Reducing Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Re “Wise Line on Curbing Emissions,” editorial, Dec. 2:

Although compromise between two ends of the spectrum often seems to be the best resolution in most situations, in the case of environment and pollution that is not so. I was delighted to find out that the European Union was taking such a bold stand in the fight for lower fossil fuel emissions. Unfortunately, I was soon disappointed to discover that the U.S. was not. The world’s nations need to pursue a goal that may seem harder to achieve, but will have a better payoff.

ELAINE Y. CHAN

Irvine

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It is preposterous to think that mankind will be able to control the use of carboniferous fuels to a degree that would limit the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere sufficiently to achieve some prior level, such as 1990, etc.

Through geologic time, the ocean has been the great absorber of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and so it remains today, ultimately being precipitated as limestone. For example, dolomitic limestone is several hundred feet thick in the Mississippi Valley and other areas covered by seas during geologic time. Ocean water still contains large amounts of calcium and magnesium dissolved as chlorides, and is slightly alkaline. It will dissolve the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and precipitate it as limestone.

Al Gore and many of our scientists have ignored this possibility in their predictions of global warming.

PHIL C. BALDWIN

El Segundo

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In “With the Right Incentives, We’ll Kick Our Carbon Habit” (Commentary, Dec. 1), Robert Lempert and Michael Schlesinger draw the wrong conclusion regarding the need for near-term limits on the emissions of the so-called greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. While correctly pointing out that solving the climate change problem requires significant changes in our use of fossil energy over the long term, and also emphasizing the role of free markets in making these changes efficiently, they overlook the importance of binding near-term goals in motivating these changes.

Our experience with efforts to limit the emissions of ozone-depleting substances demonstrates that emissions limits are the principal catalyst required to bring needed technologies to market. In the period leading up to the signing of the landmark Montreal Protocol that initiated the phase-out of ozone-depleting substances, we and other researchers documented the availability of a wide variety of cost-effective technologies for reducing emissions of these substances. These technologies were not brought to the marketplace until specific limits on the use and emissions of ozone-depleting substances were adopted inter- nationally.

MICHAEL GIBBS

Sherman Oaks