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Climate change conundrum

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American



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Wedged between the IPCC wrapping up its fourth assessment and the Bali negotiations for a "son of Kyoto" (a successor treaty to curb greenhouse gas emissions globally), comes the Scientific American climate change series. We've got an interactive map of climate change impacts, Q&As with Stern/Lomborg/Yohe on its cost and even 10 potential solutions (plus a bonus if you read the whole article!) It's the latter I'm most interested in. Beyond igniting a fire under carbon capture and storage, which seems absolutely vital to me if we are to seriously restrain carbon dioxide, what are the solutions that you require? Is it a tech fund? An enhanced commitment from industrialized countries given their historic share in the problem? Or a radical re-thinking of human population? And don't worry about the carbon lurking behind your keystrokes or utterances (inconvenient that we breathe out the stuff), you can always buy an indulgence.