Energy Stabilization Wedges - Essay Example

Carbon emission into the atmosphere has led to big debates by environmental scholars and human rights activists. As a result of the discussions, energy stabilization wedges have been established to solve the climatic hazards for the upcoming half-century. The effects of greenhouse gases leading to significant global warming are already visible and active in the world today. This can be attributed to recent changes in the temperatures, increased flooding, increase in the spread of pests, and diseases in the world (Wardlaw, 2009).

This is experienced especially in developing countries like Africa, yet they are the least producers of carbon in the atmosphere. To safeguard the future of our planet, we need to aim at the orange line level by use of existing technologies. This can also be achieved by coming up with new inventions to meet the world’s energy needs over the next 50 years, and reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide from doubling as projected in the black line. It is for this purpose that we formed a group of three students to come up with an energy wedge that is likely to tackle this problem squarely and at all angles.

Our energy stabilization wedge is mainly concerned with efficient utilization of energy, and the use of renewable sources as the major active ways of reducing carbon emission by the year 2055. Results and Discussions Stabilization at any level demands that net emissions do not remain constant, but in due course drop to zero. Faced with only two solutions either maintaining the current emission of carbon in the next 50 years or reducing the production of carbon in the atmosphere by a similar amount of time, we opted to build our wedge based on the practical reduction of carbon in the atmosphere by half for the next 50 years.

This option opted for the various reasons of changing environmental conditions and the sudden changes in technology that demand the use of carbon energy (Levy, 2010). The world is required to reduce atmospheric carbon from the current 8 billion tons per year by half hence ensuring only 200 billion tons by the year 2055. This is only possible by increasing sufficient use of transport. This is mainly by adopting efficient fuel engines in terms of motor vehicles. Another way is by reducing the distance traveled while at the same time ensuring efficiency in construction and building hence reducing electricity use.

This is possible by utilizing solar energy and using materials that conserve energy during winter. The use of renewable sources of energy is our next energy wedge, which aims at using sources in the environment that do not produce carbon in the atmosphere. The use of solar energy is just one of the means since it is natural energy from the sun and is efficient. Wind-generated electricity is also viable since it is already in use, in many countries. In addition to this forest, conservation and soil storage are also means through, which carbon emission can be reduced.

Lakes, rivers, forests, and soils absorb atmospheric carbon from the atmosphere (UNEP, 2007). As a group, we discussed, and everyone agreed that if the above stabilization energy wedge proposals are implemented then the world is likely to achieve its objectives before the estimated time, 2055. This is because the various identified set ideas can support the seven stabilization wedges and provide solutions to climate problems for the next half-century. None of the proposals is a hollow dream or an unverified idea since they have been tested.

Developing countries especially in Africa which are the worst victims of global warming, which causes floods and changes in temperature also supported our program since it would help reduce death rates in Africa. This was conducted on our facebook page, where we contacted various special programs personnel in different African countries who endorsed our program.