In Efficiency
U.S. could slash emissions at little cost through boosted
efficiency, says report
sources:
USA Today,
Reuters,
The Mercury News,
The New York Times |
Source: http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1362736.ece
The rapid rise in greenhouse gases over the past century is unprecedented in at least 800,000 years, according to a study of the oldest Antarctic ice core which highlights the reality of climate change.
Air bubbles trapped in ice for hundreds of thousands of years have revealed that humans are changing the composition of the atmosphere in a manner that has no known natural parallel.
Scientists at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in Cambridge have found there have been eight cycles of atmospheric change in the past 800,000 years when carbon dioxide and methane have risen to peak levels.
Each time, the world also experienced the relatively high temperatures associated with warm, inter-glacial periods, which were almost certainly linked with levels of carbon dioxide and possibly methane in the atmosphere.
However, existing levels of carbon dioxide and methane are far higher than anything seen during these earlier warm periods, said Eric Wolff of the BAS.
"Ice cores reveal the Earth's natural climate rhythm over the last 800,000 years. When carbon dioxide changed there was always an accompanying climate change," Dr Wolff said. "Over the past 200 years, human activity has increased carbon dioxide to well outside the natural range and we have no analogue for what will happen next.
"We have a no-analogue situation. We don't have anything in the past that we can measure directly," he added.
The ice core was drilled from a thick area of ice on Antarctica known as Dome C. The core is nearly 3.2km long and reaches to a depth where air bubbles became trapped in ice that formed 800,000 years ago.
"It's from those air bubbles that we know for sure that carbon dioxide has increased by about 35 per cent in the past 200 years. Before that 200 years, which is when man's been influencing the atmosphere, it was pretty steady to within 5 per cent," Dr Wolff said.
The core shows that carbon dioxide was always between 180 parts per million (ppm) and 300 ppm during the 800,000 years. However, now it is 380 ppm. Methane was never higher than 750 parts per billion (ppb) in this timescale, but now it stands at 1,780 ppb.
But the rate of change is even more dramatic, with increases in carbon dioxide never exceeding 30 ppm in 1,000 years -- and yet now carbon dioxide has risen by 30 ppm in the last 17 years.
"The rate of change is probably the most scary thing because it means that the Earth systems can't cope with it," Dr Wolff told the British Association meeting at the University of East Anglia in Norwich.
"On such a crowded planet, we have little capacity to adapt to changes that are much faster than anything in human experience."
U.S. net emissions of gases that cause global warming rose by 20 percent, or 273 million metric tons, from 1990 to 1996, the Environmental Protection Agency said.
Total emissions of heat-trapping gases such as carbon dioxide increased by 10 percent during that time.
But meanwhile forests and other natural absorbers of the carbon gases decreased by 33 percent, accounting for the bigger net rise in emissions, the EPA study said.
Carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels—by far the biggest source of greenhouse gases—grew by 9 percent over the seven-year period and accounted for more than two-thirds of the rise in overall emissions.
The biggest jump was in 1996, when fuel use drove carbon dioxide emissions up by 3.7 percent, the study said.
Energy-related activities accounted for 86 percent of U.S. Greenhouse gas emissions in 1996, mostly through burning fossil fuels. From 1995 to 1996, emissions from coal grew the most at 5 percent as electric utilities shifted to coal from natural gas because of higher gas prices.
The supply and use of fossil fuels accounts for about three-fourths of humankind's carbon dioxide emissions. The burning of oil, natural gas and coal produces most of the energy used to produce electricity, heat houses, run automobiles and power factories.
Combined emissions of methane and nitrous oxide gases jumped 47 percent, or by 18 million metric tons, mostly because smog-fighting catalytic converters on autos have the unintended effect of increasing nitrous oxide fumes, the study said.
Methane, which follows carbon dioxide as the major greenhouse gas, is produced partly by livestock, fertilizer and other farm operations that accounted for about 30 percent of 1996 emissions. It also comes from landfills, natural gas production, coal mining and other sources.
The biggest jump in categories of greenhouse gases was of hydroflourocarbons and perflourocarbons, man-made chemicals introduced as alternatives to other chemicals that deplete the atmosphere’s protective ozone layer.
Emissions of these new chemicals—which turned out to be the most potent of the greenhouse gases—rose by 64 percent to 36.4 million metric tons in 1996 from 22.2 million in 1990.
