To illustrate visually; check out the many areas where biofuel plays an 
important role in daily subsistence - and ponder the enormous gains that can 
be had from low tech, affordable devices such solar cookers, better stoves, 
methane capture and fuel substitution, to name a few.

(http://www.research.philips.com/technologies/woodstove.html)



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dr. Ann C. Wilkie" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2012 1:37 PM
Subject: U.S. Pushes to Cut Emissions of Some Pollutants That Hasten Climate 
Change


> U.S. Pushes to Cut Emissions of Some Pollutants That Hasten Climate 
> Change.
> The New York Times, Wednesday, February 15, 2012.
> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/science/earth/us-pushes-to-cut-emissions-that-speed-climate-change.html
>
>
>  “WASHINGTON — Impatient with the slow pace of international climate
> change negotiations, a small group of countries led by the United States
> is starting a program to reduce emissions of common pollutants that
> contribute to rapid climate change and widespread health problems.
>
>  Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to announce the
> initiative at the State Department on Thursday accompanied by officials
> from Bangladesh, Canada, Ghana, Mexico, Sweden and the United Nations
> Environment Program. The plan will address short-lived pollutants like
> soot (also referred to as black carbon), methane and hydrofluorocarbons
> that have an outsize influence on global warming, accounting for 30 to
> 40 percent of global warming. Soot from diesel exhausts and the burning
> of wood, agricultural waste and dung for heating and cooking causes an
> estimated two million premature deaths a year, particularly in the
> poorest countries. Scientists say that concerted action on these
> substances can reduce global temperatures by 0.5 degrees Celsius by 2050
> and prevent millions of cases of lung and heart disease by 2030.
>
> The United States intends to contribute $12 million and Canada $3
> million over two years to get the program off the ground and to help
> recruit other countries to participate. The United Nations Environment
> Program will run the project.
>
> Officials hope that by tackling these fast-acting, climate-changing
> agents they can get results quicker than through the laborious and
> highly political negotiations conducted under the United Nations
> Framework Convention on Climate Change, or U.N.F.C.C.C. That process,
> involving more than 190 nations, grinds on year after year with
> incremental political progress but little real impact on the climate. At
> the most recent United Nations climate summit meeting, in Durban, South
> Africa, negotiators agreed to try to produce a binding global climate
> change treaty by 2015, to take effect after 2020. Many scientists say
> that irreversible damage to the atmosphere will be done before then.
>
> Soot, methane and hydrofluorocarbons, which are used in foam and
> refrigerants, have a short life span in the atmosphere, measured in
> weeks or years. By contrast, carbon dioxide, the primary cause of
> climate disruption, persists in the atmosphere for thousands of years —
> and its effects are much more difficult to mitigate.
>
> Researchers have identified about a dozen ways to significantly control
> black carbon and methane emissions. Soot can be reduced by installing
> filters on diesel engines, replacing traditional cookstoves with more
> efficient models, modernizing brick kilns and banning the open burning
> of agricultural waste. Methane can be captured from oil and gas wells,
> leaky pipelines, coal mines, municipal landfills, wastewater treatment
> plants, manure piles and rice paddies.
>
> The new initiative will provide money for developing countries to reduce
> short-acting pollutants and will try to raise additional public and
> private funds for new mitigation projects.
>
> Drew T. Shindell, a senior climate scientist at NASA’s Goddard Institute
> on Space Studies, said that attacking short-lived climate agents could
> have immediate impacts. “From a political point of view,” he said,
> “what’s really appealing about these measures is that a lot of the
> benefits are realized by those that take the action. If you reduce these
> emissions in the developing world, it’s the developing world that gets
> most of the benefits, by stabilizing rainfall and improving public 
>  health.”
>
> Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and
> Sustainable Development, said that the initiative, if expanded and
> adequately financed, would have more impact on the climate than the
> United Nations climate change negotiations, at least in the near term.”
>
> -- 
> **********************************************************************
> Dr. Ann C. Wilkie                          Tel: (352)392-8699
> Soil and Water Science Department          Fax: (352)392-7008
> University of Florida-IFAS
> P.O. Box 110960                         E-mail: [log in to unmask]
> Gainesville, FL 32611-0960
> ______________________________________________________________________
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> ______________________________________________________________________
> BioEnergy and Sustainable Technology Society
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