The Economy's Effect on the Atmosphere

In Marlowe Hood’s article, “Global economic crisis to slash carbon emissions: IEA”, Hood addresses a positive aspect which has arisen from the economic crisis which the world has faced over the past year. Hood explains that in a press conference by Fatih Birol, the chief economist of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Birol announced that until recently the annual global carbon dioxide emissions rates have been rising by three percent each year, until the hit of the economic crisis which effected a five percent decrease by 2020.

While these statistics are definitely uplifting, they do not appear to be backed up by any clear evidence of correlation between the economical crisis and the drop in carbon dioxide emissions, as far as we are able to tell from Hood’s article, the relationship between the two could be completely coincidental.

Hood’s article goes on to explain the IEA’s statements about how much the countries of the world would have to cut their carbon dioxide emissions in order to keep from crossing the climate changing threshold that would be breached if the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide exceeded 450 parts per million

The data Hood used in this article comes from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This organization is an extension of the United Nations (UN) which gains the statistics upon which Hood’s article is based a great deal of credibility. However, upon further investigation, it is revealed that the data used in this article is based on a study which the IPCC performed in 2007. While the information is still reliable based on the source, the fact that it is based on statistics gathered two years ago means that it is based on not current data, but a projection based on trends from two years ago, causes the data to lose some credibility, and since this data ultimately forms a large foundation upon which this article sits, this must be taken into account when reading.

Finally, in this article Hood addresses the issue that the poorer countries feel that “Rich nations created the problem and should bear the brunt of the responsibility to fix it” (Hood, 2009.)

The argument presented by the poorer countries seems valid but this is a very controversial topic because, since we are in a state of economic crisis, even the richer countries have to make budgeting cuts and unfortunately that includes the budgets set aside for such things as funding operations which cut carbon dioxide emissions. This is an aspect which might have been overlooked by Hood, as it contradicts what was said earlier in the article about an economic crisis helping slash carbon emissions.

References:

Hood, Marlowe (2009). Global economic crisis to slash carbon emissions: IEA. www.earth-stream.com, 06 October 2009. http://www.earth-stream.com/outpage.php?s=18&id=208429. Accessed 06 October 2009.

International Energy Agency (IEA)
http://www.iea.org/ Accessed 06 October 2009.

Höhne, Niklas and den Elzin, Michel (2007). Emission Reduction Trade-offs for Meeting Concentration Targets. www.ipcc.ch, 2007. http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/presentations/briefing-bonn-2008-06/emission-reduction-trade-offs.pdf . Accessed 06 October 2009.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
http://www.ipcc.ch/ Accessed 06 October 2009.