Factors That Cause Climate Change – There is a lot of confusion about climate change, especially when it comes to finding viable solutions. How can we determine which solutions make the most sense and where to focus our efforts? It turns out that starting with these three small charts helps a lot.
Why? Many people can point to a lack of strong scientific literacy in America today. Others may point to deliberate efforts by industry groups and their political allies to obfuscate, sow doubt and confusion. Others may criticize our media, where facts and respectful discourse are replaced by sensationalism, manufactured controversy and noise.
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Factors That Cause Climate Change
While this is all true, I think it may be more fundamental than that. Maybe because people literally can’t
Facts That Prove The World Is In A Climate Emergency
Our eyes Here is the point. Solar radiation—and the visible spectrum of light that our eyes can see—is neither absorbed nor emitted by these gases. Sunlight passes right through them, allowing solar radiation to pass freely, illuminating and heating the Earth’s surface, all without us noticing.
Transparent in the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum, where Earth radiates radiation back into space. So-called greenhouse gases absorb this radiation and re-emit it, some of it back to the Earth’s surface, warming the Earth’s surface more than it would otherwise. In other words, the Earth is one
It’s basic physics, it’s simple, but it’s something we can’t see with our eyes. So it’s easy to ignore or dismiss it.
. We can see landfills on the beach, plastic pollution, dangerous chemical fumes floating on the water and all of this is immediately felt by our senses. But replacing the sky with invisible gas? It seems impossible to our mind because the sky above us seems infinite. And for most of human history it was seen as the domain of the gods, not us.
What’s Causing Climate Change, In 10 Charts
Change the sky and we have drama. As of this spring, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have risen to 415 ppm, breaking the highest level of 270 ppm in several million years. And it’s still growing year after year.
Confusion about climate change is even worse when it comes to solutions. Debates don’t usually start with facts or basic science; Instead, we hear from many “experts” who want to tell you how they are going to solve climate change – usually with their favorite animal theory or business idea. Often with little data or scientific knowledge to back it up.
Before discussing the merits of various climate solutions, it’s best to start with the basic science and learn a little about how greenhouse gases actually work. Then we can have a more informed debate and discuss which solutions are the most viable for climate change.
Greenhouse gas emissions by main gas. Each of these gases is emitted by human activities, which contribute to global warming. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most important greenhouse gas, which comes from the burning of fossil fuels, land use and industrial processes. Methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and fluorine gas (f-gases) are also important. Here we compare each gas on an “apples to apples” basis by averaging their “global warming potential” over a 100 year period. Data from EPA, based on World Resources Institute data with adjustments to separate chemical and cement CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion.
What Causes Global Warming? (how Climate Change Is Affecting The World!)
Important greenhouse gases to consider – carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and the so-called F-gases (mainly hydrofluorocarbons, chlorofluorocarbons and other fluorinated gases). It’s not just about CO2.
Each gas behaves slightly differently in the atmosphere and we have to take this into account. For example, some gases conduct heat more effectively than others because their molecular structure absorbs infrared radiation better and they spend different amounts of time in each atmosphere. To compare them in a similar “apples-to-apples” way, we often convert them into units equal to the “global warming potential” averaged over 100 years. (This is the standard tool for comparing different greenhouse gases and their effects on climate change. But it misses several important points. For example, methane is a much stronger heat trap than carbon dioxide, but it It doesn’t last long. So in the short term, say 10-30 years, methane is
Important for climate change. But in the long term, like a century or two, it’s much less.)
Of our greenhouse gas emissions, carbon dioxide gets the most attention, and for good reason. That’s 76 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions each year. And the vast majority (62% of total emissions) comes from burning fossil fuels, including our use of oil, coal and natural gas. This is why so much of the focus on solving climate change is on replacing fossil fuels – which account for 62% of the problem.
Future Of Climate Change
In fact, equating greenhouse gas emissions solely to the burning of fossil fuels is a huge mistake; You will miss 38% of emissions and 38% of opportunities to tackle climate change.
For example, about eleven percent of our greenhouse gas emissions come from carbon dioxide released by land use, particularly deforestation. Remember that burning trees, which are also made up mostly of carbon, are like burning coal. Both release CO2.
Then there’s methane (CH4), which can leach from fracking and natural gas pipelines, landfills, and biomass burning. Another major source of methane comes from agriculture, especially rice fields and livestock. (Fun fact: mostly cattle
Finally, we have fluorinated gases (f-gases) such as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and sulfur fluoride (SF6). These chemicals are commonly used in refrigerants or industrial processes.
Positives And Negatives Of Global Warming
There are other smaller greenhouse gases called “black carbon” that we humans also put into the atmosphere, but for simplicity’s sake this is a good starting point.
The bottom line is that the greenhouse gases that warm our planet include more than just CO2 and more than just burning fossil fuels. We need to broaden our perspective to understand and tackle climate change.
It is a huge mistake to equate greenhouse gas emissions with the burning of fossil fuels alone; You will miss 38% of emissions and 38% of opportunities to tackle climate change.
So where do all these emissions come from? And what human activities cause them? Here we can start thinking about the most possible solution to reduce their emissions.
Are Humans The Major Cause Of Global Warming?
To find out, we can trace greenhouse gas emissions back to different sources around the world and assign them to major economic categories. Here’s a chart that breaks them down globally.
Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Major Economic Sectors. It is important to note that these figures are for the whole world and each country has a different emission profile. For example, in the United States, food and land use account for a small portion of emissions, but transportation accounts for more. Data from EPA.
Globally, the two largest sectors contributing to climate change are electricity production (~25%) and food and land use (~24%). In other words, burning coal, oil and natural gas to generate electricity is the single largest source of global emissions, but the food and land use sectors are closely related.
Some people wonder how important food and land use is to climate change. Food and land use appear to be the three main causes of greenhouse gas emissions. The largest source of these emissions is deforestation and the clearing of other land for food production. Methane production from cattle and rice fields is the second largest contributor to greenhouse gases from food and soil, after nitrous oxide emissions from intensive use of agricultural land. Interestingly, the differences between local food and industrial food systems, and the differences in the “food miles” they can raise, have little impact on climate change. While local food systems can have many other benefits, they are not necessarily the same as reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, we need to focus on deforestation, methane emissions from livestock and rice fields, and overuse of nitrogen fertilizers.
Top 10 Causes Of Global Warming
The rest of the graph tells the whole story. Electricity (~25%) and food and land use (~24%) account for half of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, with industry, transport, buildings and other sources accounting for the rest.
Six main sectors – electricity, food and land use, industry, transport, buildings and other emissions – are causing problems. This is also often where the opportunities to reduce emissions come from – by removing the sources of greenhouse gases where they are produced.
We can immediately learn from these graphs. The most important thing, and I have emphasized this before, is climate change
Just an energy problem; It accounts for about 62% of the energy problem – food and land use are also important – as well as gas pipelines, landfills, leaking cement and refrigerant gases. Many gases and many sources of emissions contribute to climate
How Does Climate Change Affect Coral Reefs?
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