Global warming might be a political hot potato that no D.C. insider—and that means you, President Obama—wants to be within a country mile of right now. But that doesn’t mean scientists haven’t been outlining a gameplan that could be deployed today should the Washington cranks ever get their green act in gear.
Published in Science, his recent study coalesces the effectiveness of a number of actions that could slow global warming by mid-century. Says Shindell:
We have identified practical steps we can take with existing technologies. Protecting public health and food supplies may take precedence over avoiding climate change in most countries, but knowing that these measures also mitigate climate change may help motivate policies to put them into practice.
If all 12 steps were taken, about two-thirds of currently projected additional warming that is expected to occur by mid-century would be eliminated. And that’s not all. Up to 4.3 million annual premature deaths from outdoor air pollution could be prevented.
Check out the 12 steps, and a description of each provided by NASA.
(Photo: Getty/Michael Porro)
Switch to Cleaner Burning Cook Stoves
Residential cook stoves are a major source of black carbon, particularly in Asia and Africa. Emissions from cook stoves are thought to cause about 1.6 million premature deaths from respiratory diseases alone each year.
(Photo: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr)
Limit Leaks from the Fossil Fuel Industry
According to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, many activities related to the production and use of fossil fuels emit methane as a byproduct. In carefully managed operations in industrialized countries about 90 percent of that methane is captured and used for energy generation before escaping into the atmosphere, but the percentage is typically less than 20 percent for operations in certain developing countries.
(Photo: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr)
Make Fuel and Vehicle Standards More Stringent
Many cars around the world, but especially in Africa and Asia, lack particle filters or access to clean burning fuels. Shindell’s team calculated that upgrading the world’s fleet to comply with current European standards would reduce black carbon emissions by 18 percent.
(Photo: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr)
Capture Methane From Coal Mines
Coal mines are a huge producer of methane, one of several non-C02 gases that contributes to global warming. According to the study, capturing methane and diverting it for use, particularly in China, has the potential to offset climate change the most.
(Photo: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr)
Put a Cork on Landfill Methane Emissions
Usually, excess methane from landfills is emitted into the atmosphere, but a system of pipes can capture the gas underground and divert it to power plants instead. Installing such systems on a broad scale could reduce human-caused methane emissions by eight percent, according to the study.
(Photo: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr)
Ban Agricultural Burning
Though crop burning is very convenient for farmers, it also puts black carbon into the atmosphere. A lot of it, actually. Shindell’s team calculated that eliminating agricultural burning would reduce black carbon emissions by seven percent and methane emissions by one percent.
(Photo: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr)
Drain Rice Paddies More Frequently
Human-caused methane emissions would drop two percent if the world’s rice paddies were drained in mid-season.
(Photo: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr)
Improve Wastewater Treatment Systems
The most basic form of waste water treatment—known as primary treatment—simply involves letting solid waste settle to the bottom of holding tanks and skimming oils and other substances off the surface. More sophisticated techniques—secondary and tertiary treatment with gas recovery and overflow control—do a better job of cleansing waste water but are not carried out in all areas. The researchers found that upgrading water sewage systems could reduce methane emissions caused by human activity by about one percent and would have an impact in both developing and developed countries.
(Photo: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr)
Upgrade Brick Kilns
The bad: brick kilns emit large amounts of black carbon and are still common in some parts of the world, particularly Asia. The way forward: the folks behind this study found that replacing them with cleaner and more fuel-efficient technologies, such as vertical shaft or Hoffman kilns, could reduce global black carbon emissions by approximately four percent.
(Photo: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr)
Compost Biodegradable Garbage
If we universally separated out compostable material from landfills, the amount of methane produced by them—currently about 22 percent of all human sources of methane—would be reduced.
(Photo: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr)
Minimize Methane Emissions
In the United States alone, cattle release about 5.5 million metric tons of methane per year into the atmosphere—20 percent of total U.S. methane emissions, reports the EPA. Put differently, the average milk-making cow emits up to 120 kilograms of methane each year, about the same as an average family car. The way forward: changing the type of feed given to livestock, covering lagoons of manure, and capturing methane in containment systems could reduce emissions. Calculations conducted by Shindell’s team found that such a combination of strategies could reduce human-caused methane emissions by about two percent.
(Photo: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr)
Modernize Coke Ovens
Traditional beehive-shaped coke ovens are still used to process coal in some parts of the world even though ovens that generate less pollution are available. Shindell’s team found that upgrading all of the world’s coke ovens would reduce total black carbon emissions by three percent.
(Photo: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr)
