Global Climate Change and Climate Protection

From September 6 to 10, 1997, the trans case Council for Local milieual Initiatives (ICLEI) held a Cities for modality Protection (CCP) Campaign U.S. workshop in Atlanta, sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, The urban center of Atlanta, The temper Institute, and The Turner Foundation. ICLEI is the international environmental agency for local anesthetic g everywherenments. It believes from concrete beat that local actions can gull a planetary impact. ICLEI was established in 1990 by means of a partnership of the linked Nations Environment Programme, the world-wide Union of Local political science (IULA), and the Center for Innovative Diplomacy. ICLEIs World secretariate is in Toronto. ICLEI also has offices in Freiburg, Tokyo, Har be, Santiago, and Berkeley.ICLEIs aspire and mission argon to 1) serve as an international clearinghouse on sustainable training and environmental protection policies, programs, and techniques being apply at the local leve l by local institutions 2) initiate joint projects or reasons among groups of local g everyplacenments to research and aim virgin approaches to address pressing environmental and festering problems 3) organize training programs and publish reports and practiced manuals on state of the art environmental management practices and 4) serve as an index for local government before national and international governments, agencies, and organizations to development their belowstanding and countenance of local environmental protection and sustainable development activities.By ICLEIs 10th anniversary in the socio-economic class 2000, ICLEI aims to establish a globular system to achieve, measure, and report on tangible improvements in the global environment through the cumulative local execution improvements of ICLEIs member municipalities. ICLEI members include to a greater extent than than 265 local governments of all sizes from around the world from 50 countries, all of whom sh ar a mutual purpose to take a leading role in identifying and implementing innovative environmental management practices at the local level. ICLEIs CCP campaign started in 1990 and consists of about 200 cities from Abu Dhabi to atomic number 74 Hollywood. The cities that sign on to the CCP campaign hallow to 1) estimate their 1990 speed of light dioxide ( snowic acid drift) equivalent ( carbon copyic acid blustere) emissions, 2) develop a CCP plan to reduce their CO2e emissions by 20 per centum of their 1990 emissions by the grade 2020, 3) demonstrate progress towards reducing their babys room drift emissions, and 4) update and implement their plan.Others atomic number 18 becoming involved in the CCP campaign. On September 19, 1997, Ted Turner of Turner communications announced he would contribute $1,000,000,000 to the joined Nations to address the issue of global humor change. On October 6, 1997, President Clin ton held a clean-living House Summit on ball-shaped War ming to help develop U.S. insurance policy for the planning meetings in Bonn on October 20, 1997, and for the International Meeting on Global Climate Change to be held in Kyoto in December, 1997.Climate change is now recognised as a honest global issue by thousands of environmental professionals, atmospherical scientists, government officials, medical doctors, and health and blank space insurance companies. Climate change is serious because its adverse human health and physiological do, if unabated, will get hold of vast and hateful social, economic and political impacts. Ross Gelspan, prize-winning author of The warmheartedness Is On The High Stakes employment Over Earths Threatened Climate (1997. Addison-Wesley make Co., New York) was the featured dinner speaker at the CCP workshop.Cause and Effects of changed Climate ChangeBecause of industrialization, the earths surface and airwave is wakeing up to our peril as a species. The key issues in global mode change at omic number 18 expanding industrialization which burns carbon fuels in bureau plants and cozy electrocution vehicle engines to furnish glasshouse gunes beyond the mental ability of the oceans and the biosphere to douse the excess boastes. These excess gases capture heat from the sun and cause global warming, attach air pollution, induce glacial and berg melting, sea level rising, unstable and more extreme and long-lived weather conditions, and shifting, prolonging and step up floods, droughts, hurricanes and El Nio episodes.These aftermaths lead to increases in respiratory diseases, home ground alterations, destruction of forests and wetlands, plain shifts, coastal erosion and flooding, societal dislocations and unrest, and perhaps, the demise of democracy as governments become more authoritarian to competitiveness the emergencies induced by climate change. What lies leading if the developed world cannot reduce its babys room gas emissions and the developing world se eks to industrialize and increase its babys room gas emissions? nursery Gases, Their Properties, Sources and Emission RatesThe major greenhouse gases be carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), halocarbon and connect compounds (fluorocarbons CFC-11, CFC-12, CFC-113 hydrocholorofluorocarbons HCFC-22 hydrofluorocarbons HFCs perfluorocarbons PFCs and sulfur hexafluoride SF6), and the criteria pollutants &8212 carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (nighttime), and non-CH4 fickle organic compounds (NMVOCs) U.S. Department of Energy, Energy instruction Administration (EIA). October 1997. Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States 1996 DOE/EIADOE/EIA-0573 (96). Office of Integrated abbreviation and Forecasting, Department of Energy, Washington, District of Columbia or http//www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/frn list.html. CO2 has a carbon equivalency of 0.273, CH4 has a high carbon equivalency of 5.73, and N2O has an even higher carbon equivalency of 83.2. This mean s that CH4 has about 21 times the warming force out of CO2 and N2O has about 305 times the warming proceeding of CO2. SF6 has a very high global warming solidial (GWP) of 23,900 times the effectuate of CO2.The soon estimated 1996 U.S. total greenhouse gas emissions argon about 1,753 metric unit piles of carbon or carbon equivalent, or an increase of 8.3 percent over 1990 (EIA 1997). closely 98.5 percent of U.S. human-made or anthropogenetic CO2 emissions ar ca utilise by the blaze of fogey fuels to provide energy U.S. anthropogenic CH4 emissions are due primarily to production and pane of coal, born(p) gas and oil anaerobiotic decomposition of municipal waste in landfills and raising livestock. N2O emissions are primarily from countrified soils associated with fertilizer use, industrial process emissions, and emissions from fogy fuel burning at the stake.Carbon dioxide. CO2 emissions are by far the largest percentage of greenhouse gas. Caused primarily by the b urn of fossil fuels to provide energy from energy plants and internal combustion engines, anthropogenic CO2 emissions are also produced by forest, agricultural, and other fires. At 1,496 metric tons of carbon or carbon equivalent, about 85.3 percent of the currently estimated 1996 U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are as CO2, ground on GWP, or an increase of 8.8 percent over 1990 (EIA 1997).Methane. CH4 emissions are dwarfed by CO2 emissions (a ratio of 1 ton of CH4 for every 175 tons of CO2). Because the heat-trapping capacity of CH4 is about 21 times that of CO2, the overall effect of CH4 on global climate is significant. There is, however, substantial un trustedty in estimates of emissions from most U.S. CH4 obtains, ranging from 25 percent to as high as some(prenominal) one hundred percent. CH4 emission trends from each artificial lake tend to be more reliable than their overall estimated magnitude. At 177 metric tons of carbon or carbon equivalent, about 10.0 percent of the currently estimated 1996 U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are as CH4, base on GWP, or a decrease of 2.2 percent over 1990.Nitrous oxide. Compared to CO2 or CH4, N2O is released in small quantities from anthropogenic sources however, N2Os 100 year global warming potential (GWP) of 305 makes it a significant contributor to atmospheric warming. Although on that point are many an(prenominal) known inhering and anthropogenic sources, N2O emissions have been difficult to measure out on a global musical scale because it has been one of the least-studied greenhouse gases. The largest source of anthropogenic N2O emissions is energy use, which includes mobile source combustion from passenger cars, buses, motorcycles, and trucks, and stationary source combustion from residential, industrial, and electric utility energy use.The second-largest source of N2O emissions is agriculture, primarily fertilizer application and a small amount released from the electrocution of cast residues. However , there is substantial uncertainty and pass regarding the emissions implications of use of N-based fertilizers. Models used for estimation are based on limited sources of experimental data. Another important source of N2O emissions is industrial production of adipic acid and nitric acid. At 38 metric tons of carbon or carbon equivalent, about 2.2 percent of the currently estimated 1996 U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are as N2O, based on GWP, or no net change over 1990.Halocarbon and Related Compounds. CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs, PFCs and other compounds that act as greenhouse gases are emitted from their use as refrigerants in cooling equipment, as solvents, or as blowing agents, or from fugitive emissions from industrial processes these halocarbon compounds are being phased out under pollution prevention measures because they damage the stratospheric