Climate Change #SciChallenge2017

Eighteen months after the first earthrise picture
was seen on earth, the modern environmental
movement began; the first earth day was organised
and we learned that the sky is not the limitless
expanse it appears to be.
We are on a dangerous path to surging oceans,
stronger storms, extreme heat and crippling
drought but if we step back and think for a second
surely we can solve this climate change crisis,
before it seals our doom.
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 Beliefs on climate change vary around the world.
 A global median of 78% support the idea of their
country joining a global agreement in Paris to limit
greenhouse gas emissions.
 While 67% of people believe they will have to make
major lifestyle changes to combat climate change, and
just 22% say technology will solve the problem.
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 The average temperature on the surface of the Earth would
be about -20°C if it wasn’t for the greenhouse effect,
keeping the Earth at a temperature sustainable to life. But
it can potentially warm the Earth at a faster rate than life
can adapt to.
 Carbon dioxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbons and water
vapour let sunlight pass through the atmosphere. When
the sunlight hits the Earth’s surface, it changes to heat and
then gets trapped by the greenhouse gases on its way back
towards space.
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 Scientists have been drilling and collecting ice core
samples for over 50 years, microscopic air bubbles
trapped in these ice cores show that the current
concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide is 100
parts per million higher than any time in the last
400,000 years.
 Examples include the Law Dome, Siple and Vostok ice
cores collected in Antarctica which provide 400,000
years of history.
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 0.04% of the atmosphere is Carbon Dioxide, much
higher than at any time in the last 400,000 years, and
could soon reach levels comparable to 3 million years
ago, when the sea level was at least fifty feet higher.
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 Atmospheric concentrations of methane are rising at an
increasingly dramatic rate across the globe, especially in the
tropics which accounts for 2/3 of the world’s methane releases.
 Concentrations are now reaching more than 1,840 parts per
billion today, a level unseen in at least two decades and over
double the concentrations of the pre-industrial era, 700 ppb.
 A much more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide,
methane is said to be the main contributor to recent global
warming and is mainly produced in the agricultural field; cattle
producing the most.
 Although it is also a main component of natural gas, America’s
leading power source for electricity, it can leak during the
fracking process and escape from pipelines unnoticed.
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 Natural causes, such as volcanic activity, changes in the
shape of the Earth’s orbit, changes in the tilt of the Earth’s
axis, and the increasing amount of energy being outputted
by the sun, have caused climate changes on Earth over the
past 4.5 billion years. Yet the increase of temperatures
today is mostly due to modern industry and transportation.
 Today, we are spewing 110 million tons of greenhouse gases
into the atmosphere every 24 hours, from agriculture, diet,
population, management of forests, transportation, the
oceans, melting of the permafrost and dirty carbon based
fuels, the latter accounting for 85% of all the energy that
our world burns every year.
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 15 of the top 16 hottest years on record have come since the
year 2000.
 Average humidity worldwide has gone up more than 4%.
 2016 began with an average temperature 1.5 degrees greater
than the pre-industrial age and places in the Middle East
are already experiencing temperatures in excess of 50
degrees.
 By 2015, the earth had experienced the highest on record
global ocean heat content, global surface temperature and
global sea level, the latter 70mm higher than that observed
in 1993.
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 Due to the rapid rate at which the world is warming,
50% of all living species on Earth could be extinct by
2100. Goldenrod, a North American plant, was
introduced to Europe in the 18th century and has only
now adapted to each of its local environments. Only
versatile species like cockroaches, tawny owls and pink
salmon are going to have enough time to adapt.
 Animals including mosquitoes and ticks which carry
microbial diseases, are moving toward the poles at an
average rate of 15 feet per day.
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 Oceans are evaporating more water vapour into the
skies, creating atmospheric rivers that funnel the water
vapour over the land, and storm conditions are
triggering massive record-breaking downpours.
 In July 2014, it rained for two days in Houston, Texas:
162 billion gallons.
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 A 2 metre rise of the water level, which some climate
experts say is a modest forecast, could sink much of the
Maldives, the coastal areas of Bangladesh, and as much as
four fifths of Florida’s economy.
 Some buildings under construction in Miami Beach may
already be too low, as flooding has begun to submerge
whole city blocks.
 Although melting to a record low since 2002, the floating
Arctic ice displaces as much water as it weighs, and so the
melting of it won’t cause a rise in sea level. But the melting
of glaciers and ice sheets in Antarctica, Greenland and
Glacier National Park, Montana, the latter set to lose all its
glaciers by 2070, is resulting in the rise of sea level.
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The world’s tallest thermometer is in
Baker, California, and can record
temperatures as high as 59°C, but in 30
years this thermometer, scientists
believe, may not be high enough.
The extra heat is causing deeper, longer, more
persuasive droughts, drying out the vegetation
and causing more fires; the 2006-2011 drought
in Syria displaced 1.5 million refugees.
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 Hurricanes have also increased in quantity by 40%
over the last fifty years. As the earth warms up, the
oceans warm up and there is more energy available for
extreme tropical cyclones.
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 The Tar Sands oil region of Alberta Canada is one of
North America’s biggest suppliers of energy, and has
made Canada the largest carbon polluter per capita on
earth. Communities based near the facility have
experienced high rates of cancer, which many believe
is due to the chemical run-off now collecting in toxic
pools large enough to be seen from space.
 The accumulated amount of man-made global
warming pollution now traps as much extra heat
energy as would be released by 400,000 Hiroshima
classed atomic bombs exploding every 24 hours, 365
days a year.
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 Although having only 0.85% of the worlds population,
the UK represents 2% of world emissions averaging
out at nearly 10 tons of CO2 per person annually.
 On the other hand the US has only 4% of the world’s
population, yet it emits 19% of the worlds CO2.
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 Pre-21st century scientists Tyndall, Arrhenius,
Callendar and Keeling predicted global warming.
 Researchers claim that the agricultural sector; the
flooding of rice paddies, the management of manure
and enteric fermentation in the stomachs of ruminant
animals such as cattle, is responsible for 15% – 25% of
global greenhouse gas annually.
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 Over 10 years ago, Joe Dorgan, a Prince Edward Island dairy
farmer, decided to go into business producing seaweed feed
for cattle after he discovered that his cows were more
productive eating it.
 A Nova Scotia researcher discovered that the feed cut the
amount of methane gas produced in cows by about 20 per
cent, and agricultural scientist, Rob Kinley, found seaweeds
in Australia that virtually eliminated the methane.
 Right now, there’s not enough of the particular seaweed
readily available to make it commercially viable, but other
seaweeds are already being farmed for use in cosmetics,
pharmaceuticals, and fertilizers.
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 If the climate turns out to be more sensitive than we think,
then we will most likely exceed the 2°C we had hoped to
keep below in the Paris Agreement.
 Scientists have now developed thoughts surrounding
geoengineering to battle climate change. Two examples of
geoengineering are; gathering carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere, and preventing sunlight from entering the
atmosphere. This ongoing research is reassuring however
there is still some way to go. More research is required to
establish how effective these methods of geoengineering
are. 19

