Consider that many other countries, especially developing countries like China and India have far worse pollution problems than these European countries. My reaction is to encourage these attempts, even though we need much more understanding of how to do it and of how much it would help. For example, we must learn how to manage rice paddies so as to limit methane releases while not diminishing rice-crop yields. Similarly, we cannot even find some old landfills that are now covered but probably continue to emit methane. The most critical gases to focus on, say the scientists, are methane, tropospheric lower atmosphere ozone, and CFCs chlorofluorocarbons, along with black carbon pollution.
Ozone is a known respiratory irritant, and it also negatively impacts crop productivity.
So continuing to cut back on CFCs would help reduce their threat to stratospheric ozone, while at the same time, helping curtail their impact on global climate change. The same idea is true for black carbon emissions particles of soot in the air that result from burning diesel fuel and coal. Thus, this new scenario offers hope. Working to cut air pollution over the next fifty years, while simultaneously adopting new energy practices that rely on sustainable and efficient technologies, which reduce carbon dioxide emissions, could seriously ease the impact of global warming. The Future Ralph Cicerone, who published a commentary on Hansen's work in a recent issue of the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences, says that the other non-CO2 greenhouse gases have not received enough attention so far.