Eyes in the sky capture carbon, other climate culprits
KATOWICE, Poland — A growing fleet of satellites is monitoring man-made greenhouse gas emissions from space, spurred by the need to track down major sources of climate changing gases such as methane and carbon dioxide.
While scientists and policy-makers agree that getting a firm grasp on the origins of emissions is key to tackling global warming, there is great political sensitivity surrounding the issue.
In 2009, President Barack Obama suggested during the U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen that the United States might use satellites to monitor other countries’ emissions.
Obama’s call for sharing such information “so that people can see who’s serious and who’s not” annoyed China and other countries worried about outside monitoring of their emission figures.