杏吧原创

THANKS in no small part to Al Gore and his film producers, the American public is waking up to the seriousness of global warming. What is not so widely appreciated is that unless the US government acts urgently and decisively, this problem could very quickly get very much worse.

For reasons both economic and political, coal is poised to be the fuel of choice in the coming decades as the US weans itself off foreign oil (see 鈥淐heap coal threat to global climate鈥�). Coal combustion generates half the US鈥檚 electricity and releases about 1.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. If present trends continue, these figures will more than double by 2050, much to the detriment of the world鈥檚 climate. Without an alternative fuel, the only solution is to capture and store CO₂ from burning coal.

Overcoming the engineering obstacles in the way of large-scale sequestration of CO₂ will be hard enough, but the bigger challenge is one of political will. US companies as yet have no incentive to capture carbon emissions. While moves at state and congressional levels are pushing in the right direction, the ambiguity in the administration鈥檚 policy is counterproductive.

It is time for the US government to put a price on carbon emissions so utilities that invest in technologies to reduce CO₂ emissions will see their efforts rewarded. Such a move would not only reduce the risks associated with global warming, but also go a long way to restoring America鈥檚 green credentials.