 Engineers and geophysicists are also designing
floating cities, synthetic trees that can absorb over a
thousand times more CO2 than real ones, and modern
electric cars.
 Since 2007, scientists have also begun a citizen science
project on the website Zooniverse, which digitises all
ship records on temperature going back to the 18th
century, for people to transcribe.
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 18 years ago, we thought at best we would be able to
install 30 GW of wind capacity by 2010; we beat that
mark 14.5 times.
 16 years ago we thought at best we would install 1 GW
of solar capacity per year by 2010; we beat that mark 17
times.
 On one day alone in December 2015, Germany got 81%
of all its energy from renewable sources.
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 Every hour we get enough energy from the sun to
supply the world’s energy needs for an entire year.
 Because of places like Bangladesh, which installs 2
solar cell systems per minute on average per day, the
demand for solar has helped the cost drop 10% per year
for the last 30 years.
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 On April 22, 2016, agreement was reached
between leaders and representatives from
more than 150 countries at the United
Nations Climate Change conference.
 Leading from this, a plan to develop 65% renewable
energy and 35% nuclear energy or carbon
sequestration by 2030, has been developed to
decarbonise the UK electricity supply.
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 Last year, China announced that starting in 2017, they
will adopt a nationwide Cap and Trade system.
 The Cap and Trade Scheme forces large polluters to
keep their emissions below a certain level, the cap, to
do this they can embrace cleaner energy, buy carbon
offsets generated by projects that reduce carbon
emissions, or face a hefty fine.
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 Walk, ride bikes, use public transport, buy electric
cars, invest in renewable energy or buy green products
while also encouraging government representatives to
deal with climate change.
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 At the moment, some islanders are seeing their low-lying lands
sink beneath the sea, water supplies are literally evaporating into
thin air and, historic hurricanes and tsunamis are ravaging
worldwide coastlines.
 There is no question that we have got the technology and
knowhow to change the world, but technology alone won’t save
us, it begins with attitude.
 We are making some efforts in solving this crisis, but only after
we all accept that its happening and we are causing it, can we
ever hope to solve it before it is too late.
 Every single thing, each and everyone of us does, affects
everybody all over the world, because its one global ecosystem.
So use less energy, drive less inefficient cars, turn off the lights
and in doing so, you will be helping secure a better future for
generations to come.
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Climate Change #SciChallenge2017

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Climate Change #SciChallenge2017