Cutting carbon emissions is the only way to alleviate global warming, says study

New Scientist : Climate change is becoming an ever-more pressing issue. According to the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the only way to avoid “severe, widespread, and irreversible impacts globally” is to immediately curb carbon dioxide emissions and phase them out almost entirely by 2100 or, at the very least, develop technologies to safely bury them underground, a method called carbon capture and storage. Although a potentially cheaper and easier alternative had been proposed—to reduce other greenhouse gas emissions—a new study shows that the benefits of such a plan have been overestimated, for two reasons. Other greenhouse gases, such as methane, do not accumulate in the atmosphere the way CO₂ does. And they tend to be emitted by the same sources as CO₂ emissions, such as the burning of fossil fuels. “Science has spoken,” said United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon. “Leaders must act. Time is not on our side.”