A Plan to Keep Carbon in Check By: Robert H. Socolow and Stephen W.

Pacala
Global warming causing glaciers to melt, stronger hurricanes, hotter summers, thinner polar bears About seven billion tons of carbon a year are being released by oil and natural gas industry Carbon concentrations = very difficult to avoid, even if people decarbonizes the worlds energy systems over next following 100 years People predicted that it would be 14 billion tons of carbon a year in 2056 Ratio of emissions to dollars of gross world product decreased about 1.5% a year Electronics became more energy efficient and more available so hundreds of power plants are not needed today Coal has become more competitive as a source of power and fuel because oil and gas prices increased Coal power plant burns twice as much carbon per unit of electricity as a natural gas plant Residential and commercial buildings = 60% of global electricity demand today (70% in the U.S) Coal powered power plants should have things to capture the CO2 and pump it into the ground Captured CO2 can be sold to oil companies, then they inject it into oil fields to increase the rate of released oil Higher price of oil = more valuable the captured CO2 Natural gas power plants, renewable power, and nuclear energy might be the future Transportation needs to be decarbonized Coal-based synthetic fuels (synfuels) provide a way to reduce global demand for oil If all the farmers in the world practiced eco-friendly agriculture, it would reduce methane emissions Methane contribute about half as much to greenhouse warming as CO2 Lower birth rate would reduce greenhouse gases emissions too Carbon emissions prices of $100 per ton If emissions from natural gas increase, the combined emissions from oil and coal must decrease Industrial nations apart of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)= almost exactly half the plants CO2 emissions

As the population on Earth increases, the amount of carbon emissions also increases. If the birth rate were to decrease, then the amount of greenhouse gases emissions would decrease along with it too. Methane causes half of the greenhouse warming as carbon dioxide. If people were to put a money value on the amount of carbon dioxide emissions, then it would be $100 per ton. But the amount of carbon emissions can be lowered, if people use other sources of energy such as natural gas, coal-based synthetic fuels, and reusable fuels. I think that people should be more considerate when they are using electricity. If they were to reduce the amount of electricity they used, then it would also reduce the amount of carbon that gets emitted into the atmosphere. The amount of oil and natural gas companies should also be reduced because those companies caused about 7 billion tons of carbon each year. People should use other energy sources such as sunlight because sunlight does not cost anything, and it is renewable.

So what? Carbon emissions are increasing, which increase the amount and rate of glacier melting. Says who? Robert H. Socolow and Stephen W. Pacala What if? What if carbon emissions were reduced? Then the temperature of the Earth would also be reduced. This reminds me of Ozone because the amount of ozone in the troposphere is also increasing.