Climate Change

Most initiatives to slow global warming involve reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Little attention has been given to reducing emissions of the light-absorbing particles known as "black carbon" or the gases that form ozone--even though doing so would be easier and cheaper and have a more immediate effect.

The Arctic is rich in natural resources and lies at the epicenter of a rapidly changing climate -- and it is time the United States paid more attention to the region.

The United States can curb its own emissions and encourage energy efficiency and the development of clean-energy technology worldwide by rethinking carbon regimes.

Despite mounting evidence of the seriousness of climate change, the problem remains a low policy priority for most countries. Yet action is urgently needed. Emissions-trading regimes, which do too little to cap pollution, must be revised. And any new strategies must be customized to the particular needs and means of those states, developed and developing alike, that will have to implement them.