Struggling against greenhouse gases

There is strong support to the idea that the use of plug-in electric cars, cars that recharge overnight, would greatly aid the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Research from the University of Texas, to be published in the June issue of Environmental Science & Technology, suggests that electric cars would would aid drought. Accorcing to the report, filling the road with 10-million plug-in electric cars by 2015 would require an additional 1.1 percent or so of water used by electric power plants. Nonetheless, I don't think that kills the whole electric car idea. link

But here's some real bad news. Using data provided by the Chinese government, researchers at the University of California have calculated China's greenhouse gas emissions by 2010. The results are that within two years, Chinese emissions of greenhouse gases will have vastly outstripped the reductions achieved by all the countries that have signed up to the Kyoto protocol combined.

Chinese greenhouse gas emissions are estimated to be between 600- and 1,200-million metric tons greater than they were in 2000. Even the minimum figure is five times as large as the 115.90 million metric ton in reductions which the US Energy Information Agency estimates will have been achieved by signatories of the Kyoto protocol by 2010.

"The emissions growth rate is surpassing our worst expectations, and that means the goal of stabilizing atmospheric CO2 is going to be much, much harder to achieve," says Maximillian Auffhammer of the University of California, Berkeley. link