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science Wednesday 20 May 2020
Study: World carbon pollution falls 17% during pandemic peak

By SETH BORENSTEIN grees (1 degree Celsius) of
AP Science Writer warming that leaders are
KENSINGTON, Maryland trying to avoid, LeQuere
(AP) — The world cut its dai- said. That level could still
ly carbon dioxide emissions occur anywhere from 2050
by 17% at the peak of the to 2070, the authors said.
pandemic shutdown last The study was carried out
month, a new study found. by Global Carbon Project,
But with life and heat- a consortium of internation-
trapping gas levels inch- al scientists that produces
ing back toward normal, the authoritative annual
the brief pollution break estimate of carbon diox-
will likely be "a drop in the ide emissions. They looked
ocean" when it comes to at 450 databases showing
climate change, scientists daily energy use and in-
said. In their study of carbon troduced a measurement
dioxide emissions during scale for pandemic-relat-
the coronavirus pandemic, ed societal "confinement"
an international team of in its estimates.q
scientists calculated that
pollution levels are head-
ing back up — and for the
year will end up between
4% and 7% lower than 2019 In this Nov. 14, 2018, file photo, a cleaner wearing a mask against pollution sweeps a street in
levels. That's still the big- Beijing. Associated Press
gest annual drop in carbon
emissions since World War when the world was spew- By April 30, the world car- the study, said in an email.
II. It'll be 7% if the strictest ing 18.7 million tons (17 mil- bon pollution levels had "We need fundamental
lockdown rules remain all lion metric tons) of carbon grown by 3.3 million tons (3 structural change."
year long across much of pollution a day less than it million metric tons) a day If the world could keep up
the globe, 4% if they are was doing on New Year's from its low point earlier in annual emission cuts like this
lifted soon. For a week in Day. Such low global emis- the month. Carbon dioxide without a pandemic for a
April, the United States cut sion levels haven't been stays in the air for about a couple decades, there's a
its carbon dioxide levels recorded since 2006. But if century. Outside experts decent chance Earth can
by about one-third. China, the world returns to its slow- praised the study as the avoid warming another
the world's biggest emit- ly increasing pollution levels most comprehensive yet, 1.8 degrees (1 degree Cel-
ter of heat-trapping gases, next year, the temporary saying it shows how much sius) of warming from now,
sliced its carbon pollution reduction amounts to ''a effort is needed to prevent study authors said. But get-
by nearly a quarter in Feb- drop in the ocean," said dangerous levels of further ting the type of yearly cuts
ruary, according to a study study lead author Corinne global warming. "That un- to reach that international
Tuesday in the journal Na- LeQuere, a climate scien- derscores a simple truth: goal is unlikely, they said.
ture Climate Change. India tist at the University of East Individual behavior alone If next year returns to 2019
and Europe cut emissions Anglia. "It's like you have a ... won't get us there," Penn- pollution levels, it means
by 26% and 27% respective- bath filled with water and sylvania State University the world has only bought
ly. The biggest global drop you're turning off the tap climate scientist Michael about a year's delay in
was from April 4 through 9 for 10 seconds," she said. Mann, who wasn't part of hitting the extra 1.8 de-

Google backs off on AI for oil and gas extraction

By MATT O'BRIEN have looked for new tech-
AP Technology Writer nology to get more oil and
Google says it will no lon- gas out of the ground.
ger build custom artifi- But the group applauded
cial intelligence tools for Google on Tuesday for
speeding up oil and gas taking a step away from
extraction, separating it- those deals. "While Google
self from cloud computing still has a few legacy con-
rivals Microsoft and Ama- tracts with oil and gas firms,
zon. The announcement we welcome this indica-
followed a Greenpeace tion from Google that it
report Tuesday that docu- will no longer build custom
ments how the three tech solutions for upstream oil
giants are using AI and and gas extraction," said
computing power to help Elizabeth Jardim, senior
oil companies find and In this April 21, 2020 file photo, a pumpjack is pictured as the corporate campaigner for
access oil and gas depos- sun sets in Oklahoma City. Associated Press Greenpeace USA. Google
its in the U.S. and around said it will honor all existing
the world. The environ- have been undermining with major oil companies contracts with its custom-
mentalist group says Ama- their own climate change including Shell, BP, Chev- ers, but didn't specify what
zon, Microsoft and Google pledges by partnering ron and ExxonMobil that companies.q