US carbon emissions fell in 2012 to their lowest levels since 1994 but were expected to rise by nearly 3% in 2013. And sure enough 2013 carbon emissions were up significantly in the first 4 months of 2013, when compared to the same period of 2012.
But since April ended, carbon emissions for May, June, and July have been lower than in the same months of 2012. The lower emissions of the last 3 months creates the possibility that carbon emissions may not be after all higher in 2013 than they were in 2012. That would be a welcome surprise.
http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/pdf/sec12_3.pdf.
Many factors for that, I am sure. But the bottom line globally is that we are nearing 400 ppm of carbon in the atmosphere (reached it briefly, we read earlier this year) - see https://twitter.com/keeling_curve if you want to keep up with it. So the issue is how we move rapidly downward in ppm. Can PA lead on that for America and America lead on that for the planet, or not?
ReplyDeleteYou are right that the global atmosphere is now about 400 ppm. I will implement the PA Climate Action Plan that I wrote in 2009 when Secretary of DEP. The Climate Plan was mandated by the PA Legislature that passed Act 70 in 2008. The Plan would cut PA carbon emissions by about one-third and create 65,000 jobs. To stabilize carbon concentrations below 450 ppm or 500 ppm is going to require major action by China and India too. It is hard to be optimistic about humanity's ability to address this issue before concentrations reach truly dangerous levels. But we must do what we can and there is a lot that sensibly can be done.
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