Climate change
Climate Change presentation Climate Change in relation to energy In relation to the UK case study, i will take a main example of climate change in relation to energy of "The Low Carbon Transition Plan." * Main ideas of The UK Low Carbon Transition Plan. Transforming the country into a cleaner, greener and more prosperous place to live is at the heart of our economic plans for 'building Britain's future' and ensuring the UK is ready to take advantage of the opportunities ahead. * The UK Low Carbon Transition Plan plots how the UK will meet the 34 percent cut in emissions on 1990 levels by 2020, set out in the budget. * We have already reduced emissions by 21 percent - equivalent to cutting emissions entirely from four cities the size of London. The objectives are, by 2020: * More than 1.2 million people will be in green jobs. * 7 million homes will have benefited from whole house makeovers, and more than 1.5 million households will be supported to produce their own clean energy. * Around 40 percent of electricity will be from low-carbon sources, from renewables, nuclear and clean coal. * We will be importing half the amount of gas that we otherwise would. * The average new car will emit 40 percent less carbon than now. Main Carbon Emissions * The 3 types of fossil fuels that are used the most are coal, natural gas and petroleum. When fossil fuels are combusted,
Impact of climate change on humans
Affects of climate change The question of climate change and global warming has recently acquired unprecedented emotional impact. It seems that anxiety about a catastrophe caused by human foolishness has now focused on the uncertain future of the earth's atmosphere. Climate and especially its variability have long been among the major environmental factors with which man has had to compete with. During the past few years, there have been reports of persistent cooling trends, severe droughts, monsoon rains, and devastating storms. Some scientists have interpreted these events as showing that the global climate is changing in such a way as to make conditions for man more difficult. The direct impact of a warmer climate include rising sea levels and coastal inundation, impacts related to weather events include the frequency and intensity of droughts, flooding, tropical cyclones etc. Many of these challenges faced from living in a warmer earth result from the regional climate change and even from the amount of pollutants emitted. A year of extreme weather events has presented clear indications of human pressures on the planet while a devastating tsunami revealed the earth's continuing vulnerability. An unprecedented rise in carbon dioxide levels coincided with stronger evidence of melting glaciers and ice caps, alarming surveys of the rates of species loss converged with
Essay on Climate Change
0/2/09 Is the climate changing? The earth's climate is always changing and is causing disturbance and alterations to the earth, such as flooding, hurricanes, drought and the melting of the glaciers. These drastic changes have been noticed over recent years and are mainly a result of human actions and not due to natural causes in the atmosphere. The greenhouse effect is also a huge subject when we talk about climate change. It is a natural effect which allows solar radiation to be absorbed to keep the earth at a temperature needed for life. However gases like carbon dioxide and methane can absorb some of the infra-red radiation and then begins to warm the troposphere. These gases are natural in the atmosphere but have been added to by humans which lead to a gradual warming of the atmosphere, which then leads to global warming. So in my essay I am going to answer the question 'Is the climate changing?' and what this is doing to our world. The Keeling curve is a graph that shows the earth's surface temperature from the 1950's and onwards. These recordings show that the earth's surface temperature is increasing massively. It is only 0.9°c above average at the moment, but it is believed that if the temperature continues to rise there will be devastating effects on the earth. There is a link between the keeling curve graph, the carbon dioxide emissions graph and the rising sea
The Truth about Climate Change
BY: Nozomu Tokiwa Form 3a Date: 16/05/08 Climate Change I'm sure you've heard or read about climate change at least once or twice on TV, Internet or on newspapers. But are you sure that you know everything or at least enough about it? Well let's see, did you know that climate change is one of the biggest problems we have now in this 21st century? If not, you should continue reading, and if yes, you should still read. Because what I'm going to talk about now, is about climate change, and I'm sure that you don't know everything about it. This might be your final chance before it's too late! What is climate change? When you simply switch the words round, climate change is simply the change in climate. It is the change in climate, but of course it is not that simple. The IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (one of the largest bodies of international scientists ever assembled to study a scientific issue, comprised of more than 2000 scientists from 100 different countries), defines climate change like this: "A change in the state of the climate that can be identified...that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer...Any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity." This definition is thought to be most widely accepted, but it is quite hard to understand...(at least for me it is) so this is
Climate change notes
Climate change notes FACTORS THAT AFFECT CLIMATE CHANGE . Atmosphere: A layer of gases that surrounds a planet or moon 2. Weather: Condition of the atmosphere in a specific place at a specific time (describes wind, temp, moisture) 3. Climate: Characteristic weather patterns within a region averaged over a long period of time (Temp, wind velocity) 4. Earth has experienced many climate changes in the past EARTH AND THE SUN . Sun’s energy is the most important factor affecting climate on Earth (winds, rain etc) 2. The amount of radiation produced by the sun varies and a regular solar cycle (sunspot cycle) occurs every 11 years 3. When the number of sunspots is high, the Sun emits higher amounts of solar radiation. 4. Earth rotates tilted (23.5º) on an axis every 24 hrs 5. the combination of Earth’s annual orbit and its tilted axis produces the seasons Revolution: the time it takes for an object to orbit another object . it takes earth 365.24 days to make a complete revolution around the sun CHANGES IN EARTH’S ORBIT . Earth’s orbit, tilt and rotation change in repeating cycles 2. (1) Eccentricity: every 100 000 years, Earth’s orbit changes from circular to elliptical 3. Elliptical orbit means more solar energy for Earth which affects length of seasons 4. (2) Tilt: Earth’s tilt changes every 41000 years by about 2.4º 5. The greater the tilt,
