Mitigation Strategies and Solutions of Global Warming - Coursework Example

Mitigation Strategies and Solutions: Global Warming Global warming is a serious environmental problem that increases the temperature of the globe and hence results in severe negative effects on both plant and animal ecosystems. It results in ice melting at Poles and increases the sea level which may destabilize the marine organisms and cause inundation of islands. Green house gases and deforestation enhance the rate of global warming and hence efforts must be made to develop an integrated plan for sustainability which aims at controlling the global warming at large scale. It must focus on controlling the emission of green house gases, development of alternate fuels like bio fuels and stronger research efforts and government support at national and international arena. Key words: Global warming, green house gases, bio fuels Introduction Global warming is a phenomenon in which the temperature of the atmosphere rises significantly. It is also defined as the process of observed and projected increases in the average temperature of Earths atmosphere and oceans (Christianson, 1999). This happens due to emission of green house gases like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and chloro flouro carbons from industries and other human activities. Greenhouse gases are those gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect. The main source of greenhouse gas is the burning of fossil fuels resulting in the emission of carbon dioxide (Kaplan, 2002). These gases trap the heat and they will not allow the heat radiation to go back in to the space resulting in higher temperature. It was noticed that the water vapor causes about 36-70% of the greenhouse effect on Earth and hence it can be considered as a major green house gas. Similarly, carbon dioxide, methane and ozone result in 9-26%, 4-9% and 3-7% of global warming respectively. It is not possible to state that a certain gas causes a certain percentage of the greenhouse effect, because the influence of the various gases is not additive. Some other greenhouse gases like sulfur hexafluoride, hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons also contribute significantly to global warming. Detailed Description of the Problem The main concern of the global warming is its phenomenal effect on temperature which results in detrimental effects for human basic existence. The major proportion of the enhanced temperature during last 50 years is resulted by the increase in the atmosphere of greenhouse gas concentrations like water vapour, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and ozone (O3). These green house gases in general absorb the long wave radiations and don’t allow them to escape back in to the space resulting in green house effect and global warming (Moore, 1998).  As a result of global warming, the temperature rise may very high and it may become detrimental for the basic human existence. It was reported that global surface temperature increased by about 0.74 ± 0.18 °C during the last century. This is alarming because the increased temperature result in higher precipitation and snow melting which in turn would result in rise of sea level. This may be critical for the island nations like Maldives which may be subjected to complete inundation in future if rate of global warming continues like this. Hence there is a need to analyze the living and non living factors affecting global warming at this juncture. The ice melting due to global warming can be experienced at the Earth’s poles. One may observe this in mountain glaciers, ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland, and Arctic sea ice. This affected the bird population significantly due to their preference to specific temperature. For example, the population of penguins in Antarctica has declined by 66% in last 30 years. The impact of global warming is also negative on plant establishment and agricultural productivity. This may jeopardize the situation of food security in the world. Nonliving and Living Factors that Contribute to or Are Affected by the Problem The green house gases like methane, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and chloro flouro carbons which play significant role in causing global warming can be categorized under non living factors. Other non living factors include the technology used for manufacture of industrial products and pollutants released by vehicles, pollutants released by chemical factories, pharma ceutical industries, leather industries and dyeing industries. The waste water released by the chemical factories also result in water pollution that also result in global warming. Most of the greenhouse gases and CO2 are released by the transportation vehicles used by the humans and burning of huge quantities of fossil fuels. It is estimated that at present about 40% and 33% of all CO2 emissions are caused by power plants and cars and trucks respectively. Agricultural operations also contribute large amounts of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, either directly or indirectly. Nitrogen released by fertilizer application in agriculture results in water pollution and causes nitrous oxide emissions. Similarly, the loss of soil organic matter leads to carbon dioxide emission. Methane is released from landfills and agriculture (especially from the digestive systems of grazing animals). It is mainly released by rice fields. Similarly, nitrous oxide is mainly released from fertilizers, gases used for refrigeration and industrial processes. The heat trapping ability of these green house gases vary from one to another. For example, a molecule of methane and nitrous oxide produce more than 20 times and 300 times the warming of a molecule of CO2 respectively. However, because their concentrations are much lower than CO2, their effect on global warming is not significant relative to that of CO2. The