Article Title: A Plan to Keep Carbon in Check Author/Source: Robert H. Socolow and Stephen W.

Pacala

A. Main thoughts and Ideas Human have been transferring carbon to the atmosphere from below the surface of the earth Today the world's coal, oil, and natural gas industries dig up and pump out about several billions on tons of carbon each year Since the industrial revolution started, carbon emissions have been higher than it ever been, due to the burning of fossil fuels It has been contrasted that there could be two 50-year futures One, the carbon emission rates continues to grow for the next 50 years, reaching 24 billion tons of carbon a year in 2056 The other future is that carbon freezes up with a value of seven billion tons a year In this situation, a doubling of CO2 levels could be avoided The difference between these 50-year emission paths one ramping up and one attening out we called the stabilization triangle A car driven 10,000 miles a year with a fuel efficiency of 30 miles per gallon emits cloes to one ton of carbon annually Even though the world has reached energy-efficient technology, the world will still need power plants They can be coal power plants, but they will have to be smart ones that capture CO2 and pump it into the ground Renewable power can be produced from sunlight directly, either to energize photovoltaic cells or, using focusing mirrors, to heat a fluid and drive a turbine Nuclear power is probably the most controversial of all the wedge strategies

B. Summary In this article it talks about how carbon emissions have been released by humans ever since the industrial revolution. The carbon is being transferred from the bottom surface of the earth and into the atmosphere. With all the carbon emissions being released by cars, they are one of the huge contributors to the carbon emissions. It was told that a car driven 10,000 miles a year with fuel efficiency of 30 miles per gallon emits to one ton of carbon annually. With all the carbon that is being released by humans, it has been predicted that there will be two futures for us in 2056.

C. My thoughts

I'm not surprised with the fact that we are releasing a ton of carbon into the atmosphere each year. It's crazy to believe that the United States is the country that has the most CO2 emissions in the world. I always thought that it would be China, since they are a developing country. It's good that we have renewable energy, but we would still need coal power plants. By having these coal power plants we would need to make them smart, so that they could capture the carbon and pump it into the ground. If we have those type of power plants than we can reduce the amount of carbon that is being released into the atmosphere.

So What? Carbon emission rates have increased since the industrial revolution

Says Who? The author

What if? We find a way to capture all the carbon emissions

What does this remind me of? How we are polluting the earth with trash