Sour Economy Could Benefit Environment

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published February 9, 2009 at 3:05 AM PST

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

A San Diego researcher says the global economic meltdown could also reduce those emissions. KPBS Environment Reporter Ed Joyce has details.

A UC San Diego researcher says if the financial downturn continues, one positive effect of the shutdown in factories could be a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions - which have been linked to climate change.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography geochemist Ralph Keeling says the Keeling Curve - a measure of carbon dioxide created by his father - could register the slowdown in industrial production.

Become a KPBS sponsor

The Keeling Curve has measured the steady rise of the world's expulsion of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere for the past 50 years.

Keeling says the concentration of the gases in the atmosphere has always increased since the measurements started.

But Keeling says if the economic slowdown continues for a couple of years, it's possible there could be a downward spike.

China and the United States are the world's top two emitters of CO2 and both countries have reduced industrial output.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Become a KPBS sponsor

Ed Joyce

twitter

Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

See stories by Ed Joyce