living factors include the vegetation or plants, algae in sea water, human population and population of other animals. Plants release oxygen and consume carbon dioxide and hence significantly aids in reducing the global warming. As the emission of green house gases like carbon dioxide is reduced due to their absorption by plants, global warming will be controlled and it results in temperature control. Hence, the contribution of forest preservation programmes is quite phenomenal in regulating global warming. Green algae in sea water also acts as a sink for absorption of green house gases like carbon dioxide and hence plays vital role in controlling green house gases. Increased human population would result in release of higher quantities of carbon dioxide which adds fastens the rate of global warming. The increased animal population also enhances the rate of globalization by releasing more carbon dioxide. Negative Human impacts The major negative effect of global warming is increase in temperature over a period of time. This in turn would result in destabilization of plant and animal ecosystems greatly. If global warming is continued at the present rate, it is projected that the temperature may increase by about 3° to 5° C (5° to 9° Fahrenheit) by the year 2100 or soon afterwards which may result increase in sea levels by about 25 meters. This may result in inundation of several islands like Maldives.   Global warming also causes significant changes in amount and patterns of precipitation. Changes in temperature and precipitation patterns increase the frequency, duration, and intensity of other extreme weather events, such as floods, droughts, heat waves, and tornadoes. For example, the total annual power of hurricanes has already increased markedly since 1975 because the increased temperature has a proportional relation with its occurrence and intensity. It will have significant influence on animal and plant populations. Some butterflies, foxes, and alpine plants have migrated farther north or to higher, cooler areas and became successful in acclimatization in new areas. However, those species which couldn’t move became extinct. Hence, global warming has a severe negative impact on bio-diversity of the world. The survival of polar bears in Poles also faces severe threat from global warming.  Some human diseases like malaria are returning into areas where they have been extinguished earlier due to the negative effect of global warming. Global warming may also reduce the intensity of rainfall considerably. For example, rainfall in Ethiopia, may decline by 10 percent over the next 50 years. If the global warming continues at this rate, the Quelccaya ice cap in Peru may disappear by 2100, leaving thousands of people who rely on it for drinking water and electricity. Global warming may also result in wildfire in forests. For example, in 2002, Colorado, Arizona, and Oregon experienced worst wildfire season ever. Texas, Montana, and North Dakota in 2002 experienced drought created severe dust storms. Global warming also results in severe heat waves. In 2003, extreme heat waves caused more than 20,000 deaths in Europe and more than 1,500 deaths in India alone. Positive effects of global warming Global warming may also result in some beneficial effects. For example, the Arctic ocean would be completely open due to ice melting caused by global warming. This will facilitate easy transportation and reduces the expenditure on fuel considerably. Some plant species also get tremendous benefit due to global warming. This is because, the crops like rice respond positively to higher solar radiation especially in semi tropical and temperate regions. Global warming would increase the temperatures in these regions resulting in positive crop yield. The higher CO2 caused by global warming also results in higher crop yield as it is consumed by plants for the photosynthesis. Hence, the food security of the world is positively contributed to some extent by global warming. It was also reported that the life of human beings will increase due to warm temperature in winter season caused by global warming. In general, most human deaths occur in winter season and hence the rise in temperature caused by global warming may be beneficial for human health. Evaluation of Current Sustainability Strategies and Solutions The current strategies to control global warming aim at reducing the green house gases, but they are not successful due to the lack of integration of policies developed at different nations. There is a severe lack of coordination among the developed and developing nations in controlling the global warming on large scale. Several International forums including The Rio Earth Summit (1990) and Kyoto Protocol (1997) discussed the issue of global warming and came out with some deliberations to control the menace. However, the impact on global warming has not been effective due to non coherent approach among the nations. As global warming is universal phenomenon and the effect of any practice in one nation may affect the rate of global warming in other nations and hence there is a necessity of developing a comprehensive and most integrated action plan for controlling this challenge. The scientific progress of reducing the green house gases is satisfactory. Several new technologies were developed in recent years in the fields of transportation to refrigeration where the emission of green house gases has become minimized. However, majority investigations are still concentrating on assessing the effect of global warming than controlling measures. The emphasis on production of bio-fuels has started but not significant at present level. Plan to reach Sustainability The plan to reach sustainability as far as global warming is concerned requires an integrated approach as it is inter related with several factors. Keeping this point in view, the following key aspects are required to be incorporated in the integrated plan. 1. The scientific investigation on global warming must focus on controlling measures for emission of green house gases rather than studying its negative effects. 2. The positive effects of global warming must be studied in detail so that a future crop and animal ecosystem plan has to be developed suiting the climatic conditions of the world. 3. Deforestation has to be controlled by imposing a strict legal policy at both national and international levels. 4. Afforestation and reforestation have to be encouraged on large scale and minimum percent of geographical area in all the countries must be brought under forests. 5. Emphasis must be given on planting bio-fuel species like Jatropha ((Jatropha curcas)) so that the pressure on conventional fuels like petrol and diesel would be reduced significantly. 6. Public awareness campaigns about global warming and its post effects have to be arranged at frequent intervals in all the nations. The support of media should be taken in this regard. 7. The United Nations Programme on global warming must be implemented in all the nations. 8. International agreements made on controlling the emission rates of green house gases must be implemented strictly, otherwise, fines have to be imposed and favourable nation status has to be withdrawn. 9. Integrated global warming action plan for next 50 years has to be developed at national and international levels. Benefits and Challenges of the plan proposed Benefits The main benefit of this plan is to control global warming in most integrated manner. As global warming is caused by several factors which are influenced by the practices of different regions, it can be controlled only by strong coordination among all the nations. The present plan provides enough scope for the same. This plan also focuses much on scientific investigations related to control measures for global warming than its after affects. In situations where global warming is inevitable, we should concentrate on eco-friendly technologies that emit less quantities of green house gases which is facilitated by this plan. The media attention on global warming would certainly make public awareness so that the action plan of the government would be fruitful. The cultivation of bio-fuel species like jatropha can be encouraged in both developed and developing nations in wastelands so that the pressure on non renewal energy sources can be reduced to a great level. Jatropha seeds can result in oil production up to 34 % (Achten et al., 2008). Indian beech tree can result in production of Karanja methyl ester (KME) which acts as bio diesel and is found to reduce the emission of green house gases like carbon monoxide to a significant level (Nabi et al., 2009). Challenges As this plan requires support from various nations, the strong coordination is very much required for its successful implementation. The emergence of new political factors in the world may pose threat to the implementation of integrated plan. Similarly, the difference among the developed and developing nations may also affect the success of this plan. Implementing strong legal action on nations who don’t follow the emission norms may not be easy at global level. Government, societal, and global support The public awareness about the integrated plan for controlling the global warming is crucial as they can play vital role in questioning the governments related to their action plans. The vehicular pollution must be controlled strictly through out the world. The industrial pollution has to be controlled by imposing legal norms on firms violating the pollution norms. Legal action from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is required to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. The public private partnership has to be encouraged for better coordination. For example, the World Banks Prototype Carbon Fund is a public private partnership that operates within the Kyoto Protocols Clean Development Mechanism CDM. The pollution in US states like New York can be minimized considerably by blending these bio-fuels along with petrol or diesel and hence US government must focus on strengthening the efforts of United states Department of Agriculture (USDA) in enhancing the area under cultivation of bio-diesel plantations. Several wastelands have to be converted towards the plantation of bio-diesel vegetation which not only provides additional net returns to the farmers but also aids in reducing the environmental pollution. This bio-diesel can be mixed with petrol or diesel in a balanced ratio so that the pressure on conventional fuels can be reduced. As assured by our President Barack Obama, the government should exhibit its commitment towards environmental friendly technology by allocating higher investment on bio-diesel vegetation. It is heartening to note that the President has emphasized on more flexible US policy for reducing the green house gases and supported the Kyoto Protocol whose first commitment period for reducing the green house gases ends by 2012 (Environment News Service, 2009). References Achten, W. M. J., Verchot, L., Franken, Y. J., Mathijs, E., Singh, V. P., Aerts, R. & Muys, B. (2008). Jatropha bio-diesel production and use (a literature review). Biomass and Bioenergy, 32(12):1063-1084. Christianson, G. E. (1999). The Green house: The 200-year story of global warming. Walker & Company publication. P:305, ISBN-10: 0802713467. Kaplan, J. (2002). A chilling warmth: A tale of global warming. I-Universe publication, P:140. ISBN-10: 0595257917. Moore, T. (1998). Climate of fear: Why we shouldn’t worry about global warming. Cato institute publication, P:152, ISBN-10: 1882577655. Nabi, M. N., Hoque, S. M. N. & Akhter, M. S. (2009). Karanja (Pongamia pinnata) biodiesel production in Bangaldesh, characterization of Karanja biodiesel and its effect on diesel emissions. Fuel Processing Technology. 90 (9): 1080-1086. Read More