Antinuclear

Need to curb greenhouse emissions

Mitigation in Australia, Skeptical Science,22 November 2016 by Riduna  Need to Curb Emissions If we continue to increase greenhouse gas emissions at the current rate average global temperature could rise 1.5°C above the pre-industrial within a decade and 2°C by 2040. A rise of 2°C is likely to produce an increasingly dangerous climate which could make some parts of the world uninhabitable, accelerate ice melt and sea level rise and threaten our ability to feed a growing global population. And now, some climate scientists are debating the possibility of a 3°C rise before 2100. That would prove catastrophic.

If we wish to avoid scenarios where populations are driven from their homes by flood or starve because of drought or deluge producing crop failures, it is imperative that we avoid a rise of 2°C this century. The chances of our achieving this by replacing combustion of fossil fuels with clean energy source – and achieving this in a timely manner – are rapidly diminishing, given that average global temperature is already 1.3°C above the pre-industrial.

The current level of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and the rate at which they continue to rise makes it imperative that they be reduced. To this end, technologies have been developed by the more advanced economies which can reduce demand for energy, significantly speeding up the rate at which we can reduce fossil fuel use. These ‘mitigating’ technologies are continually being improved and in the European Union and North America have been deployed to great effect. Yet in Australia, their use is at best disorganized, lacks uniformity at National or State level and at a local level is at best tokenistic or does not occur at all.

Mitigation calls for action which reduces anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, particularly Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Methane (CH4) which, as shown in Fig. 1, are now at their highest levels in over 400,000 years. If these emissions are not curbed and reduced to zero by about 2050, the prospects of keeping average global temperature below 2C above the preindustrial this century become negligible.

Reducing these emissions can be achieved, primarily by reducing demand for fossil fuelled energy generation and by replacing use of fossil fuels with clean renewable energy sources.

If left to the private sector alone, it is unlikely that reduction in demand for energy produced by burning fossil fuels, or its more efficient use, would be achieved with the speed required to effectively slow average global temperature rise. One of the reasons for this is that existing businesses have invested, often heavily, in technology which no longer produces or uses energy efficiently. They are slow to abandon old technology before their outlay in it has been recovered or its continued use is no longer commercially viable.

Mitigation Measures

It therefore falls on the public sector to lead the way through legislation, by setting a good example demonstrating greater profitability to be had from using the latest technology and, in other ways, promoting the transition away from fossil fuels. Twelve basic ways of achieving this are: ……..http://www.skepticalscience.com/Mitigation-in-Australia.html

November 24, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized