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Wall Street
Tue Feb 11, 2003
Listen in RealAudio 
When the economy heats up, does the atmosphere do the same thing? Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton for
The Weather Notebook's weekly segment on global climate change. It turns out that greenhouse
gasses do have an indirect link to Wall Street.
As the economy went downhill in the year 2001, North America saw a drop in the amount of
carbon dioxide spewed out by vehicles and factories. Carbon dioxide is the most prevalent of
the so-called greenhouse gasses produced by burning fossil fuel. These trap heat in the
atmosphere, thus helping to warm the planet.
In the United States our CO2 emissions dropped by about 1 1/2 percent in 2001. Some of that,
ironically, was because 2001 was such a warm year. People didn't have to burn as much oil to
heat their homes so they put fewer greenhouse gasses into the air.
But the economy also played a role. The recession in 2001 meant fewer homes were built and
fewer items manufactured, so there was less CO2 emerging from those sources.
The last time we'd seen a drop in America's CO2 emissions was back in 1991, another not so
great year for the economy. What about 2002? The numbers won't be in for awhile, but we know
that last winter was another mild one. If you combine that with another weak economy then we
might have made another little dent in our greenhouse emissions.
Still, the U.S. leads the world when it comes to greenhouse gasses. Per person, we put out
about six times the global average. So, down on Wall Street we might have to root for the
bears to help keep our atmosphere clean.
Bob Henson contributed today's story. Our series on global climate change is funded by the
New England Science Center Collaborative and the Roy A. Hunt Foundation.
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