ACtion Magazine - June 2014 - (Page 8)

Regulations and opportunity By Jacques Gordon O ne of the biggest, maybe the biggest issue that will de- 2014. Parts of the report are available now. ﬁne the next decade or two of American history is how The general message of the report was summed up in the we deal with global climate change. According to an press release by IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri: "The highApril press release from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate speed mitigation train needs to leave the station very soon and Change (IPCC), greenhouse gas emissions are increasing despite all of global society needs to get on board." The report says that efforts to reduce them. global climate change is just getThe IPCC is a group of scientists, experts ting started, that it will have a huge Combustion gasses are economic and life-style impact on and government representatives organized under the United Nations to "create an unnot the only man-made everyone on the planet, and that derstanding" of the consequences of humanchoices made in the near-term will contributor to climate affect the "risks" associated with induced climate change and present options for "mitigating" those changes. The Panel does change. climate change throughout the not do scientiﬁc research; it studies and ana21st century. The press release also lyzes published scientiﬁc literature and peerpoints out something of equally reviewed data from a variety of sources. Cremajor importance: there is a great ated in 1988, the Panel's members are invited to participate as deal of economic opportunity in limiting and reversing the causes volunteers. Hundreds of panelists participated in the latest study, of climate change. and the IPCC's ﬁfth report is scheduled for full release in October From the ﬁrst factory smoke stacks in the 1800s to the millions of exhaust pipes in the world today, we've been dumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere on an industrial scale for 200 years. The scientiﬁc community agreed long ago that CO2 is the main driver of climate change, and reducing our fuel burn and replanting some forests is the most effective way to (eventually) mitigate the results of that activity. The IPCC says we need to get serious about that right now. The Panel also says combustion gasses are not the only man-made contributor to climate change. There are dozens of industrial and consumer chemicals that are thousands of times more potent than CO2 as greenhouse gasses, and it's just as important to reduce or eliminate them too. Among the most potent is a group of gasses made with ﬂuorine called "F-gasses," used mostly as refrigerants and spray can propellants. They are indeed safe and economical alternatives to the ozone-depleting chemicals they replaced, but they stay in the atmosphere for decades and they contribute heavily to climate change. Europe and the U.S. have taken steps to terminate the manufacture and use of F-gasses, including R-134a refrigerant. Europe will adopt an outright ban beginning in 2022, while the U.S. EPA has proposed a "production phase-down" over several (15?) years beginning in 2016. The regulations are not ﬁnalized yet, but the regulatory future is as clear as the future of the world's climate. Things are going to change, and those who are looking ahead will survive and maybe even proﬁt from those changes. ❆ " You can reach Jacques at Jacques@macsw.org 8 Reader Reply ACTION * June 2014 http://www.ackits.com/ http://www.autoacforum.com/ http://www.macsw.org/imis15/MACS/Publications/ACtion_Reader_Reply/MACS/Publications/ACTION/ACtion_Reader_Reply.aspx?hkey=ac24bddb-c045-442a-813c-cbf05f88ac4d

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ACtion Magazine - June 2014

A/C temperature testing
SAE Standard J2534-2
Save the date for San Juan
Saluting our troops
Outlook
Freeze Frame
Leonard's Law
Virtual View
Service Port
Last Watch
Member Profile
By the Numbers
Cooling Corner
Industry News
Association News
New Products

ACtion Magazine - June 2014