Climate Change
The amount of carbon in the atmosphere remains a threat to life on earth. This is because of the feared repercussions of increased levels of carbon in the atmosphere. There has been increasing concern over reducing the amounts of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Efforts have been made by individuals and legislations to help in cutting down the amounts of carbon. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has showed commitment towards addressing the issue of carbon through the new clean Air Act. In this endeavor, several mitigation measures have been put on the spotlight. (Revkin, 2009)
Socolow wedges on reducing the amounts of carbon in the atmosphere have been given attention in then new Clean Air Act. The wedge that concerns curtailing carbon from motor vehicles and other combustion engines has been emphasized in the clean Air Act.
It has been argued that combustion engines contribute a lot towards carbon in the atmosphere hence modifying engines and improving their efficiency would be important in reducing carbon in the atmosphere.
Methane is one of the green house gases that cause pollution in the air. Under the Clean air Act , methane has to be regulated in the environment to prevent further damages to the atmosphere and life on earth. This shows that the methane wedge has been given the required attention in the Clean Air Act. There is a call for the right approaches and technologies to control methane and other greenhouse gases. Under the Clean Air Act the regulation would apply to large industrial emitters of greenhouse gases of 25,000 tons annually. Currently, there is a proposal to regulate greenhouse gases from motor vehicles as part of the larger scheme towards fuel economy. Methane emissions from landfills are common in the United States. The Act has advocated for the capturing of human caused methane from the landfills to be used in the generation of renewable energy. This is indicative of the fact that EPA has indeed paid attention to Socolow wedge that advocates for proper management of methane to reduce the amounts of carbon in the atmosphere.
Under the Clean Air Act, EPA has emphasized on the need for creation of more forests and soil management practices. This has been attributed to the fact that it is indeed the depletion of forest cover that has resulted in the accumulation of a carbon and other greenhouse gases. Forests play the role of attracting carbon commonly referred as carbon sinks. Socolow wedge on forests and soil management proposes a better strategy in managing these resources so as to cut down on carbon concentrations in the atmosphere. (Nolon, 2008)
The approaches proposed by EPA in the Clean Air Act are not in line with the Kyoto protocol. This is simply because of the fact that the Kyoto protocol on climate change did not have adequate provisions for industrialized countries like the United States.
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