Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Ranking the Solutions
.
There are three roads to reduced emission: doing the
same with less (ef
ciency), capturing (putting the emis-
sion away somewhere else than the atmosphere), and
substitution (replacing fossil with non-emitting or low-
emitting fuels). We need to use all of them and remember
that the goal is emissions reduction, not merely replacing
fossil fuels with the limited collection of things that are
called Renewables. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu
coined a phrase which describes what we need to use; he
called it
”
Agriculture: I have not discussed this topic but did
note its importance. Most of what is discussed about
emission reductions in the press and by governments is
focused on fossil fuel use which contributes
“
all of the above.
% to the
emissions that drive global warming. The other
%
comes from agriculture and land-use changes, and in the
rush to do something about the
% it seems to have
slipped almost everyone
s mind that the agriculture sector
needs to be addressed too, something that gets more
dif
'
cult as population increases
from six billion in
. I only touched
on agriculture and land use in the chapter on biofuels, but
this needs attention that it is not getting. Some of the
most aggressive goals for emission reduction that have
been discussed (
to the expected nine billion in
, for
example) are impossible to achieve without doing some-
thing about agriculture and land use. It does seem absurd
%of
emissions by
A good source for data on world emissions by use and fuel is the US EPA
