Learn About: Climate Change (cont'd)
Well apart from Super Trouper, 1980 was the year when our total fossil fuel pollution of the atmosphere was just half of what it is today.
Put another way, that means since 1980 we have collectively added the same amount of CO2 to the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels as the whole of humanity has done since the beginning of civilization. Honestly ? If you don’t believe it, take a look at this graph showing Total fossil CO2 released by us lot:
If the CO2 wasn’t so darn threatening, it would be an incredible achievement.
Think about it… In the last couple of decades we’ve dug up and burnt as much fossil fuels as the whole of mankind ever !
How much does CO2 affect the temperature ?
Maybe the best way to answer this question is with a picture – one that looks a long way back in time. The graph below shows how CO2 has gone up and down over the past 400,000 years. This takes us back through several ice ages. The last ice age ended only about 13,000 years ago, and that’s the very right hand section of the graph.
The top part shows the CO2 level in red, and the bottom graph is the world temperature change in blue.
You don’t need to have a degree in mathematics to see the strong relationship between the two. A six year old could tell you High CO2 = Warmer, Low CO2 = colder.
Over this whole 400,000 year period CO2 levels ranged from about 200 to 300ppm (parts per million).
When CO2 was 200ppm (only 18,000 years ago), world temperature was an average 5 degrees cooler. Those 5 degrees caused the sea levels to be an amazing 120m (that’s 390ft) lower than today.
If you were in the UK then, you could walk to France - and you’d probably want to. Why? Because where you’re sitting now could easily be under about a mile of ice. Mind you, you’d find much the same there !
Point is, that's what five degrees of global cooling does to us - glaciates much of the Europe and drops sea levels by 120m.
Recent History
Let’s look at recent history now. In 1750, before we seriously started burning coal, CO2 levels were about 280 ppm.
By 1900, all the steam engines and coal fires had notched it up to 295ppm. In 1950 cars and electricity had raised it to 310ppm.
By 1975 it was 330ppm. Just fifteen years later (1990) it had leapt to about 355ppm.
Today we have jumped to the 385ppm mark and show absolutely no signs of stopping.
Now look back the graph above and see where 385 stands on the red CO2 line…. seriously, go on, scroll up and have a look where 385 ppm is on the red line (top graph)...
Unknown waters...
Yes, we are WAY OFF the scale. If the red line was drawn in to show where we are now, it would be halfway up the paragraphs above the graph.
Basically we are in completely unknown waters. History tells us we’re in for a massive change in climate – but just how much, we can only guess at.
Being a mighty huge thing, the Earth takes somewhat longer to heat up than your average central heating system... It will take many decades or even centuries for the Earth to reach a new hot equilibrium, and we are already committed to a major degree of warming from what we’ve emitted so far.
But one thing is for sure, the planet is moving with the unstoppable momentum of a supertanker into a new hot state.
So what can I do ?
What we can do is minimize the damage for our children by slowing and stopping our personal CO2 emissions. And in this, everyone's emissions count. We can't individually "change the world", but we can change the areas over which we have responsibility, particularly in our homes. Living a first-world lifestyle means you have control over a lot more emissions than the average person on the planet.
Put it this way, the more people that take the positive steps listed here the better position we're all in.
Otherwise we’ll be accepting the fact that we turn our landscape into deserts and destroy so much life that goes with it.
Soooo, on that cheery note, there’s a brief summary of the facts. If you want to read more, here are some excellent sources of further information.
Find out more - recommended:
|
1. “Six Degrees” by Mark Lynas:
A book which summarises in a very readable way much of the latest climate change science.
Extremely good for getting to grips with the issues. He examines what 1 degree of warming means for the world - all the way up to 6 degrees.
Highly recommended.
|
|
|
2. "The Revenge of Gaia" by James Lovelock:
Looks at why the Earth is at the current temperature, and how mankind’s actions are drastically threatening it.
Lovelock is the grandfather of a lot of this subject, and in his late eighties felt to be a particularly wise commentator. A brilliant piece of work, if somewhat gloomy in its prognosis...
|
|
3. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) website which houses the work of the most respected scientists and engineers in the field. A lot of technical detail.
www.ipcc.ch
4. The problem in a nut-shell: A 2minute slideshow summary of the science from the BBC website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/2009/copenhagen/8386319.stm
5. Nice little animation of the recent rises in CO2 since 1996. This uses measured data from many points around the world and shows how in lifetime of most people reading, CO2 has risen at a phenomenal rate. (Takes a little while to load, but worth hanging on for)
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/globalview/