Climate change + Solutions
Brian Lockyer EGS - Practical 8 Climate change is a concept that has generated much controversy in recent times, the many competing theories as to why climate change is occurring is no longer meaningful and we are now at a stage where unless serious measures are introduced to combat the causes of climate change human kind as a civilisation could be wiped out forever. As a UCT student and a South African citizen I firmly believe that climate change has mainly been induced by the developed world, however, despite this fact, the responsibilities of combating global change do not primarily lie in the hands of the developed world. Successfully overcoming such a huge problem such as climate change requires the cooperation and willingness of the entire world. There comes a time where we have to accept responsibility for our actions. That time is now. It is not too late to correct the mistake we have made, however we need less talk and more action. The policies of mitigation and adaption which traditionally have been the main two policies in combating climate change have proved to be limiting in their effectiveness (Parry, 2009:1-2). For example, achieving current mitigation targets will not prevent major environmental impacts, as in order for mitigation to have any effect in reducing global damage global emission cuts of 80 percent are necessary (Parry, 2009:1). According to
Evaluating climate change
CLIMATE CHANGE A critical analysis Climate change is a complex subject, with genuine areas of uncertainty and scientific controversy. There are also a number of misunderstandings which are recycled, often by non-climate scientists, and portrayed as scientific fact. Over hundreds, thousands and millions of years 'natural climatic changes have taken place. There appear to have been large- scale cycles of climatic variation. It would appear that climate change therefore is not a recent phenomenon as it has occurred in past cycles. Climate change is happening and humans are contributing to it. Temperatures provide the clearest evidence that the climate is changing and globally the average temperature has risen by more than 0.7 °C over the last 100 years. The natural greenhouse gas effect keeps Earth much warmer than it would otherwise be, without it Earth would be extremely cold. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and water vapour behave like a blanket around Earth. These gases allow the Sun's rays to reach Earth's surface but impede the heat they create from escaping back into space. Any increases in the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere mean that more heat is trapped and global temperatures increase - an effect known as 'global warming'. There is indisputable evidence from observations that the Earth is warming. Concentrations of CO2, created
Climate Change
Climate
Theory of Climate change
Alternative Theory to Climate Change "We have an environmental crisis because we have a people crisis - a crisis of population growth, of wasteful consumption of resources, and a crisis of apathy and inaction." An environmental crisis is an emergency concerned with the place in which every human lives - the environment. A people crisis is an emergency with the community that inhabits the world environment. A crisis of population growth is a turning point where the environment can no longer sustain the amounts of people which it contains. A crisis of apathy and inaction is one where the human race cannot be motivated to solve the problems with the environment that they themselves have created. The claim that we have an environmental crisis because we have a people crisis is valid Because our environmental problems have largely resulted from population growth, which has lead to apathy and inaction with regard to the wasteful consumption of resources. Examples are the desertification of the Sahel in Africa, the one child policy in China and the mis-management of our oceans. The Sahel is a strip of land that extends for more than 6000 kilometres across the southern edge of the Sahara desert. It stretches from Senegal and Mauritania in the west to Ethiopia and Somalia in the east. These nations are among the world's poorest. The area is one of social and biophysical
Business opportunities of climate change
Table of contents Introduction..............................................................................................................................................1 Climate change and its business opportunities..........................................................................................2 Business that has taking advantage of climate change business opportunities...................................3 Conclusion........................................................................................................................................................4 References........................................................................................................................................................5 Introduction Climate Change for some time now has been one of the hottest subjects across the world, and different Governments are signing international agreements to see to reductions of Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 80% from 1990 levels by 2050. As a result of this, Climate change and global warming have giving rise to tighter environment standards and stronger regulation for energy source that does not pose any treat to the environment. Green energy is fast becoming the order of the day. As a result clean energy systems and technologies have been experiencing an increase in popularity and acceptance. Climate change and the need to
