Greenhouse Gases

Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, is already making waves, not surprisingly. Lately, you cannot pick up a newspaper or watch the news without some headline about greenhouse gases, global warming or efforts to combat it. Despite many questions, governments around the globe seem to be in a frenzy to respond to a public that seems to want something done and to growing pressure from green groups that demand that something be done. People may like the idea of government mandates to curb greenhouse gases, but they won't like the sticker shock that comes from many of the proposed solutions.

In a letter July 5, a writer complained that CA planned to plant trees in open space to reduce mowing. He viewed this as a reduction of open space and a violation of his right to live near grass maintained by CA. I disagree. Getting rid of grass to plant trees will: a) reduce maintenance costs, b) lower the use of greenhouse gases required to mow, c) reduce the use of herbicides and pesticides required to keep that monoculture looking like a golf course, d) reduce runoff into streams and the Chesapeake Bay (including runoff of those chemicals)

Fresh off the hottest decade on record, it's a relief to know that the judicial system has upheld the Environmental Protection Agency's right to limit the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate change ("EPA's climatic victory," June 28). As a Millennial and an aunt, I'm deeply anxious about the future and I long for a bold transition to a clean-energy economy before it's too late. This ruling will help spur that transition. While it is, as you state, "hard to believe a politically gridlocked Congress is capable of taking appropriate action," we can't let lawmakers off the hook.

In a little more than a year, a regional push to cap greenhouse gases has raised millions for Maryland energy programs, with supporters calling it a model for easing climate change on a national or even global scale. Since September 2008, Maryland and nine other Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states have been participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. In its "cap and trade" regulatory scheme, emissions of carbon dioxide from power plants have been capped and plant operators are required to buy permits for all the gas that their facilities release into the atmosphere.

“Would you like to buy a carbon offset with your purchase today?” That's a question you hear more often when you rent a car or buy groceries at MOM'S Organic Markets. Now, you also have that option when you buy natural gas to heat your home. Here's the lowdown on carbon offsets, and two “green natural gas” suppliers that offer to conveniently reduce your carbon footprint.   What is a carbon offset? A carbon offset is when you pay for greenhouse gas reductions elsewhere equal to the amount of those gases you're generating from a particular activity or purchase.  Greenhouse gases (chiefly carbon dioxide and methane)

WASHINGTON - Seeking to defuse criticism in Europe before flying there last night, President Bush said he was committed to fighting global warming and promised to fund new research into one of the world's most vexing environmental problems. Bush presented himself as more troubled than in the past by climate change. To underscore the seriousness with which he views the issue, he marched into the Rose Garden from the Oval Office in lockstep with Vice President Dick Cheney. He spoke while flanked by a half-dozen Cabinet members.

Greenhouse gases are warming up our oceans, changing their chemistry and threatening rainfall patterns that provide the planet with its fresh water, scientists say. The gases that cause global warming are sometimes given as factors in problems ranging from the strength of hurricanes to altered wildlife habitats. But in what may be the most comprehensive look yet at the oceans, a group of researchers recently told a scientific conference that the marine impact is just as severe. "In terms of global warming, the oceans are where the action is," said Tim Barnett, an oceanographer at the Scripps Oceanographic Institution.

Formstone may be out, but what about putting more wood into 21st century versions of Baltimore's classic urban dwelling, the row home? Hoping to encourage more use of climate-friendly wood in housing, the U.S. Forest Service is teaming up with City Hall to offer $10,000 in prizes to local architects and builders who come up with the most innovative row home designs that incorporate recycled and sustainably harvested wood and wood fiber. The "Carbon Challenge," as the design contest is called, is to be announced Tuesday morning at a press conference in the city's Oliver neighborhood.

LONDON -- A major British study issued yesterday concludes that rapid and substantial spending to combat global warming is needed to avert a catastrophic reduction in worldwide productivity on the scale of the Great Depression that could devastate food sources, cause widespread deaths and turn hundreds of millions of people into refugees. The report commissioned by the British government, which officials said was the most comprehensive review ever of the economics of climate change, warns that failure to act could cost the world up to 20 percent a year in lost income.

In an important shift of scientific judgment, experts advising the world's governments on climate change say for the first time that human activity is a likely cause of the warming of the global atmosphere.While many climatologists have thought this to be the case, all but a few have held until now that the climate is naturally so variable that they could not be sure they were seeing a clear signal of the feared "greenhouse effect" -- the heating of the atmosphere because of the carbon dioxide released by burning coal, oil and wood.