ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE:
An Environmental Experiment with H2?
Michael J. Prather
A shift from fossil fuels to hydrogen fuel cells in the transportation sector will change not only the current infrastructure, but also the composition of the atmosphere and the abundances of greenhouse gases. The implications of a "hydrogen economy" therefore need to be investigated not only for its technological, but also for its environmental challenges. In his Perspective, Prather highlights recent studies, including the report by Schultz et al., into the atmospheric consequences of such a shift in the transportation sector. Schultz et al. show that it is particularly important to consider concurrent changes in other transport-related emissions.
The author is in the Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA. E-mail: mprather{at}uci.edu