Skepticism on climate change has curbed many plans to reduce greenhouse gases. However Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced on Thursday a partnership aimed at reducing “short-lived climate pollutants” with a focus on methane, black carbon and hydroflurocarbons. The United States, along with Bangladesh, Canada, Ghana, Mexico and Sweden, is launching the partnership. The coalition is aiming to raise $10 million in the first year to enhance public and private efforts worldwide to reduce these pollutants and scale up as they move forward. The bulk of climate pollutants come from carbon dioxide generated by burning fossil fuels for energy. Reducing carbon dioxide is essential but has been met with fierce resistance from fossil fuel industries. carbon dioxide is thought to be a relatively long lived greenhouse gas. About half of all carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for roughly 100 years, but some 20 percent remains for many thousands of years. In contrast, gases like methane, black carbon (soot) and many types of HFCs are both shorter lived than most carbon dioxide and stronger in terms of their potential to cause atmospheric warming. Methane, for example, lasts only 12 years, but it has around 25 times more global warming potential than carbon dioxide. HFCs can also be much shorter lived, yet hundreds or tens of thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide. Action now on these gases can have relatively fast benefits. A study in Science last month by an international team of 24 scientists, led by NASA climate modeler Drew Shindell, estimated the effects of initiating 14 methane and black carbon control measures. Combined with other greenhouse gas reductions, these measures would reduce total projected warming by half a degree. The new controls would also save millions of lives by improving air quality and increasing crop yields by some 30-135 million metric tons by 2030. Action on these short-lived gases is not a substitute for the needed reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. That will require rapidly transforming America’s energy portfolio by developing clean energy, clean energy technology and clean energy services.
The idea of combating shorter lived environmental pollutants is a great place to start. It will take less capital and have a fairly large impact on the global stage. The idea of avoiding the carbon dioxide issue for now and focusing on the shorter lived sounds like a better place to start. The stratification of the power and money in the world makes it hard for carbon dioxide to be reduced. The fossil fuel companies are so deeply engrained in our culture and most other cultures around the world that they don’t want to change and so many other people don’t want to either. Here in America most people know pollution is an issue but don’t want to give up their SUV or quick trip around town from the comfort of their own vehicle. The fossil fuel companies have their hands in many different facets around the world to help protect their status in society. They have lobbyists and lots of money to help persuade laws and regulations in their favor. Making it very difficult for any real change to occur. The new idea of combating shorter lived pollutants will receive less attacks from high powered industries and still make a global impact. Being able to reduce health care costs and increasing crop yields will hopefully be a sign that this issue is real and can make a difference in the world. This in turn would free up more capital that could be used in other areas. Especially today in our current global economic crisis. This might be the boost to the pro environment camp that they needed. Maybe starting at the smaller issues will help tackling the larger ones like carbon dioxide. With many countries involved in this initiative, hopefully that will make it more appealing for other countries to get involved. Pollution is truly a global issue and will take the participation and enforcement of laws by all countries in the world.
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