MOHD RASFAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
THE CARBON QUANDARY
metric tons of carbon dioxide gas
into the atmosphere every year.
About a quarter of that comes
from burning coal, oil and natural gas for electricity and heat.
Another 20 percent arises from
large-scale industrial activity, including chemical, metal and mineral processing.
Together, heavy industry, along
with electricity and heat production — the prime targets for carbon
capture and storage technology —
account for roughly half of all global greenhouse gas emissions.
Planet-warming pollution is
HUFFINGTON
09.15.13
beginning to plateau in developed
economies like the U.S. — mostly
because of slackening demand and
the current low cost, compared
with coal, of marginally cleaner
natural gas as an electricity fuel.
But rich nations remain, in aggregate, the planet’s largest polluters.
They have been so for the better
part of two centuries.
Meanwhile, China and India
and other booming parts of the
developing world are inclined —
just as the rich world long has
been — to gorge on the cheapest
and most readily available energy
sources to keep their economies
growing and their standards of
living rising. They are busy build-
A smogcovered Kuala
Lumpur
following
heavy fires
throughout
Southeast
Asia in June
2013.