California plans to slow down global warming

by Amy Judd | October 21, 2008 at 02:45 pm

488 views | 10 Recommendations | 9 comments

When the Global Warming Solutions Act was passed in 2006, it spelled out California's commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It was to lower its carbon emissions by 25 percent by the year 2020.

But is this actually possible?

This week, the California Air Resources Board, the state agency tasked with implementing the law, released the first details of exactly what the state must do to achieve its global warming goals. In a 142-page report many experts believe could serve as a policy template for other states—and even the federal government—the board provides specific estimates of exactly how and where the state could have an impact on climate change. To return to 1990 carbon emissions levels, the plan says, the state will need to reduce its annual emissions by about 4 tons per person—from 14 tons currently to about 10 tons in 2020. The report calls this goal "ambitious but achievable." According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the United States as a country produces more than 20 tons of carbon dioxide per capita each year, while countries like Japan and the United Kingdom produce closer to 10 tons per person. The state of Idaho, which, like California, does not rely on coal-powered energy, produces about 11 tons of carbon emissions per capita—the least of any U.S. state.'

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Eustaquio Santimano

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 16:55 on October 21st, 2008

amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff.

siebi

at 18:44 on October 21st, 2008

amyjudd, well done research. People have to be shown ways to reduce energy though day by day, again and again. They have to be told that they personally are important to save energy, every single person, they, their family, friends, ..., you and me.

World_Groove

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 18:58 on October 21st, 2008

Arnold Schwarzenegger for President !

Remrac

at 21:01 on October 21st, 2008

This is my morning commute... 17 miles one way takes 1 hour on average. Ugh! So to help with my Carbon Footprint, I grow my own veggies and have chickens in my backyard for eggs. YES, I live in Los Angeles!

Remrac has contributed a photo to this story.

Amitjha

at 21:07 on October 21st, 2008

Good post, but this kind of city based approach to deal with global warming is not going to help any one, we need collective effort to correct our own mistakes.The Kyoto protocol targets , Go dknows what kind of caculations they have done , but this seems nothing but but lip service.Business oppurtunities decides these goels, and we will be never able to achive that with business in mind.This carbon trading is going to shift the responsibility from one country to another.

merlingraycat

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 11:12 on October 22nd, 2008

amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff. We need to get rid of all the dirty coal powered plants in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. Saw a story on PBS last night, Frontline, Tuesday, Oct. 21, about Global Warming. And it was indeed scary. According to the story: The U.S. depends on coal for over 50% of its energy.