Greenhouse gases, Part 1

The first volume in the long-awaited, gigantic scientific study of global warming and climate change came out last week. I'm still digesting the highlights, so I reserve judgment on a lot of it.

One thing cannot be denied, however: Nothing's going to change anytime soon. Does anyone realistically expect Americans and others in the developed world to give up their coal-fired power plants, their personal autos and other carbon dioxide-spewing machinery?

If I did that, I would have to go back to the first six years of my life. Seven people in a three-bedroom house, sometimes sleeping three to a bed. Maybe one electric light bulb per room. Heated by a single coal-and-wood-burning grate. Drinking water came from a bucket dropped into a cistern. But we did have the only three-seat outhouse in the neighborhood.

No family car, either. When I was five and cut my foot badly on the rim of a coffee can (anyone remember the key and sharp edges?), they poured a bowl full of turpentine and stuck my foot in it. No trip to the ER unless a bone was broken.

That is a more carbon-neutral lifestyle, but I'm not going back to it voluntarily.

The answer to "greenhouse gases" lies more in technology and engineering.