Climate change: a slow ship to turn
On Tuesday, the Maryland Senate is holding a hearing on a bill that would mandate a 90 percent reduction in greenhouse gases from all businesses across the state by 2050.
The "Global Warming Solutions Act" proposed by Sen. Paul Pinsky is supported by environmental groups, but strongly opposed by business people who worry about crippling the state's economy. The hearing is at 1 p.m. on Feb. 19 in the Senate's education, health and environment committee.
A 90 percent cut in carbon dioxide may sound radical -- but a new study released today suggests it may not be nearly radical enough. Even if we humans reduced our greenhouse gas emissions to zero, global temperatures would remain high for at least 500 years after the carbon dioxide stopped, according to modeling by climate scientists Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Stanford, California, and Damon Mathews of Concordia University in Montreal.
Why? Because carbon dioxide lives on in the atmosphere for more than 5,000 years, according to the study to be published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. "Human-induced climate change will continue for many centuries, even after atmospheric CO2 levels are stabilized," the scientists wrote. "...A single pulse of carbon releaed into the atmosphere increases globally averaged surface temperature by an amount that remains approximately constant for several centuries."
It's a little bit like cooking with a very heavy pan. "Just as an iron skillet will stay hot and keep cooking after the stove burner's turned off, heat held in the oceans will keep the climate warm even as the heating effect of greenhouse gases diminishes. Adding more greenhouse gases, even at a rate lower than today, would worsen the situation and the effects would persist for centuries," according to the Carnegie Institution.
Caldeira said the answer is not to give up and say it's an impossible problem to solve. It just requires long term thinking. "It is not that hard to solve the technological challenges," Caldeira said. "We can develop and deploy wind turbines, electric cars and so on, and live without damaging the environment. The future can be better than the present, but we have to take steps to start kicking the CO2 habit now."
I report on the environment and Chesapeake Bay. A native of West Virginia, I have focused mainly on Maryland's environment since moving here in 1983. Along the way, I've crewed aboard a skipjack in the bay, canoed under city streets up the Jones Fall from the Inner Harbor, and gone deep underground in a western Maryland coal mine. Recently, I have been covering the growth and development transforming the landscape. I love seafood, rambles in the country and good stories. I hope to share some here.