Test of 400 options shows we can save money while limiting climate change

[n2doc]

By Kyle Niemeyer |

If a group of scientists announced that reducing emissions of some pollutants would prevent global warming, it wouldn’t make headlines—we’ve been hearing that for years when the pollutant is carbon dioxide. However, if they added that those reduced emissions would also prevent millions of premature deaths per year and increase annual crop yields by tens to hundreds of millions of tons, you would probably take notice. But the part that will really blow your mind—and what might make some people reconsider their stance—is that all of this could be done at a profit.

A large group of scientists identified 14 emissions reduction measures—out of around 400 considered—that primarily reduce ozone and black carbon (BC; think soot) using existing technology. The study was authored by Drew Shindell, of NASA Goddard and Columbia University, who had 23 coauthors from a total of 13 different institutions around the world (from countries including the US, UK, Italy, Austria, Thailand, and Kenya). The group concluded that the economic benefits of improved air quality and diminished global warming exceed the typical costs of these 14 approaches.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) has been the focus of most climate change studies and is one of the most significant greenhouse gasses because of its long lifespan in the atmosphere. Ozone and BC don't stay in the air as long, but they cause both warming and decreased air quality, which directly impacts human health and agriculture productivity. Because they remain in the atmosphere for only a few weeks, control measures that target them would quickly produce noticeable improvements in the climate and air quality.

The authors started out by evaluating existing technologies that improve air quality, and ranked them according to how large an impact they had on climate change. They discovered that the top 14 measures were able to produce about 90 percent of the total possible reductions that could be achieved using all measures combined.
more
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2012/01/improving-air-quality-will-save-money-and-prevent-climate-change.ars

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1. See also…

http://www.democraticunderground.com/11273959