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At Honors Colloquium, National Academy of Sciences president offers solutions to climate crisis
Tyler Will
Issue date: 10/22/08 Section: News
10/22/08 - Of eight billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere every year, humans need to cut five billion in order to prevent any future climate change, said Ralph Cicerone, the president of the National Academy of Sciences.
Of those eight billion tons, 80 percent come from fossil fuel burning, like gasoline from cars, and about 20 percent come ignore from deforestation practices. Trees have valuable carbon dioxide absorption properties, Cicerone said.
In order to prevent consequences like the melting of Greenland ice caps and rising sea levels, humans can increase gas mileage to 60 miles per gallon on 2 billion cars, cut energy usage by about 20 to 25 percent in every building in the world, or build 700 nuclear power plants. According to United Kingdom newspaper the Daily Telegraph, a nuclear power plant would cost about $1.65 billion.
Virtually unrestricted fossil fuel burning has caused carbon dioxide levels to rise from 280 parts-per-million at the time of the industrial revolution, to about 385 ppm today, and levels are rising.
"It's been established clearly that this increase is due to humans burning fossil fuels," Cicerone said. "We know where this CO2 is coming from."
He addressed an argument that the sun is responsible for global warming, which Cicerone said has been monitored by Judith Lean. Lean, Cicerone said, is one of the world's best physicists, and Lean discovered the sun's effect on temperatures is one-tenth as powerful as carbon dioxide.
"That would have been interesting for us geophysicists," Cicerone said. "And it would have let the humans off the hook, but I'm sorry, you can't defend that anymore."
While he said the ocean could absorb about 40 percent of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the other 60 percent remains in the atmosphere, and particles can remain in the air for about 150 years. The CO2 that is absorbed by the ocean is also increasing the acidity of the ocean, thereby threatening aquatic life.
Of those eight billion tons, 80 percent come from fossil fuel burning, like gasoline from cars, and about 20 percent come ignore from deforestation practices. Trees have valuable carbon dioxide absorption properties, Cicerone said.
In order to prevent consequences like the melting of Greenland ice caps and rising sea levels, humans can increase gas mileage to 60 miles per gallon on 2 billion cars, cut energy usage by about 20 to 25 percent in every building in the world, or build 700 nuclear power plants. According to United Kingdom newspaper the Daily Telegraph, a nuclear power plant would cost about $1.65 billion.
Virtually unrestricted fossil fuel burning has caused carbon dioxide levels to rise from 280 parts-per-million at the time of the industrial revolution, to about 385 ppm today, and levels are rising.
"It's been established clearly that this increase is due to humans burning fossil fuels," Cicerone said. "We know where this CO2 is coming from."
He addressed an argument that the sun is responsible for global warming, which Cicerone said has been monitored by Judith Lean. Lean, Cicerone said, is one of the world's best physicists, and Lean discovered the sun's effect on temperatures is one-tenth as powerful as carbon dioxide.
"That would have been interesting for us geophysicists," Cicerone said. "And it would have let the humans off the hook, but I'm sorry, you can't defend that anymore."
While he said the ocean could absorb about 40 percent of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the other 60 percent remains in the atmosphere, and particles can remain in the air for about 150 years. The CO2 that is absorbed by the ocean is also increasing the acidity of the ocean, thereby threatening aquatic life.
