Are we zooming in on CO2 emissions?

Question

The "Vulcan Project" is seeking to quantify North American fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions at space and time scales much finer than has been achieved in the past.

The detail and scope of the Vulcan CO2 inventory makes it a valuable tool for policymakers, demographers and social scientists.

What do you think?

http://www.purdue.edu/eas/carbon/vulcan/index.php

http://www.purdue.edu/eas/carbon/vulcan/images/county.total.Cemit.SCnote.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJpj8UUMTaI&feature=email

Answer 1

The data will be interesting, but as a practical matter it won't make much difference.  The costs of attempting to do anything significant about CO2 emissions is so stupendous that it simply can't happen.  See article on editorial page of today's Wall Street Journal.

Answer 2

A high level view was already produced in the First State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR) December 2007:

http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/sa...

It's nice to see universities involved in producing those reports.  I'd be far more skeptical if the reports were solely the ramblings of a bunch of Washington D.C. beureaucrats.

rhsaunders -

That argument "the cost will be way too high" is a myth, a scare tactic promoted by the industries that want to delay action.  Go to any carbon impact calculator, and you'll come up with a total carbon amount for your impact for the year.  Then you can look up current carbon credit rates, and the net cost is in the low $100 range.

Everyone however is jumping on the bandwagon to raise funds using global warming as the excuse.  Los Angeles for example proposes to add $90 to residents' vehicle registration fees... to fund buses, at a cost that is nearly as high as 100% mitigation through carbon offsets, yet the Los Angeles plan will not necessarily reduce carbon emissions in any meaningful way.

Answer 3

This is a pretty exciting tool that was featured at the recent National Air Quality Conference in April in Portland, OR.  I didn't sit in on the presentation, but my tech/modeling science type coworkers did.  They came away generally excited but curious if the "views from space" would match up with our on-ground monitors and models they use to quanitify GHG.

It's a useful tool for providing an at-a-glance of a broad area, but the biggest challenge we're facing at least in Oregon is how to develop a robust reporting system so we can track GHG all the way to the source.  Oregon DEQ has recently proposed a GHG Reporting Rule that identifies the sectors that must begin reporting their GHG emissions in 2009 and 2010.

But a huge sector is not included - but will likely be addressed in Fall 2008:  Transportation.  Asking permitted sources, already on the books to report to DEQ is a relatively low-impact activity on both the gov and the permittees (they're used to reporting emissions) - but Trans is a whole nuther level - there are 25,000 fleets in Oregon for example - businesses that do not report.  The state simply does not have the resources to implement a reporting system and manage it at this time.

I could go on - but my point is to demonstrate what's happening at ground level in terms of zeroing in on CO2 and the other GHG gases.  What I've described is all part of the preliminary effort to quantify and participate in the Western Climate Initiative and join the non-profit reporting service called The Climate Registry.  For more info Google search will bring those right up... for context on what I'm laying down:

www.deq.state.or.us/aq/climate/index.h...

I'm pretty sure efforts like this are happening in other states too!

Answer 4

it's going to be a useful tool to help ensure compliance with emissions targets or cap and trade schemes. very hard to cheat when they can measure the emissions from your power station!

Answer 5

please forgive me, but when i see a reference to purdue, my thoughts turn to how to light a barbecue.

seems that they really know how to do it there.

http://interweavers.com/brett/humor/bbq-...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sab2Ltm1W...