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AnonymousInactiveU.S. to Start Tracking ‘Greenhouse’ GasesWASHINGTON (March 05) –
The government will start keeping track of all the “greenhouse” gases that
farmers and foresters voluntarily reduce to help combat global warming.Officials in the Energy and Agriculture departments issued
guidelines Wednesday for counting those efforts. They said the action indicates
how seriously the Bush administration views the problem of gases that trap heat
in the atmosphere like a greenhouse.Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said farm and forest
landowners now have “a unique opportunity to be part of the solution to
greenhouse gas emissions” such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxides,
refrigerants and other compounds.For example, they can report using no-till agriculture,
installing a waste digester, improving nutrient management or managing forest
land in ways that cut those gases.The Forest Service and Natural Resources Conservation
Service also have prepared an online method for farmers and ranchers to estimate
soil carbon sequestration – the natural process by which carbon dioxide in the
air is turned into carbon stored in soil and plants.Since 1992, the United States has kept a registry of
voluntary efforts by businesses, groups and individuals to reduce greenhouse
gases. Doing so helps build a public record for policymaking and negotiations
with other countries.David Hawkins, director of Natural Resources Defense
Council’s climate center, called the reporting registry a “charade that is
intended to allow the government and the participants to portray that they are
doing something about global warming, when they are not.”For example, companies running nuclear reactors can claim
greenhouse gas reductions by saying they would have otherwise operated
coal-fired power plants, Hawkins said.In another case, Hawkins said, one coal-fired power plant
in Maryland claims reductions for selling some of its carbon dioxide to the food
and beverage industry, even though the carbon dioxide is eventually released
anyway once a drink is opened and consumed.“To call it a reduction is absurd, but the Department of
Energy allows them to file it as a report and call it a reduction,” Hawkins
said.In 2003, the Agriculture Department said it would start
rewarding farmers and ranchers whose tilling and planting practices help reduce
greenhouse gases by increasing carbon sequestration. It was not clear whether
those rewards are linked in any way to the voluntary reporting.Carbon sequestration is regarded as a way of slowing the
growth in greenhouse gases but not by itself a solution to global warming. -
AuthorMarch 25, 2005 at 10:03 AM
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