As
government climate efforts continue to focus on reducing carbon dioxide
as a major greenhouse gas,
a growing number of scientists and
leaders have begun calling attention to other climate forcing agents
whose
warming effects are many times shorter-lived than CO2.
Along
with methane, a potent greenhouse gas primarily generated by the
livestock industry whose effects can dissipate in as few as ten years,
other agents have similarly have intense warming influences that could
quickly be halted. Dr. Andreas Stohl from the Norwegian Institute for
Air Research explains.
Andreas
Stohl (M): The short-lived climate forcers are anything that has
a shorter lifetime than say, 10, 15 years, starting at methane, which
has a lifetime of about 10 years. Which means that, if you reduce the
emissions of these substances, then the concentrations in the atmosphere
would almost immediately go down. And that means that climate impacts
would also be reduced almost immediately, which we don’t get for the
CO2.
VOICE: One of the aerosols that acts as a short-lived
climate forcer is black carbon, or soot. Soot is released through the
incomplete combustion of burning substances such as biofuels, fields, or
forests.
The black air-borne particles absorb solar radiation both
while in the atmosphere and after being deposited
on snow or ice,
resulting in regional warming.
Andreas
Stohl (M): It darkens the snow surface and then the snow starts
absorbing more solar radiation, and that means that the snow is probably
melting away quicker in the spring. And if it’s a glacier, then it
could also cause additional melting.
VOICE: We thank Dr. Stohl
and all scientists and governments for your consideration of this
significant
warming source. Let us join in acting now to address
such short-lived agents as black carbon and
methane to bring swift
and necessary planetary cooling. Supreme Master Ching Hai has frequently
urged for the most effective actions in halting climate change, as
during an interview published in the December 16, 2009 edition of The
Irish Dog Journal.
Supreme Master
Ching Hai : The powerful methane is actually a greater cause of
the warming than previously estimated. The good news is that methane
dissipates from the atmosphere in approximately 12 years, whereas it
takes carbon dioxide thousands of years to disappear.
So, if we
want to make a rapid, effective difference now, we must stop the methane
generation at its largest,
original source: that is, the livestock
industry. The livestock sector is the top driving force behind
rainforest destruction. Forest burning for making pasture is also a
major source of black carbon, which is soot, particles capable of
trapping 2,000 times more heat than CO2.
The super hot particles
end up on the world’s ice caps and accelerate their melting. I pray
that our world’s
leaders will take swift actions to ban the
destructive meat production and, instead, use subsidies for organic
vegan
farming which helps absorb emissions. Then, we can have an immediate
effect on climate change and have more time to develop and perfect our
green technology to address CO2.