As The World Warms

摘要

Head start on carbon trading U.S. businesses increasingly view a carbon-trading system to cap and gradually reduce the production of global-warming gases as inevitable. Many are already getting their feet wet by buying and selling carbon credits on the Chicago Climate Exchange, which boasts some 350 members, including 11 percent of the Fortune 100. As of this writing, the price of a metric ton of carbon dioxide is $1.17-but expected to rise significantly once legislation makes carbon reduction mandatory. PAINTTHE TOWN WHITE Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have discovered what people in the Mediterranean already know-white buildings absorb less heat. In fact, they could also help fight global warming. According to Berkeley lab physicist Hashem Akbari, replacing the dark colors on a 1,000-square-foot roof offsets ten metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. If rooftops and pavement in the world's 100 largest cities were converted to light, reflective colors, it could offset more CO_2 than all countries emit in a year, Akbari contends.