Eliminating
Non-Sustainability/
Regenerating the Environment
Preferred State:
Sustainable environmental systems for 100% of humanity
Problem State:
68 million acres of forest damaged or destroyed by acid rain
Strategy 13: Stopping Acid Rain
Acid rain is caused primarily by the emission of sulfur dioxide from
coal-fired power plants. There are a number of remedies, including:
switching fuel sources to natural gas, oil, or renewable energy sources;
switching to low-sulfur coal; removing the sulfur from the coal before
burning; using fluidized-bed combustion processes to burn the coal;
and removing the sulfur from the smoke stack after combustion through
the installation of pollution control equipment such as "scrubbers."
Costs/Benefits
A combination of tax incentives, government regulations and direct
assistance that results in pollution-control equipment being placed
on all coal combustion sites, increases in efficiency of industrial
processes, transportation and appliances would cost approximately
$8 billion per year for ten years. This is about 1% of the world's
total military expenditures.
Next Strategy
What the World Wants Chart
|