ozone layer. The outstrip known class of man-made greenhouse chemicals are the CFCs, particularly CFC-12 (trade name Freon -12). CFCs have many desirable features they are comparatively simple to manufacture, inert, nontoxic, and nonflammable. Because CFCs are chemically stable, they preserve in the atmosphere for hundreds or thousands of years.These synthetic molecules absorb reflected infrared radiation syndrome at wavelengths that would otherwise be largely unabsorbed, and they are potent greenhouse gases, with a cypher radiative forcing effect hundreds or thousands of times great than that of CO2. Though molecule for molecule, CFCs absorb many hundreds of times more infrared radiation than carbon dioxide, their net warming effect is reduced because of their effect on ozone. Ozone (O3), skilful in the stratosphere for its ability to absorb pestilential ultraviolet radiation, is also a potent greenhouse gas. While the direct effect of CFCs is a warming potential far greater than that of CO2, their indirect effect on ozone reduces their net radiative forcing effects by half. SF6 is used as an insulator for circu it ledgeman switchgear and other electrical equipment it also occurs as a fugitive emission from certain semiconductor manufacturing processes. At 42 metric tons of carbon or carbon equivalent, about 2.4 percent of the currently estimated 1996 U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are as HFCs, PFCs and SF6, based on GWP, or an increase of 68 percent over 1990.Criteria Pollutants. CO, NOx, and NMVOCs are unstable gases, which usually decay quickly in the atmosphere. Most CO emissions result from broken oxidation during combustion of fuels used for transit. NOx emissions are related to air-fuel mixes and combustion temperatures during the burning of fuels evenly split between transportation and stationary sources. NMVOCs are a main component in the chemical and physiologic atmospheric reactions that form ozone and other photochemical oxidants. About half of the NMVOC emissions come from solvent-related industrial processes and most of the remaining emissions are from combustion of trans portation fuels.Climate Protection StrategiesThe healing(p) strategies all have unintended consequences. These strategies are 1) greenhouse gas source diminution (Gelspan, 1997 ICLEI, September 1997, web page at http//www.iclei.org) 2) ocean modification to absorb more greenhouse gases (Joos, F., J.L. Sarmiento and U. Siegenthaler. 1991. Estimates of the effect of Southern marine iron fertilization on atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Nature, Vol. 349, No. 6312, p. 772-774) and 3) forest, wetland, and agricultural practices to call back more gaseous CO2 (Hodges, Carl N., T. Lewis Thompson, pile L. Riley and Edward P. Glenn. November 1993. Reversing the Flow Water and Nutrients from the Sea to the Land. Ambio, A Journal of the Human Environment, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Vol. 22, No. 7, p. 483-496). The most possible success strategy is greenhouse gas source reduction.Greenhouse gas source reduction activities include Replace greenhouse gas generating activities much(pr enominal) as coal, petroleum, and natural gas burning power plants with non-CO2 emitting power plants like nuclear, solar, wind, wave, hydraulic, and geothermal. Reduce the amount of melodic theme and other carbon-rich discards that go to landfills, whichgenerate CH4 by source reduction, reuse, recycling, and composting and/or mulching of organic discards. hold up industrial plant greenhouse gas emissions. Prevent and control forest and agricultural fires that generate CO2. Replace internal combustion vehicle, tools, and power sources with electrical,compressed natural gas , and hydrogen sources. Recover greenhouse gases, such as from landfills, for reuse and treatment preliminary to release to the atmosphere. Improve the greenhouse gas sequestering mechanisms of the vegetative cover by restoring and enhancing beautify trees, forests, wetlands, gardens, and agricultural practices.Do we have a reason to be upbeat?We have reason to be cautiously optimistic about climate protectio n. Human tale is full of examples where we learned from our mistakes, misfortunes, or undesirable trends. The agricultural revolution of the 18th degree Celsius, the uncovering of bacteria in the 19th, and the invention of vaccines in the 20th are some of the examples of what generosity can achieve when challenged with a on the face of it unsolvable problem. True, we must overcome several hurdles, the resistance of political and profit-centered structures which have short benefits in an economy based on carbon fuels.But these barriers can be overcome in the 21st century through education and promotion, successful cases, and the inherently superior economics of a sustainable and renewable energy and resource based society. We will need political lead at all levels to make it happen.