Word: carbonization
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Under the Kyoto protocol, the U.S. will have to reduce its total carbon emissions within the next decade by roughly 600 million tons. The U.S. delegation went into the talks demanding that 300 of these 600 million tons of carbon should be accounted for by so-called carbon sinks--mainly the natural regrowth of forests in the U.S., which removes carbon from the atmosphere. This would essentially enable the U.S. to cut its mandatory emissions reductions by half. Not surprisingly, Europeans came out strongly against the proposal. In the final days of the conference, the Americans decreased their demands...
...rest of the world had reached a consensus on its causes and consequences, but now the Europeans accused America of "voodoo" science, as Steve Curwood put it on National Public Radio's Living on Earth. A significant number of studies cast doubt onto the effectiveness of forests in absorbing carbon, and Jeffrey Jenkins, a highly respected researcher sponsored by the British Government, even proposed a theory showing the opposite effect: planting trees in northern latitudes on previously bare land will darken the Earth's surface. Darker areas absorb more sunlight which will increase the Earth's temperatures. This might completely...
...only hope that the magnitude of the U.S. delegation's concessions and the closeness of the final talks reflects the general state of the climate debate. Even though some issues such as the role of natural carbon sinks still warrant further investigation, the underlying science of global warming is becoming increasingly clear. The U.S. should, in the future, make a more substantive committment to cooperating with European nations and developing countries to honestly address the increasing threat of global warming--before it's too late...
CANCER-FREE CALLING INVENTOR: CALGON CARBON Studies on the potential dangers of cellular-phone radiation remain inconclusive, but WaveZorb, a thumbnail-size piece of carbon cloth that costs about eight bucks, could make them moot. Tests show that WaveZorb, adapted from military use, soaks up nearly 99% of microwave radiation--and doesn't interfere with performance. Each adhesive-backed unit lasts about six months and can be trimmed to fit any cell-phone earpiece. Too bad it can't screen calls as effectively...
...European Union, led by France, nixed a compromise deal on the grounds that it cut the U.S. and other big polluters too much slack. The U.S. plan would have adjusted greenhouse gas emission figures to take "sinks," forests and other growing plants that absorb carbon dioxide, into account. The failure of the talks may have come as a relief to big oil-producing countries that might have seen demand for oil drop if industrialized countries were forced into investing in alternate energy sources. Indeed, as recently as September, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and other members of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries...