According to Wired magazine, some of the short-term effects of global climate change could be stopped immediately — if we had a $15 billion dollar budget and 500 million stoves. Why? Because that’s how much it would cost to replace about 500 million open-pit fires used across the world in less-developed countries for cooking and heating. These seemingly innocuous fires actually create “black carbon,” a pollutant that is nearly as bad for the environment as carbon dioxide.
Wired says:
The climate dynamics of the black carbon process have been fully described only in the last decade, but scientists now say their short-term impact sometimes rivals that of carbon dioxide. As much as one-half of the 3.4 degree Fahrenheit rise in Arctic temperatures since 1890 is attributed to black carbon. By disrupting weather patterns, it may be responsible for weakening seasonal rains in South Asia and West Africa. And black carbon is also a major reason why Himalayan glaciers, which provide water to hundreds of millions of people, are vanishing.
Unlike carbon dioxide, however, which can hang in the atmosphere for centuries, black carbon returns to Earth in less than a month. And that makes it a ripe target for immediate action. Though Ramanathan is quick to warn that eliminating black carbon is no substitute for controlling carbon dioxide emissions, which in coming centuries could have a far greater effect, he estimates that a 50% reduction in black carbon could delay the onset of severe global warming by one to two decades.
[Via: Wired]
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