Carbon Emissions…

Flick on a light. Heat the water for coffee. Turn up the thermostat. Drive the car. Read this article on a computer.

All these routine, seemingly mundane human activities indirectly burn carbon. It's a substance in all plants as well as the fossil fuels – oil, coal, and natural gas. When we burn carbon, we release carbon dioxide, one of the greenhouse gases and a major contributor to global climate change.

Many governments, corporations and individuals are trying to curtail burning carbon, thereby cutting carbon emissions. It's a difficult task; carbon is woven into the fabric of nearly everything that powers our lives.

Carbon Enters The Picture

Plants grow by breathing in carbon dioxide and storing the carbon; when we burn fossil fuels we're releasing carbon that plants stored millions of years ago.

The US Environmental Protection Agency reports that concentrations of carbon dioxide have increased 30% since the beginning of the industrial age. The use of fossil fuels to heat and cool homes, run factories, and power our vehicles is responsible for 98% of the carbon dioxide emissions in the US. The US releases between one-quarter to one-fifth of all greenhouse gases, more than any other nation. The American lifestyle creates the highest per capita carbon emissions on the planet.

While the atmospheric soup of greenhouse gases has kept the planet at a relatively comfortable temperature until the Industrial Age, the US Global Change Research Program says the increased burning of carbon in the past 100 years has raised the Earth's average temperature by 1 degree Fahrenheit. Not much, but the climate change is enough to melt glaciers and polar ice, raise the sea level, uproot animals in nature, spread famine and disease in developing countries, and cause extremes in drought and storms.

If left unabated, the International Panel on Climate Change says this carbon-burning could raise the average surface temperature another 5 to 9 degrees in the next 100 years, changing the Earth as we know it.

Cutting Back The Carbon

Alarmed by this trend, 156 nations have signed the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement to cut back on carbon emissions by 2010. The US, officially opposed to mandatory curbs, was not among them.

In spite of that, many corporations, state governments and individuals here are joining the global drive to cut carbon emissions because it makes economic common sense.

With the costs of oil and natural gas skyrocketing, simply burning less fossil fuel reaps huge rewards on the bottom line. Some corporations now have execs accountable for slashing carbon emissions and promoting energy efficiency, while facility managers at other companies compete on the basis of reducing carbon emissions. Still other companies are embracing renewable energy sources – particularly wind and solar power – to avoid burning fossil fuels. The result has been emission reductions of up to 72 percent at some firms.

Also, electricity generators in the US are looking at alternatives to coal-fired power plants. Natural gas emits one-half the carbon dioxide of coal; wind power turbines and solar energy facilities emit zero carbon dioxide.

Meanwhile, other companies are switching their transportation fleets to hybrid vehicles that get twice the mileage of normal vehicles. On the horizon are hydrogen-powered cars that emit only water vapor, although the process to extract hydrogen for fuel currently releases carbon dioxide.

Many companies see the writing on the wall — public and governmental support for mandatory reductions in carbon emissions in the US is growing. It could be costly to not get on the bandwagon now. Several states have set up their own greenhouse gas reduction programs.

The big insurers also are demanding carbon emission reductions. Climate change raises the risks from storms, flooding, fire and other so-called natural calamities. A report by Swiss Re estimates costs of such disasters could double to $150 billion a year in 10 years, forcing premiums to rise.

Storing Carbon

At a recent United Nations climate conference in Montreal, the countries agreed to begin discussions on a future UN climate pact that further cuts carbon emissions. They also agreed to consider methods of storing carbon so it doesn't get into the atmosphere.

This is accomplished in nature by forests as trees take in carbon dioxide as they grow. The Pew Center on Global Climate Change reported in 2005 that planting vast forests in the US is cost-effective and could play a role – along with energy efficiency and adapting renewable resources – in reducing the US' carbon emissions.

Other forms of carbon sequestration include turning the carbon dioxide into a liquid and burying it under the ocean floor. Another method, already in use, involves injecting the carbon dioxide back into the ground under pressure at depleted oil and natural gas fields in order to harvest any remnant fossil fuels.