 18 Mar 2007 @ 23:16, by Unknown
Improvements to our technologies and changes to our behavior---all of which are well-within our capabilities---have the potential to make things better. According to Stephen Pacala and Robert Socolow we aren't yet facing a world in which doing the very best we can means barely hanging on. Instead, we are in a position now to make resolute and meaningful advances, thereby keeping us from disaster and laying the groundwork for even greater transformations.
In the August 13th issue of Science, Stephen Pacala and Robert Socolow of Princeton's Carbon Mitigation Initiative published a paper identifying 15 existing technologies that could each prevent 1 billion tons a year worth of carbon emissions by 2054. Pacala and Socolow have created a graph that divides the problem into the seven 1 billion-ton-per-year "wedges" which are required to halt the rise in greenhouse gas emissions, and stabilize the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at 500 parts per million (ppm).
Their findings provide a strong counter to the argument that major new technologies need to be developed before significant mitigation of emissions can begin.
The existing mitigation technologies highlighted in their article is publicly viewable here
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