Lecture 7: Paris Agreement and the current climate crisis Flashcards
humanity has raised global CO2 conc by__ over the last 50 years
85ppm
- since industrial revolution we have raised global CO2 conc by over 120ppm
Carbon budget:
amount of C human beings can acceptably release into atmosphere without it being a dangerous level of CO2
- 2.25 trillion tonnes since 1870, should keep up to a 1.5 degrees C rise in overall global temp
Where are CO2 emissions from?
2 major sources:
- fossil fuels, cement & flaring (industry)
- forestry and other land use
most of our CO2 emissions are as a result of ___ production:
68% of energy
- cars
- lights
- powering industry
BURNING OF FOSSIL FUELS
The fate of CO2 (released by us)
- 45% into atmosphere
- 30% into land
- 26% into Oceans
efficiently of CO2 sinks
atmosphere, oceans & land
- sinks have continued to grow with increasing emissions
- more were putting in, the more they’re absorbing
- BUT likely to be a limit to the amount the LAND and the OCEAN can absorbs
how long does CO2 stay in the atmosphere??
V long lived,
–even after 100years, 33% will still be present
19% at 1000 years
effects of rising CO2:
1) increased temperature
2) more extremes of weather
3) ocean acidification
4) sea level rise
global warming found where most?
in the higher latitudes
- warming in those areas i.e ice melting –> sea levels rise
global views on global warming: diff peoples views
- clear evidence of prolonged warming
- warming seen as a positive in some places (PUTIN in Russia, UK farming)
- some regions have cooled
biggest emitters = biggest warming??
NO i.e brazil biggest deforestation but they don’t experience warming
Climate dice =
- Hansen
- describe the chance of unusually warm or cool seasons
- GREATER CHANCES OF EXTREME HIGH TEMPS
- that have become more and more ‘loaded’ in the past 30 years, coinciding with rapid global warming
- unusually warm anomalies is INCREASING
warmest year on record
2016
-some areas in arctic = 4 degrees C higher than normal
climate dice: Southern/ northern hemisphere experiencing these unusual great changes the most?
- SOUTHERN
- more variable and bigger effects
- issue as where a lot of rainforests and developing countries (much smaller producer of CO2)
effects of Climate Dice not always felt most by
biggest emitters
Earths energy imbalance
- more energy in than going out
- 2005 -2010 energy imbalance = 0.58 W/m^2
== WARMING - evidence the number is going up
Earths energy imbalance: temp should be going up faster than it is, WHY
They didn’t consider the oceans absorbing CO2
-
ARGO floats
- under water robots that controls earths oceans, measure ocean heat gain since 2005
- 3907 floats in Feb 2019
what do the ARGO floats tell us
- 90% of excess energy is going into the oceans
- not just absorbing CO2, also absorbing the heat produced from global warming
Policy frameworks to solving CC: policy vs politics
- policy = how the country is governed
- politics = who decides how the country is governed
- Ideally == policy driven by SCIENTISTS, not the case
- policy tries to make things better, politics = tries to win votes
Policy frameworks to solving CC: major group for climate change is
UN Climate Change (UNFCCC)
- est in 1992
Policy frameworks to solving CC: Paris 2015 COP
- changed the definition of safe level son CO2 emissions
- huge step forward in terms of climate policy
- each country must determine, plan & report on the contribution that it undertakes to mitigate global warming
- targets decided by each individual country, but must be better to prior ones
- established rules for Carbon Trading
- not exceed 1.5 degrees celsius global temp increase
