And You Think Health Care Reform Is Hard ...

Two articles which appeared in The Washington Post of Monday, July 20, 2009, taken side by side, show why addressing climate change is so hard. Chemicals That Eased One Woe Worsen Another and Clinton, Indian Minister Clash Over Emissions Reduction Pact were on adjoining pages of the newspaper's "A" Section. The first article included this graphic (click to enlarge) ...


... which pretty much tells you what the article was about. It seems that some greenhouse gases are actually "super" gases because they trap more of the sun's heat than carbon dioxide does, stay in the atmosphere longer, or both. Among the extra-troublesome gases are chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).

CFCs used to be used as refrigerants in air conditioners and refrigerators. When they found their way into the air, they punched a hole in the atmosphere's ozone layer, so they had to be banned. Their replacements were HFCs.

Trouble is, HFCs are potent greenhouse gases ... as are CFCs. Some HFCs have "a heat-trapping power that can be 4,470 times that of carbon dioxide."

Between now and 2050, it looks as if developing countries will contribute a whopping amount of HFCs to the atmosphere (see graphic above). Developed countries, not so much.

One developing country whose economy is burgeoning is India, the subject of the second article, which was accompanied by this photo:


The Indian Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh, complained in public to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton about U.S. pressure to cut a worldwide deal on climate change. According to Clinton, the Obama administration's push for a binding agreement on greenhouse-gas emissions targets would not sacrifice India's economic growth. But the Indians apparently resist such binding commitments, if only for domestic political reasons.