An excellent tool to track air pollution.
Tower to gauge climate success
Sensors will help show if Valley is reducing emissions quickly enough.
By Todd Milbourn - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Scientists charged with determining if progress is being made under California's new anti-global warming law on Monday unveiled one way they will gather crucial independent information.
Government and university scientists will rely on sensors along a 2,000-foot television tower rising from the tomato fields near Walnut Grove.
The recently placed sensors will analyze the amount of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases in the air. The data will help determine whether the state – or the Sacramento Valley at least – is reducing emissions fast enough. The new landmark state law requires that greenhouse gas emissions be reduced by 25 percent over the next dozen years.
"Climate change is becoming a mainstream issue, and California is taking a leading role," said Marc Fischer, a scientist with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who helped conceive of the pilot program. "And without an objective measure, it will be difficult to tell if our goals are being met."
This state pumps about 550 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year, according to the California Air Resources Board. That's more than any other state and about one-eighth of the country's total.
Passed last year, AB 32 calls for reducing those emissions 25 percent by 2020 and an additional 80 percent by 2050.
