"Taking fast action to reduce short-lived climate pollutants
(SLCPs) including black carbon, methane, tropospheric ozone and
hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), is a critical climate strategy which
can reduce the possibility that severe storms will inject more
water vapor into the stratosphere, (causing accelerated ozone
depletion and climate change). Reducing SLCPs could cut the rate
of global warming in half for the next several decades, cut the
rate of warming over the elevated regions of the Himalayas and
Tibet by at least half, and the rate of warming in the Arctic by
two-thirds over the next 30 years. Since many SLCPs are also
potent air pollutants cutting them can also prevent up to 4.7
million premature deaths each year and prevent billions of
dollars in crop losses." "The possibility of significant ozone
depletion over North America is only the newest in a litany of
accelerating impacts of climate change," stated Durwood Zaelke,
President of IGSD. "We cannot afford to wait to take fast-
action." "A warming wor