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GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE
What’s the Kyoto Accord?
• International agreement signed in 1997
• Aimed at reducing global warming
• Participants asked to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions to a percentage below 1990 emission
levels
• Set binding targets for greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions for countries to reach by 2012
• 37 industrialized countries which make almost
65% of greenhouse gases (GHG) were to
decrease to ~ 5% less than 1990 levels
(US target = 7%)
KYOTO is “OLD NEWS”!
UNITED STATES is the only major industrial
The ________________
country that did NOT signed the Kyoto Accord.
Standards set by Kyoto expired in 2012
Countries have been meeting since 2009 to decide
what will happen next
http://unfccc.int/meetings/items/2654.php
WHAT NEXT?
• More than 130 countries (including US and China)
signed the landmark agreement to tackle climate
change at a ceremony at UN headquarters on April
22, 2016 (Earth Day!)
• US pledged a 26-28% cut by 2025 compared with
2005 levels.
• It sets a collective goal of keeping global warming
below 2° C compared to pre-industrial times, and to
pursue efforts to limit the temperature rise to
1.5C.
• It requires all countries to submit plans for
climate action and to update them every five
years, though such plans are not legally binding.
Clean Power Plan
Clean Power Plan sets achievable standards to reduce
carbon dioxide emissions by 32 percent from 2005
levels by 2030 and giving states flexibility of how
they will meet these goals .
Feb 2016
Supreme Court moved to temporarily block
implementing the plan to limit greenhouse gas
emissions from power plants.
Federal court will decide lawsuit in June 2016
WE CAN’T COUNT ON OUR LEADERS to FIX THIS
THEY HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT IT
FOREVER
http://e360.yale.edu/images/features/stahl_0401_energy_policy.jpg
http://matadornetwork.cachefly.net/bravenewtraveler.com/docs//wp-content/images/posts/20080418-planet.jpg
Even if you don’t “believe” in
global warming . . .
Even if countries can’t agree
on emission levels …
we should still work to reduce our emissions of
global warming gases BECAUSE . . .
http://www.inkcinct.com.au/Web/CARTOONS/2005/2005-379C--last-fossil-fuel.gif
THINGS WE DO TO “FIX CLIMATE CHANGE”
make sense anyway!
Fossil fuels are a limited resource…
eventually they will be gone!
THINGS WE DO TO “FIX CLIMATE CHANGE”
make sense anyway!
http://healthandenergy.com/global_warming_cartoons.htm
Our supply of fossil fuels is dependent on
countries that are not “friendly” to the U.S.
THINGS WE DO TO “FIX CLIMATE CHANGE”
make sense anyway!
Brookings Register March 2012
Our supply of fossil fuels is dependent on
countries that are not “friendly” to the U.S.
THINGS WE DO TO “FIX CLIMATE CHANGE”
make sense anyway!
Brookings Register
Drilling for and transporting fossil fuels has
negative environmental consequences
THINGS WE DO TO “FIX CLIMATE CHANGE”
make sense anyway!
Drilling and transporting fossil fuels has negative
environmental consequences
Brookings Register
THINGS WE DO TO “FIX CLIMATE CHANGE”
make sense anyway!
BP oil spill in Gulf 2011
HOW QUICKLY
WE FORGET!
Drilling and transporting fossil fuels has negative
environmental consequences
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/2011/04/14/news/companies/bp_meeting/deepwater_horizon_fire.top.jpg
http://pn.b5z.net/zirw/b12qa/i/u/68100167/i//Jan11/0126drill.jpg
Brookings Register
THINGS WE DO TO “FIX CLIMATE CHANGE”
make sense anyway!
Images from: http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/R/Renewable_energy.asp
Innovation and alternative energy technologies for
automobiles and power generation are good for our economy
THINK ABOUT IT
Scientists are RIGHT
about man-made
Climate change
Scientists are
WRONG about man-made
Climate change
WE KEEP DOING
WHAT WE ARE
DOINGNOTHING!
Environmental
Disaster
Consequences
too awful to
think about
Still have other problems
associated with fossil fuel
use: pollution/acid rain/
dependence on our
enemies
WE WORK TO
GET OFF FOSSIL
FUELS
CHANGES HELP
TURN THINGS
AROUND + solve
other fossil fuel
problems
Solves other problems
associated with
fossil fuel use
http://www.climateactionreserve.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/climatesummit.jpg
http://www.people-press.org/2013/02/21/section-1-opinions-about-major-issues/#carbon-emissions
What happens next depends on YOU!
YOUR GENERATION is the KEY
video
Only 3 percent of voters 18 to 34
DON’T believe that climate change real.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/John_Thune,_official_portrait,_111th_Congress.jpg
Even SD Senator John Thune
admits a potential role for humans
in climate change. When asked if
climate change exists and is
caused by humans he said, “I’m
not denying that. I’m simply saying
that the debate ought to be: What
are we going to do about it, and at
what cost?”
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/nov/17/climate-change-denial-scepticism-republicans-congress
What’s so bad about warming up a little?
We’re freezing here in S.D.!
What’s so bad about warming up a little?
http://healthandenergy.com/images/global2.gif
Cartoon from Brookings Register
Coastal flooding
http://www.claybennett.com/pages/ocean_temps.html
What’s so bad about warming up a little?
Changes in
Gulf Stream
http://zfacts.com/metaPage/lib/Atlantic_conveyor.jpg
What’s so bad about warming up a little?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/WEATHER/08/25/tropical.storm/story.katrina.915p.jpg
More severe storms
What’s so bad about warming up a little?
http://www.cactus-art.biz/note-book/Dictionary/aaa_Dictionary_pictures/drought.jpg
Heat waves and drought
Weather
extremes
Brookings Register
What’s so bad about warming up a little?
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=35720&in_page_id=34
Changing habitats
means
loss of species
http://www.conchaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/florida-keys-coral-reef-loss.png
What’s so bad a little more CO2?
ACIDIFICATION OF OCEANS
Affects coral reefs and shelled sea animals
http://www.biologyjunction.com/clip0051.jpg