Senator Chris Murphy D-Ct writes in The Hill of his frustration with the political impasse on climate change legislation. He doesn't foresee any improvement with the current makeup of congress which he states is still debating the existence of anthropogenic climate change. So he is proposing a solution which he thinks can receive more congressional support by circumventing the usual political hot buttons.
Carbon dioxide isn’t the only gas driving climate change. Some greenhouse gases are hundreds to thousands of times more potent. Carbon dioxide only accounts for about half of man-made global warming. The bulk of the rest is comprised of so-called “short-lived climate pollutants” which include methane, black carbon (soot), and hydroflourocarbons (HFCs), all of which have a shorter atmospheric lifespan than CO2.
Why are these pollutants important? Because when it comes to combating climate change, targeting SLCPs gets you the biggest bang for your buck. Cutting these pollutants alone could slow climate warming by as much as 0.5 degrees Celsius, avoid 2 million premature deaths each year and save 30 million tons of crops annually. Combating the pollutants isn’t just about the climate, it’s about saving lives.
Consensus is developing among scientists and policy makers that reducing the short lived climate pollutants (SLCP's) is our only best option for a near term cooling. They are coming to the realization that an international agreement may not come soon enough or be strong enough to avert the worst effects of climate change. That is why the US founded The
Clean Air and Climate Coalition to reduce the short lived climate pollutants to research and inform of best practices for reducing the SLCP's globally. We are dangerously close to reaching some climate
tipping points which would take us to runaway irreversible climate change extremes. We need a near term solution for a safe rapid cooling to buy us the time to reduce the long living CO2 which now exists at unsafe highs in our atmosphere.
Sen. Murphy talks about replacing wood burning stoves and brick kilns in developing countries as one of the ways to reduce the short lived climate pollutants. This must be done but the countries he is referring to are not major greenhouse gas emitters. He carefully avoids mention of the elephant in the room. Globally the greatest contributor (pdf) to the short lived climate pollutants is livestock production with the US the largest meat consumer on the planet. But of course, mentioning a reduction of livestock production would not be popular with all those Senators from agricultural states. We don't have to let that stand in our way. We can contribute directly to reducing the short lived climate pollutants to mitigate the worst effects of climate change by simply reducing our consumption of meat and animal products.
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This talk on reduction of the short lived climate pollutants at the Center for National Policy features:
The Honorable Christopher Murphy, United States Senator for Connecticut
Dr. Andrew Light, Senior Fellow & Director International Climate Policy, Center for American Progress
Apologies for length of video. Sen. Murphys portion is from 4:00 to 19:00 but entire talk and panel is of interest.
Kudos to Senator Murphy for taking initiative on this immensely important issue.