Forget "bottom-up" reporting of emissions. Try an atmospheric monitoring system

Lasrick writes: Ray Weiss at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography describes how countries report greenhouse gas emissions--a 'bottom-up' approach that can result in inventories that differ from those determined by measuring the actual increases of emitted gases in the atmosphere. Weiss proposes a 'top-down" atmospheric monitoring system for greenhouse gases and goes into the technology that already exists for doing so. Fascinating stuff.