(Zim: A new york slimes article . . . but it might
have redeeming features.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/science/countering-climate-change-without-waiting-for-a-payoff.html
The current issue of the journal Science contains a proposal to slow global warming that is extraordinary for a couple of reasons:
1. In theory, it would help people living in poor countries now, instead of mainly benefiting their descendants.
2. In practice, it might actually work.
This proposal comes from an international team of researchers — in climate modeling, atmospheric chemistry, economics, agriculture and public health — who started off with a question that borders on heresy in some green circles: Could something be done about global warming besides forcing everyone around the world to use less fossil fuel?
Ever since the Kyoto Protocol imposed restrictions in industrial countries, the first priority of environmentalists has been to further limit the emission of carbon dioxide. Burning fewer fossil fuels is the most obvious way to counteract the greenhouse effect, and the notion has always had a wonderfully virtuous political appeal — as long as it’s being done by someone else.
. . . .
(Long section about how countries are not meeting
their Kyoto Protocol mandates etc. etc. etc.
Followed by some reasons for why these proposals
might just help . . .)
. . . .
After looking at hundreds of ways to control these pollutants, the researchers determined the 14 most effective measures for reducing climate change, like encouraging a switch to cleaner diesel engines and cookstoves, building more efficient kilns and coke ovens, capturing methane at landfills and oil wells, and reducing methane emissions from rice paddies by draining them more often.
>>>
(Interesting article. Zim.)
Mad Poet Strikes Again.
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