NASA RESEARCH INDICATES THAT AIR POLUTION CONTROL MEASURES COULD SLOW GLOBAL WARMING

The following excerpt is from the NASA website:

“WASHINGTON -- A new study led by a NASA scientist highlights 14 key
air pollution control measures that, if implemented, could slow the
pace of global warming, improve health and boost agricultural
production.

The research, led by Drew Shindell of NASA's Goddard Institute for
Space Studies (GISS) in New York City, finds that focusing on these
measures could slow mean global warming 0.9 ºF (0.5ºC) by 2050,
increase global crop yields by up to 135 million metric tons per
season and prevent hundreds of thousands of premature deaths each
year. While all regions of the world would benefit, countries in Asia
and the Middle East would see the biggest health and agricultural
gains from emissions reductions.

"We've shown that implementing specific practical emissions reductions
chosen to maximize climate benefits also would have important
'win-win' benefits for human health and agriculture," said Shindell.
The study was published today in the journal Science.

Shindell and an international team considered about 400 control
measures based on technologies evaluated by the International
Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria. The new
study focused on 14 measures with the greatest climate benefit. All
14 would curb the release of either black carbon or methane,
pollutants that exacerbate climate change and human or plant health,
either directly or by leading to ozone formation.

Black carbon, a product of burning fossil fuels or biomass such as
wood or dung, can worsen a number of respiratory and cardiovascular
diseases. The small particles also absorb radiation from the sun
causing the atmosphere to warm and rainfall patterns to shift. In
addition, they darken ice and snow, reducing their reflectivity and
hastening global warming.

Methane, a colorless and flammable substance that is a major
constituent of natural gas, is both a potent greenhouse gas and an
important precursor to ground-level ozone. Ozone, a key component of
smog and also a greenhouse gas, damages crops and human health.

While carbon dioxide is the primary driver of global warming over the
long term, limiting black carbon and methane are complementary
actions that would have a more immediate impact because these two
pollutants circulate out of the atmosphere more quickly.

Shindell and his team concluded that these control measures would
provide the greatest protection against global warming to Russia,
Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, countries with large areas of snow or ice
cover. Iran, Pakistan and Jordan would experience the most
improvement in agricultural production. Southern Asia and the Sahel
region of Africa would see the most beneficial changes to
precipitation patterns.

The south Asian countries of India, Bangladesh and Nepal would see the
biggest reductions in premature deaths. The study estimates that
globally between 700,000 and 4.7 million premature deaths could be
prevented each year.

Black carbon and methane have many sources. Reducing emissions would
require that societies make multiple infrastructure upgrades. For
methane, the key strategies the scientists considered were capturing
gas escaping from coal mines and oil and natural gas facilities, as
well as reducing leakage from long-distance pipelines, preventing
emissions from city landfills, updating wastewater treatment plants,
aerating rice paddies more, and limiting emissions from manure on
farms.

For black carbon, the strategies analyzed include installing filters
in diesel vehicles, keeping high-emitting vehicles off the road,
upgrading cooking stoves and boilers to cleaner burning types,
installing more efficient kilns for brick production, upgrading coke
ovens and banning agricultural burning.

The scientists used computer models developed at GISS and the Max
Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany, to model the
impact of emissions reductions. The models showed widespread benefits
from the methane reduction because it is evenly distributed
throughout the atmosphere. Black carbon falls out of the atmosphere
after a few days so the benefits are stronger in certain regions,
especially ones with large amounts of snow and ice.

"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," Shindell said. The new study builds on a
United Nations Environment Program/World Meteorological Organization
report, also led by Shindell, published last year.

"The scientific case for fast action on these so-called 'short-lived
climate forcers' has been steadily built over more than a decade, and
this study provides further focused and compelling analysis of the
likely benefits at the national and regional level," said United
Nations Environment Program Executive Director Achim Steiner.”