Environmental and Geochemical Aspects of Geologic Carbon Sequestration: A Special Issue

摘要

The need to reduce atmospheric CO_2 emissions from combustion of fossil fuels becomes more clear each day with the availability of new supporting information on, for example, global temperature, ocean levels, ice cover, extreme weather events, and ecological change. According to estimates from the International Energy Agency, total global emissions of CO_2 were approximately 31.6 Gt in 2011, up from 23.7 Gt in 2001 and 21.1 Gt in 1991. Because of the long residence time of CO_2 in the atmosphere, it will be necessary not only to stabilize CO_2 emissions, but to decrease them significantly-in the order of 80% by 2050-to avoid scenarios of warming, coastal inundation, drought, flooding, and other impacts with negative social and economic consequences that will be very difficult to manage.