Download global climate change fort worth

Global Climate Change --- What Can We Do
About It ! Ken Dickson
Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
April 3, 2006
1
Polar Ice Caps
Are Melting
Faster Than
Ever... More And
More Land Is
Being Devastated
By Drought...
Drought
Rising Waters Are
Drowning LowLying
Communities...
By Any Measure,
Earth Is At ... The
Tipping Point
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2
Greenhouse gases differ in ability to trap heat
Radiation, atmosphere, and temperature
• Carbon dioxide = best-known greenhouse gas…
•
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Figure 12.1
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Carbon dioxide increase
but molecule for molecule,
• methane traps 23 times the heat of CO2
• nitrous oxide traps 296 times the heat of CO2
• HFC-23 traps 12,000 times the heat of CO2
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800,000 Year Record of Carbon Dioxide
Concentrations
• CO2 concentration has increased 33% in the past 200
years.
• It is now at its highest level in 400,000 years, and
probably 20 million years.
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Figure 12.2a
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6
1
Carbon dioxide increase
• Due to:
Burning of fossil fuels: We remove carbon-rich fuels from
the ground where they have been stored for millions of
years, and combust them in an instant, sending CO2 into
the atmosphere.
Deforestation: Cutting down trees, removing vegetation
from the land, decreases the sink for carbon.
• Some of the C in plants becomes CO2 sent into the
atmosphere.
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Global Temperature and Carbon Dioxide Concentration
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Increase of other greenhouse gases
Nitrous oxide:
up 17% since 1750.
• From feedlots,
chemical plants, auto
emissions, agricultural
practices
Methane:
up 151% since 1750.
• From fossil fuels,
landfills, cattle,
rice crops
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Increase of other greenhouse gases
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Figure 12.2b,c
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Climate change predictions: Impacts
The IPCC and other groups have predicted future impacts
of climate change. Predictions for the U.S. include:
• Temperature will rise 3–5°C (5–9°F).
• Halocarbon gases (which include CFCs) are
powerful greenhouse gases.
• Droughts, floods, snow pack will decline, and water
shortages will create diverse problems.
• But their effects are slowing due to the Montreal
Protocol.
• Temperature extremes will cause health problems;
tropical diseases will move north into the U.S.
• Water vapor is the most abundant greenhouse
gas. Its future changes, if any, remain uncertain.
• Sea level rise will flood coastal wetlands, real estate.
• Ecosystems will be altered; some will disappear.
• Agriculture and forestry may have mixed results.
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12
2
Cumulative Decrease in Global Glaciers
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Artic Ice Pack
October 23, 2007
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October 23, 2006
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Sea level rise
• Just as sea level
rise could devastate
the Maldives…
• … it could also
inflict damage on
the U.S.’s coastal
economies and
ecosystems.
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Figure 12.21
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Predicted U.S. impacts: Forest types change
Change In Sugar Maple Distribution
• Distribution of forest
types will change
2 future scenarios
Current
Figure 12.12
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Predicted U.S. impacts: Heat index rises
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Predicted U.S. impacts: Ozone pollution
• Two models show big increases in July heat index for the
next 100 years, especially in the central and southeast
U.S.
Higher temperatures
will mean worse smog
and higher tropospheric
ozone levels in cities—a
health hazard.
• (Heat index combines temperature and humidity.)
Figure 12.13a
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Heat Transfer Gulf Stream
Figure 12.14
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Actions Needed to Combat Global
Warming
• Personal Actions
• Community Actions
• State Actions
• National Actions
• Global Actions
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Top 10 Actions to Combat Climate Change
www.earthday.net/resources/2006
Top 10 Actions to Combat Climate Change
www.earthday.net/resources/2006
• Project Switch: Change your lights
• Drive your car differently or drive a different car
• Your house not too cold – not too hot
• Go organic
• Tame the refrigerator monster
• Buy recycled
• Twist the knob on your other household appliances
• Be a minimalist
• Green plants with less water – more trees to provide
shade
• What else can you add?????????????
• Buy green energy
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How much carbon dioxide do we put in the
atmosphere ?
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12 Things you can do to cut your carbon
dioxide emissions by 10 tons per year
• Choose clean energy – saves 7000 lbs
• The U.S. has 5% of the world’s population, Uses 25 % of
the energy and contributes 25% of carbon dioxide
• Recycle – saves 2400 lbs
• Each person in the U.S contributes 19.6 tons/year
• Adjust thermostat – saves 1050 lbs
• The
Th world
ld average per person is
i 3.9
3 9 tons/year
t /
• Install a programmable thermostat – saves 1050 lbs
• What can we do?????????????????????
• Turn off your computer use energy saving mode – saves
1000 lbs
• What is your carbon foot print ? Go to calculator !!
• Wash clothes in cold or warm water – saves 500 lbs
• City of Denton web site
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• Use fluorescent bulbs (3) – saves 300 lbs
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12 Things you can do to cut your carbon
dioxide emissions by 10 tons per year
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What can we do in our communities ?
