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Ned Potter is the science correspondent for ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson." He has reported on such topics as space exploration, the human genome and climate change.
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Warming: What to do Now?
November 19, 2007 5:01 PM
Coming right after this weekend's climate report from the IPCC, a paper from MIT and Boston University says greenhouse gas emissions from the U.S. could increase more quickly over the next 50 years than over the last, and new technology--often seen as a solution to greenhouse warming--may make things worse rather than better.
"We found that, in spite of increasing energy prices, technological change has not been responsible for much reduction in energy use, and that it may have had the reverse effect," says a statement from retired MIT economist Richard Eckaus, who's been working the issue along with Ian Sue Wing of Boston University. They've published a paper in the November issue of the journal Energy Policy. The abstract is HERE.
The IPCC's latest "Synthesis Report," issued at a meeting in Valencia, Spain, over the weekend, is HERE. It's a 23-page document, dense reading, but worth going through if you want to understand where the climate issue stands now.
"Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level," it says in boldface on the first page.
"Global atmospheric concentrations of CO2, methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) have increased markedly as a result of human activities since 1750 and now far exceed pre-industrial values determined from ice cores spanning many thousands of years," it says in boldface on page 4.
Finally, from page 22: "There is high agreement and much evidence that all stabilisation levels assessed can be achieved by deployment of a portfolio of technologies that are either currently available or expected to be commercialised in coming decades, assuming appropriate and effective incentives are in place for their development, acquisition, deployment and diffusion and addressing related barriers."
Into this fray steps a new website, called CARMA, as in "Carbon Monitoring for Action." Its purpose, say its founders, is "to equip individuals with the information they need to forge a cleaner, low-carbon future." They've put together a database of the world's power plants--50,000 of them, they say--to highlight those that are producing the most carbon dioxide. Many of the largest, it's worth noting, are 1) outside the United States, and 2) don't produce carbon dioxide because they're hydroelectric.
For people who've asked in the past how human beings, with their paltry contributions to the composition of the atmosphere, could actually be affecting the global climate, Gavin Schmidt of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies wrote an answer back in August. Find it HERE.
November 19, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (8)
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Where in the report does it mention the average temperature of the earth and how many degrees it has risen in the last century? I also don't see any numbers as to how much CO2 is actually in the atmosphere. It seems the entire report is pure speculation. I say to the IPCC, when you finally give us some real numbers instead of the usual doom and gloom fear mongering, I'll take you seriously.
Posted by: jfm125 | Nov 19, 2007 5:36:02 PM
jfm12 - if you had bothered to even look at the report before making a fool of yourself, you would see that the numbers you are requesting are on Page One (for the temperatures) and Page Four (for the CO2). Furthermore, the report issued this week was just a summary of the massive technical reports published earlier this year, with hundreds of pages of "real numbers" synthesizing thousands of peer-reviewed scientific papers. More numbers than you could digest in a lifetime. I say to you, when you finally give us some indication that you even care what the science actually says, I'll take you seriously.
Posted by: jock59801 | Nov 19, 2007 6:14:54 PM
Wow. What is the Bush administration doing about this? NOTHING.
Posted by: Hector Art | Nov 19, 2007 7:57:59 PM
The United States Is Leading The Way In Developing Clean Energy Technologies
Since the President took office, the Federal government has invested nearly $18 billion to research, develop, and promote clean and efficient energy technologies and help get them to market. The private sector has responded with significant investments, ranging from corporate research and development to the venture capital markets.
An Age Of Clean Energy Requires Transforming The Way We Produce Electricity
Since 2001, the United States has invested more than $2.5 billion to research and develop clean coal. In addition, in partnership with other nations and the private sector, the U.S. is moving closer to producing energy from the world's first zero emissions coal-fired plant.
The United States is working to reduce barriers to new nuclear power plants in the country without compromising safety. Just last week, a company filed the first application since the 1970s to build new nuclear reactors in the U.S.
Hes done some things.. you have to give him credit.
Posted by: Munam | Nov 19, 2007 10:17:40 PM
Until such time there is a respect and reverence for mother earth once again that becomes part of all the people of the earths belief we will fail. The majority of the worlds current philosphy is that the earth is a commodity. IE: Japan and the whales.
Posted by: Rev. Ray Holmes | Nov 19, 2007 11:43:57 PM
It is very ironic that the state with the most wind generated electricity is Texas. Of course, ABC will never tell you about that or how a certain former governor named GW Bush set into motion the plan that would make Texas the leader in wind technology.
Posted by: Jon Baker | Nov 20, 2007 12:33:46 AM
Geez.. A Bush supporter, I thought you people went extinct. first of all, Texas is the 2nd largest state, so they have lots of room for windmills (you ever watch a western movie, they were the leader in the 1880's too), second Texas is first in the US as greenhouse gas emitter, but is only second in population, and third if Texas was it's own country (which I think it should, the US collective intelligence would increase dramatically) it would be 11th in greenhouse gas emmission in the world. Your Bush only gets credit for embarassing the state of Texas and the USA. So get your facts straight the rest of us are sick of it.
Posted by: reason2day | Nov 20, 2007 9:47:06 AM
Okay, so the government is spending billions of dollars on clean and efficient energy technologies, which are helping to reduce health concerns related to the visible pollutants in our atmosphere; great! The problem is that by reducing the visible pollutants in our atmosphere and doing very little to reduce the invisible greenhouse gases, the government is only succeeding in speeding up the effects of global warming, not slowing them down.
You see, the visible pollutants put off by our power plants, vehicles, etc. are certainly causing health concerns, but at the same time, those pollutants are acting as a shield to block some of the sun's rays from reaching the earth's surface. These pollutants have effectively slowed the global warming process. In a situation where the visible pollutants are reduced but greenhouse gases are not, global warming would increase at astonishing rates, and we know that the warmer the Earth gets, the more methane is released into the atmosphere from the bottoms of our oceans. Methane is the second biggest greenhouse gas contributing to global warming.
The billions of dollars we are spending today may, in fact, be ruining our planet for future generations. Why doesn't our government talk about that? Want to know more? Do some research on the topic "GLOBAL DIMMING."
Posted by: cjlstock2004 | Nov 20, 2007 2:05:07 PM
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