March 21, 2004
AUNA LOA OBSERVATORY,
Hawaii — Carbon dioxide, the gas largely blamed for global warming, has
reached record-high levels in the atmosphere after growing at an
accelerated pace in the past year, say scientists monitoring the sky
from this two-mile-high station atop a volcano.
The reason for the faster buildup requires more analysis, experts say.
"But the big picture is that CO2 is continuing to go up," said Russell Schnell, deputy director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's climate monitoring laboratory in Boulder, Colo., which operates the Mauna Loa Observatory on the island of Hawaii.
Carbon dioxide, produced mostly by burning coal, gasoline and other fossil fuels, traps heat that otherwise would radiate into space. Global temperatures increased by about one degree Fahrenheit during the 20th century, and international panels of scientists sponsored by world governments have concluded that most of the warming probably was due to greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide.
The climatologists forecast continued temperature rises that will disrupt the climate, cause seas to rise and lead to other unpredictable consequences — unpredictable in part because of uncertainties in computer modeling of future climate.
Before the industrial age and extensive use of fossil fuels, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was about 280 parts per million, scientists have determined.
Average readings at the Mauna Loa Observatory, where carbon dioxide density peaks each northern winter, hovered around 379 parts per million on Friday, compared with about 376 a year ago.
That year-to-year increase of about 3 parts per million is considerably higher than the average annual increase of 1.8 parts per million over the past decade, and markedly more accelerated than the 1-part-per-million annual increase a half-century ago, when observations were first made here.
Asked to explain the stepped-up rate, climatologists were cautious. But Asia sprang to mind.
"China is taking off economically and burning a lot of fuel. India, too," said Pieter Tans, a prominent carbon-cycle expert at the Boulder lab.
Another leading climatologist, Ralph Keeling, noted that the rate "does fluctuate up and down a bit," and he said it was too early to reach conclusions. But he added: "People are worried about `feedbacks.' We are moving into a warmer world."
September 30, 1999
A new study by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, "Meeting America's Kyoto Protocol Target: Policies and Impacts", says the United States can achieve its greenhouse gas emissions target under the Kyoto Protocol while saving households and businesses $500 billion.
It outlines ten domestic policy initiatives to stimulate widespread adoption of more efficient appliances, vehicles, buildings, power plants, and industrial facilities that could cut U.S. carbon emissions in 2010 by 500 million tons/year — 28% of the business-as-usual projection. See the Executive Summary.
By Robinson Shaw
Elected officials from 567 cities and towns across America sent a letter to Congress and President Clinton expressing concern about global warming and asking that something be done about it.
"We urge the federal government to develop and implement domestic policies and programs that work with local communities to reduce global warming pollution. Doing so will demonstrate that domestic actions to fight global warming can reap economic and other rewards for our communities and will help our country meet its goals under the Kyoto Protocol, the international effort to reduce the threat of global warming", the letter says.
Citing the increase in heat waves, storms, floods and other extreme weather events in the United States, which have caused an estimated $140 billion in property damage, the officials say regions face potentially crippling costs as the long-term warming trend continues.
"Federal disaster funds cannot begin to cover the economic and human losses that have been caused by these weather disasters", say the officials in their statement. "Local communities bear the brunt of the human and economic damage, and are witnessing a decline in the quality of life we have worked so hard to achieve".
The statement says that current technology combined with smart management will allow communities to drastically reduce emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane that cause global warming. Measures that address global warming pollution, they say, can also "save money, create jobs and strengthen the local economy".
The group wants the federal government and Congress to support policies that encourage energy efficiency, waste reduction and alternative transportation solutions.
All 10 of the warmest years on record have occurred since 1980, with 1998 the hottest ever.
Scientists predict global average temperatures will rise by as much as 6 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century. "I commend the hundreds of mayors and other local officials across the country who today are committing themselves to the fight against global climate change", said Clinton. "The communities they represent understand that the threat of global warming is real. Today’s pledge will help encourage other communities across America to do their part to meet this global challenge".
The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives and Ozone Action, an activist organization, circulated the letter to elected officials. More than 300 municipalities, including Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Denver, Oakland, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa and Tucson are participating in an ICLE program called the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign, dedicated to addressing environmental problems through local action.
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Warm, wet winters during recent decades in the Northern Hemisphere
can be explained by the influence of greenhouse gases on atmospheric
winds, Columbia University researchers reported in the journal
Nature.
