-- by Horatio Algeranon
Simple can be good
But then, it can be bad
The Devil's in the details
When Heaven's to be had.
To paraphrase Einstein (who was actually referring to scientific theory): "Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
People too often forget the "not simpler" part.
Dealing with "black carbon" is a good example in the case of climate. As climate scientist Ray Pierrehumbert noted in the comments to You read it here first (or before these other guys, anyway)
Dealing with "black carbon" is a good example in the case of climate. As climate scientist Ray Pierrehumbert noted in the comments to You read it here first (or before these other guys, anyway)
Even leaving aside uncertainty about the net climate effect of black carbon mitigation (e.g. cooling effect of organic aerosols vs. warming effect of absorbing aerosols over high albedo surfaces), controlling black carbon, or any other short lived forcing agent, should not be viewed in any way as substituting for CO2 reduction. You can defer controls on black carbon for decades and still get the climate benefit once you implement them, but CO2 is forever, so action on CO2 is not deferrable. If black carbon reductions are justified on health grounds, do it for that reason, but don't pretend that doing it now is an important contribution so solving our climate problems.
