As the world's population continues to grow so does the demand
for energy. With the use of more energy, it's easy to see why
some would believe we also have an increase in pollution.
However that's not always the case. In a surprising turnaround,
the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere
in the U.S. has fallen dramatically to its lowest level in 20
years. Government officials say the biggest reason is that cheap
and plentiful natural gas has led many power plant operators to
switch from coal. Many of the world's leading climate scientists
didn't see the drop coming, in large part because it happened as
a result of market forces rather than direct government action
against carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the
atmosphere. In a little-noticed technical report, the U.S.
Energy Information Agency, a part of the Energy Department, said
this month that energy related U.S. CO2 emissions for the first
four months of this year fell to about 1992 levels. Energy
emissions make up