During the last 35 years, temperatures have risen by seven to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over vast regions of northern Eurasia and North America, according to data compiled at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, N.Y. "It’s quite likely that the warmer winters over the continents are indeed a result of the increasing amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere", said Drew Shindell, a climatologist at Columbia University. |
 |
According to the research, increased concentrations of greenhouse gases have indirectly resulted in a dominant positive phase of an atmospheric wind pattern that ushers in warm, moist air from the oceans to the continents.
The wind pattern, known as the North Atlantic Oscillation, a weather phenomenon second in size only to the El Niņo/La Niņa cycle, is the vortex of west-to-east counterclockwise winds over polar regions.
While the pattern always exists, the vortex of west-to-east winds is stronger during its positive phase and weaker during its negative phase. In the Northern Hemisphere’s winter months, the oceans retain more heat than the land, resulting in strong west-to-east winds, or a positive phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation.
The Columbia University researchers used a climate model, housed at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, to demonstrate that the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere induces even stronger surface winds and warmer continental surface temperatures by giving the North Atlantic Oscillation an extra push.
Greenhouse gases trap heat at the Earth’s surface, while cooling the stratosphere—a region of the atmosphere that extends from seven to 30 miles above the Earth’s surface. This cooling has increased the speed of the stratospheric jet stream and strengthened the west-to-east winds over the polar region.
In other words, increased concentrations of greenhouse gases cause a pronounced positive phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation to prevail, resulting in warmer temperatures on Northern Hemisphere continents, said Shindell. "Despite appearing as part of a natural climate oscillation, the large increases in wintertime surface temperatures over the continents may therefore be attributable in large part to human activities", said Shindell. In fact, the researchers conclude, the impact of greenhouse gases on climate through surface wind changes may be as large as, or in some areas, larger than the more direct radiative trapping of heat at the surface.
Source: Environmental News Network
By Seth Borenstein
Knight Ridder News Service
Friday, August 29, 2003
Carbon dioxide, the chief cause of global warming, cannot be regulated as a pollutant, the Environmental Protection Agency ruled yesterday.
The decision reverses a 1998 Clinton administration position. It means that the Bush administration won't be able to use the Clean Air Act to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from cars.
Had the Bush administration decided that carbon dioxide is a pollutant and harmful, it could have required expensive new pollution controls on new cars and perhaps on power plants, which together are the main sources of so-called greenhouse gases.
Environmentalists are expected to respond by suing the EPA to try to force it to regulate carbon dioxide. The real fight is likely to shift to Congress, where some lawmakers are proposing a new law giving the EPA clear authority to regulate emissions of gases linked to global warming.
"Refusing to call greenhouse-gas emissions a pollutant is like refusing to say that smoking causes lung cancer," responded Melissa Carey, a climate policy specialist for Environmental Defense, a New York-based environmental group. "The Earth is round. Elvis is dead. Climate change is happening."
EPA General Counsel Robert Fabricant took the opposite position in his 12-page decision Thursday. "Because the [Clean Air Act] does not authorize regulation to address climate change," he wrote, "it follows that [carbon dioxide] and other [greenhouse gases], as such, are not air pollutants."
Auto industry representatives lauded Fabricant's position.
"Why would you regulate a pollutant that is an inert gas that is vital to plant photosynthesis and that people exhale when they breathe?" said Eron Shosteck, a spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a Washington-based industry lobby. "That's not a pollutant."
The Clean Air Act says the EPA can regulate a substance if it comes from cars, contributes to air pollution and "may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare." The same law broadly defines an air pollutant as "any air pollution agent or combination of such agents which is emitted into or otherwise enters the ambient air."
Sierra Club senior attorney David Bookbinder, whose suit prompted Fabricant's decision, said it was simple: "Anything that people put into the air can be an air pollutant. The question `Does it do something bad?' " is what matters.
Corporate America is beginning to pay attention to the science. Fortune 500 companies such as General Electric and Duke Energy are supporting stronger government regulations to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions - a stance contrary to the Bush administration's position that tougher rules would harm the U.S. economy.
Nebraska is sending hundreds of millions of dollars to Wyoming's tax base to purchase coal. This money could be spent in the state to pay for renewable energy generation and to employ Nebraskans to construct, operate and maintain these facilities.
It's time we invest in Nebraska's future - a future that can
be sustained.
-- Don Preister, Omaha
Nebraska state senator, District 5
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"It was
not until we saw the picture of the earth, from the moon, that we
realized how small and how helpless this planet is
— something that we must hold in
our arms and care for." — Margaret Mead |