate changes, such as the disappearance of the Greenland ice cap. Two years ago the two of us provided a simple framework to relate future CO₂ emissions to this goal.

This article was originally published with the title A Plan to Keep Carbon in Check.

1 Comments

1. 1. pankaj pandit 05:16 AM 5/7/08

   Extracting methane from sewage should be ranked as number one solution. Here's why.
   1. Methane as GHG has 20 times more impact on global warming
   2. Untreated sewage is making oceans acidic
   3. Methane is a resource, for generating green electricity.
   4. Treated sewage is a nutrient rich fertilizer resource for giving nitroegn to soil
   
   However we need to design toilets that separate sewage at source itself and treat is accordingly. This will make sure that sewage has less water. I am managing trustee of SLK Foundation, with mission statement, creating wealth from waste. I would like to propose such schemes in developing world.
   Pankaj Pandit

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