Global warming will impact the power grid | John Lindsey. Climate Change Could Increase Armed Conflicts By 50 Percent Worldwide | Surprising Science. A new study finds that across cultures, time and space, we consistently see more conflict as temperatures rise and rainfall becomes more erratic. Image via Flickr user expertinfantry Climate change isn’t just affecting the natural world.
Researchers have long understood that rising levels of greenhouse gas emissions will also have cascading ramifications on the dynamics of human society, whether by forcing refugees to flee from newly flood-prone areas or arid regions, by causing spikes in the prices of food crops, or by reducing the productivity of livelihoods based on fishing or grazing in certain regions. Recently, studies and journalistic investigations have focused on one particularly chilling potential social consequence of climate change: an increased frequency of armed conflicts around the world. But what characteristics of these climate changes—heat and erratic rainfall—cause people or institutions to become violent? Of course, there are a few caveats to the finding. Carbon Inequality: Just One Percent Of U.S. Power Plants Produce 12 Percent Of U.S. Carbon Emissions. By Jeff Spross "Carbon Inequality: Just One Percent Of U.S. Power Plants Produce 12 Percent Of U.S. Carbon Emissions" Georgia Power’s Plant Scherer CREDIT: Georgia Power Inequality isn’t just a matter of income: it plays out in carbon pollution as well.
That one percent is actually 50 plants, all of them coal-fired. And the disproportionate contribution of the dirtiest plants to greenhouse gas emissions continues on down the scale: in 2011, half of all the power sector’s carbon emissions came from the 100 dirtiest plants (98 of which are coal-fired). All told, the 50 dirtiest power plants make up a sizable chunk of all U.S. carbon emissions: CREDIT: Environment America Research & Policy Center According to Environment America’s numbers, to do its part in keeping global warming under two degrees Celsius, the United States will need to get its carbon emissions down 25 to 40 percent below 1990′s levels by 2020.
(HT: Grist) Guy Carpenter Says ‘Global Warming’ a Reality - Citing IPCC Report. An article from Guy Carpenter states: “According to the IPCC Fourth Annual Assessment Report (AR4), the scientific consensus is that global warming is indeed an established scientific fact. The evidence is undeniable, and includes: 1. Increasing air temperatures 2. Increasing ocean water temperatures 3.
Tree ring characteristics 4. Ice core sample chemical characteristics 5. Ice cap retreat” The IPCC is scheduled to release its fifth Annual Assessment report in Stockholm next week. Guy Carp acknowledges that there has been “climate variability” over time, but it points out that the “rate of warming” over the past 30-40 years “is believed to be unprecedented.”
Two charts are included as part of the article. The report notes that “global warming is caused by what is known as the ‘greenhouse effect,’ where greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane absorb radiation emitted by the Earth, and re-emit that radiation back towards the surface, causing a warming effect. Renewable energy is America's cheapest option, study finds. In a landscape marred by entrenched political and business interests that prefer the status quo, any prospect of shifting towards renewable energy sources can at times seem the purview of idealists. But, according to a new study that aims for a more holistic count of energy costs, a switch to renewables by the U.S. wouldn't only be good for the planet -- it would actually make better sense financially. While on its face, producing electricity from fossil fuels might seem like the cheaper option, it fails to take into account the full picture.
When public health, environmental, and social costs of tapping polluting energy resources are factored in, says the study, renewables like wind and solar would actually be cheaper. The study notes that most of the pollution generated in the U.S. today comes from coal-fired power plants, accounting for 40 percent of the nation's carbon footprint. "There are no federal limits on the amount of carbon pollution our power plants may release.
Halving global CO2 by 2050. A joint study by the Energy Futures Lab and the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London Download full report Download report annex Several analyses have suggested that limiting global warming to a 2 degrees Celsius rise above pre-industrial levels would require CO2 emissions of between 10 and 20 Giga tonnes (Gt) by 2050, depending on levels before and after this date. In 2008, leaders at the Hokkaido Toyako G8 Summit in Japan agreed to support a goal of halving global CO2 emissions (then at levels of around 30Gt) by 2050, with a view to limiting global warming. This analysis, by a cross-departmental team of scientists, engineers and economists at Imperial College London, considers the technologies required, and associated energy system costs, of limiting global energy-related CO2 emissions to about 15 Gt in 2050.
The key findings of this study are: Carbon Dioxide Emissions | Climate Change. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the primary greenhouse gas emitted through human activities. In 2011, CO2 accounted for about 84% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from human activities. Carbon dioxide is naturally present in the atmosphere as part of the Earth's carbon cycle (the natural circulation of carbon among the atmosphere, oceans, soil, plants, and animals). Human activities are altering the carbon cycle—both by adding more CO2 to the atmosphere and by influencing the ability of natural sinks, like forests, to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. While CO2 emissions come from a variety of natural sources, human-related emissions are responsible for the increase that has occurred in the atmosphere since the industrial revolution. [1] The main human activity that emits CO2 is the combustion of fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and oil) for energy and transportation, although certain industrial processes and land-use changes also emit CO2.
Electricity. Top of page Emissions and Trends 1. 2. Global warming already having dramatic impacts in California, new report says. Rising ocean waters. Bigger and more frequent forest fires. More brutally hot summer days. These aren't the usual predictions about global warming based on computer forecasts. They're changes already happening in California, according to a detailed new report issued Thursday by the California Environmental Protection Agency.
Climate change is "an immediate and growing threat" affecting the state's water supplies, farm industry, forests, wildlife and public health, the report says. Since 1895, annual average temperatures in California have increased about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit and continue to rise, the report found. "Climate change is not just some abstract scientific debate," said California EPA Secretary Matt Rodriquez. Most Californians seem to agree. What the public may not realize, experts say, is how extensive the impact of climate change already is. "A report like this is Paul Revere. "It's not like the Titanic where we just collide with the iceberg," Kahn said. In 2006, then-Gov. What produces greenhouse gas emissions? | WYI? There are 2 ways that greenhouse gases enters our atmosphere. One of them is through natural processes like animal and plant respiration.
The other is through human activities. The main human sources of greenhouse gas emissions are: fossil fuel use, deforestation, intensive livestock farming, use of synthetic fertilizers and industrial processes. There are four main types of forcing greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases. The main feedback greenhouse gas is water vapor. Let's take a closer look at the sources of each type of greenhouse gas: Carbon Dioxide There are both natural and human sources of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. 42.8 percent of all naturally produced CO2 emissions come from ocean-atmosphere exchange. 87 percent of all human CO2 emissions come from the burning of fossil fuels like coal, natural gas and oil. Before the influence of humans, CO2 levels were quite steady because of this natural balance. Methane Nitrous Oxide Water Vapor. What are the main sources of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions? | WYI? There are both natural and human sources of carbon dioxide emissions.
Natural sources include decomposition, ocean release and respiration. Human sources come from activities like cement production, deforestation as well as the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. Due to human activities, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has been rising extensively since the Industrial Revolution and has now reached dangerous levels not seen in the last 3 million years. Human sources of carbon dioxide emissions are much smaller than natural emissions but they have upset the natural balance that existed for many thousands of years before the influence of humans.
This is because natural sinks remove around the same quantity of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than are produced by natural sources. This had kept carbon dioxide levels balanced and in a safe range. Human Sources Since the Industrial Revolution, human sources of carbon dioxide emissions have been growing.