These two pollutants have been shadowed by CO2 in much climate change study but could in fact be the key to immediate and dramatic improvements.
The essay highlights black carbon and ozone as ideal targets because they are short lived in the atmosphere meaning that the effects of reducing them would be felt almost immediately. As the world looks to well over a 2 degree rise in temperature from the pre-industrial age, immediate changes are needed in order to stop the severe consequences of climate change in the not so distant future.
Both black carbon particles and ozone gas remain in the atmosphere for period of only weeks to months as opposed to the centuries that carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere. However, they are still a major contributor to climate change that rival carbon dioxide in the devastating effects they have on the environment. Black carbon has been blamed with causing extensive snow and ice melt in the Himalayas and even responsible for almost 50 percent of warming in the Arctic.
It is a form of carbon that is commonly produced by diesel exhaust or soot from wood burning fires. The other greenhouse gas the essay draws attention to is ozone, a gas resulting from reactions among other gases such as carbon monoxide and methane. At lower levels of the atmosphere, it has the warming effect equal to about 20 percent of that of carbon dioxide. The effect of ozone can be seen in the farming industry where damage caused by ozone to crop yields results in an economic loss of $14-26 million annually.
The good new is that the reduction of these gases are technologically and politically feasible according to the essay The Other Climate Changers: Why Black Carbon and Ozone Also Matter, co-authored by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego climate and atmospheric scientist V. Ramanathan.
Technologies already exist to combat these gases such as diesel particulate filters for vehicles and cleaner-burning biomass and solar cookstoves. The essay cites a finding from an American non-profit organization that shows fitting one million tractor-trailers with diesel particulate filters would produce effects equal to removing 5.7 million cars from the road.
Reducing ozone and black carbon presents an ideal situation for policymakers, as the associated co-benefits are economically and in terms of public health, very attractive. Black carbon has been linked with causing breathing difficulties that are potentially fatal, estimated to cause 7 percent of child deaths worldwide from fatal respitory infections. The relative anonymity of black carbon and ozone also makes this issue more politically feasible. CO2 has become a politcally-loaded gas as conflicting points of view in the media have lead to confusion rather than consensus. Without pre-conceived notions policy makers will hopefully be able to heed the warnings of scientists and develop initiatives to reduce ozone and black carbon emissions.
The essay highlights the need for complementary measures to CO2 reduction, such as reducing ozone and black carbon emissions, in order to buy time for the creation of effective carbon dioxide reduction regulators. Cutting CO2 is the long-term battle but even the most effective measures may not stop the abrupt climate changes of the near future. The challenge then becomes raising awareness of these other climate change contributors and the relatively simple measures that will help to overcome them. “Focusing on reducing emissions of black carbon and zone precursors is the low-hanging fruit: the implementation is feasible, and the benefits would be numerous and immediate”.
This article was contributed to Celsias by Katherine Irvine.
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