• Urban Planning
• New Urbanism
• Smart Growth
• Drive a hybrid
• Stop sprawl -
ve 155 miles
es less
ess each
eac week
wee
• Drive
• Mass transit
• Avoid idling
• Smart landscaping
• Keep tire properly inflated
• Put a local face on global warming - Duluth
• Promote conservation developments
• Promote renewable energy –residential, businesses, codes
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What can we do at the state level?
What can we do at the national level
• Switch from coal to methane that produces less carbon
dioxide
• Develop a national energy policy that seriously addresses
global warming and our dependency on oil
• Stop fugitive emissions of methane from pipelines and
landfills
• Quite subsidizing the fossil fuel industry
• Continue to develop our renewable resources
• Promote the development of renewable energy via
research, subsidy, carbon tax?
• Wind, solar, biomass, hydrogen
• Ratify the Kyoto Protocol or a new more aggressive
replacement
• Promote carbon capture and storage
• Establish incentives for green buildings, homes, solar
panels, solar hot water systems, high mpg vehicles, mass
transit, high speed rail, and research on new renewable
energy technology
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• Return to be a world leader in address energy and climate
futures and developing new technologies
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International Level – What the Nobel Prize Winners Say is
Needed to Reduce Carbon Dioxide Emissions 25 billion
tons by 2050 – Pacal and Socolow of Princeton
International Level – What the Nobel Prize Winners Say is
Needed to Reduce Carbon Dioxide Emissions 25 billion
tons by 2050 – Pacal and Socolow of Princeton
• 1. Reduce use of vehicles – improve urban design to reduce miles
driven from 10,000/year to 5,000/year for 2 billion vehicles
• 6. Capture and store carbon emitted from 800 gigawatts of new
coal plants
7. Capture and reuse hydrogen created in #6
• 2. Efficient vehicles – increase fuel economy from 30 to 60 mpg for
2 billion vehicles
• 3. Improve efficiency of coal plants from today’s 40% to 60%
• 8. Capture
p
and store carbon from coal to synfuels
y
conversion at 30
million barrels per day
• 4. Efficient buildings – reduce energy consumption by 25%
• 9. Displace 700 gigawatts of coal power with nuclear
• 5. Replace 1,400 gigawatts of coal power plants with natural gas
• 10 add 2 million 1 megawatt windmills (50 times current capacity)
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• 11. Displace 2,000 gigawatts of coal with solar power (700 times
current capacity
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International Level – What the Nobel Prize Winners Say is
Needed to Reduce Carbon Dioxide Emissions 25 billion
tons by 2050 – Pacal and Socolow of Princeton
• 12. Produce hydrogen fuel from 4 million 1 megawatt
windmills
• 13. Use biomass to make fuel to displace oil (100 times
capacity)
• 14.Stop de-forestation and re-establish 750 million acres
of new tree plantations
• 15. Conservation tillage – apply to all crop land (10
times current usage)
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Debate over climate change
Emissions reduction: More efficient
generation and usage
• There is much debate over what to do about climate
change.
• Electricity generation is the biggest source of greenhouse
gas emissions in the U.S.
• Would costs of reducing greenhouse gas emissions
outweigh costs of climate change?
• So solutions include:
• Should industrialized nations bear more responsibility
f reducing
for
d i emissions,
i i
or should
h ld all
ll nations
i
share
h
equally?
• IImprovedd technology
t h l
at plants
• Cleaner-burning
coal
• Should emissions reduction occur voluntarily, or
through legal, political, or economic pressure?
• Energy conservation
by consumers
• How should we allocate funds to reduce emissions and
deal with climate change impacts?
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Figure 12.15
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Emissions reduction: Inefficient autos
Emissions reduction: So many cars
• Cars use energy very inefficiently. We could do better.
• Transportation is the second largest source of greenhouse
gases.
• 1/3 of average U.S. city devoted to cars
• Average U.S. family makes
• 10 car trips/day
• $200 million/day on road
construction and repair
• Number of cars in U.S. will
soon exceed number of people
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Figure 12.18
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Emissions reduction: Renewable energy
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Figure 12.17
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Boulder’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory
• Another solution is to switch to renewable energy sources
that can generate electricity by using fewer or no fossil
fuels.
Turbines for wind energy
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Figure 12.16
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Emissions reductions: Biking and walking
Emissions reductions: Public transportation
• Reducing automobile usage would also lower emissions.
Using public
transportation like
buses and trains
lowers emissions of
many pollutants …
which has a public
health benefit as
well.
• More and more people
are choosing to live
closer in and bike
or walk to work.
• If Americans used public transportation at the rate Europeans
do, the U.S. would no longer need Saudi Arabian oil.
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Figure 12.19
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Figure 12.20
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Did You Know ?????
• A Typical 1,000-watt residential solar
system is equivalent to not driving an
automobile 4,000 miles or planting
nearly an acre of trees
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