Attention Zephyrteers: In an effort to “save the planet”, it is our duty to reduce our carbon footprint, thereby averting a certain collapse of Nature. Not to mention ourselves. And it turns out the answer is simple: get rid of that nasty black carbon (aka: soot) – “produced largely by diesel vehicles and the burning of biomass, including in cookstoves in developing countries like China and India.”

As the experts tell us in Foreign Affairs: “Black carbon is also responsible for almost 50 percent of warming in the Arctic as well as extensive snow and ice melt in the Himalayas.” 

But, like all solutions involving the Earth’s infinitely complex ecological processes, getting soot out of the system will require a wee bit of sacrifice. The most likely choices are: 1. Place the entire Indian subcontinent on the Atkin’s Diet (delivered in sustainable Styrofoam containers, paid for by the rock band U2), or, 2. We all pitch in and send 4,345,321,846 solar range-tops to the planet’s soot burning citizens.

“It’s later than you think!”

posted by Mudd