The Risk of Global Climate Change,

Development Goals, and Strategies

Presented by:

Tatiana Ivanova

Ashley Jerome

Thien Do

Climate Change Context

• Climate change is a result of global warming

• Includes:

o Temperature

o Humidity

o Rainfall

o Wind

o Storms

• Climate Change is seldom listed among the stressors that might influence sustainability.

Climate Change: How Did We

Get Here?

• Humans are largely responsible for releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere

o Burning fossil fuel for energy

o Deforestation

o Industrial processes

o Some agricultural practices

Climate Change Example:Asian Air Pollution

• Using models and data from the past 30 years, researchers found that air pollution over Asia (mainly China) is impacting global air circulations

• Booming economies and industrialization produces huge amounts of air pollutants

o Pollutants are strengthening storms above the Pacific Ocean which feeds into weather systems in other parts of the world

Climate Change Issues Today:2014 Sochi Olympics

• Conscious efforts were made to make the 2014 Sochi Olympics as sustainable as possible

o Efficient technology for heating and lighting

o Solar panels

• According to official estimates: carbon dioxide emissions directly and indirectly (travel for judges and spectators) resulting from the games amount to the equivalent of providing electricity from a coal plant to 2 million people

o These estimates do not include:

Emissions from construction

Carbon dioxide released from cutting down trees and disturbing soil

Climate ChangeAdaptation Failure:

Chernobyl Nuclear Explosion

• 4/26/1986 in Chernobyl, Ukraine

o Operating crews deliberately turned off the safety systems to perform turbine tests

o Power surge resulted and reactor’s fuel elements ruptures

o Fuel rods melted

o Graphite covering of the reactor ignited and burned for 9 days

Released radiation into the environment

Climate ChangeAdaptation Failure:

Chernobyl Nuclear Explosion• 800,000 people were exposed to the

radiation

o Most will die from cancer

• Flora and fauna have indeed been affected

• Final notes:

o Some climate change scientists currently say that nuclear energy is the best alternative to burning fossil fuels

o There are risks (i.e. the Chernobyl explosion) so it’s not an “end-all solution”

• Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale

Climate Change Adaptation Failure:Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster

• 3/11/2014 in Okuma, Fukushima, Japan

o Nuclear Power Plant was hit by tsunami triggered by the Tohoku earthquake

o Three of the plant’s six nuclear reactors melted

o The plant began releasing substantial amounts of radioactive materials

Climate Change Adaptation Failure:Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster

• Continued spills of contaminated water into the sea

• 1,600 deaths were related to the evacuation conditions

• Disaster produced the largest discharge of radioactive material into the ocean in history.

• Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale

Other Nuclear Accidents

• Kyshtym disaster at Mayak Chemikal Combine (MCC). Soviet Union, 1957 (6)

• Windscale fire. Unated Kingdom, 1957 (5)

• First Chalk River accident. Canada, 1952 (5)

• Goiania accident. Brazil, 1987 (5)

Nuclear Impact on Climate Change

• Fires from explosions lift dark smoke aerosol particles into the upper parts of the atmosphere

• Absorption of sunlight heat the smoke and lift it into the stratosphere

• Smoke can persist for years and block out the Sun’s light

• Causing surface temperatures to drop drastically

Nuclear Winter:• Disastrous implications for

agriculture• Threatened food supply for

most of the planet• Up to one billion people can die

from starvation

Climate Change: Major Forcing Mechanisms

• Human influence

o Greenhouse gases

o Particulates and soot

• Orbital variations

• Plate tectonics

• Solar activity

• Volcanism

Recent Developments:Governments

• GCF opens in Korea, 12/2013

• COP-19 in Warsaw. 11/2013

• IPCCC publishes carbon budget, 9/2013

• Human causes of climate change, 5/2013

• China to cut HCFCs, 4/2013

• California-Canadian initiative, 4/2013

Recent Developments: Businesses

• Climate Counts rated 136 companies in 16 industries based on their "corporate climate responsibility.“

• Their 22-criteria assessment divides into four sub-

sections, which they define as follows:

o Review: Is the company taking inventory of their greenhouse gas

(GHG) emissions using an industry accepted accounting protocol? (22 possible points)

o Reduce: Has the company articulated a strategy for reducing GHG

emissions and have they succeeded in achieving actual reductions? (56 possible points)

o Policy Stance: Does the company explicitly support the need

for comprehensive energy and climate policy or is there evidence they oppose such measures? (10 possible points)

o Report: Is the company publicly disclosing information about

their sustainability efforts and their progress toward carbon neutrality? (12 possible points)

Recent Developments: Big Data

• Emissions Savings

o Moving business applications to the cloud could cut the associated per-user carbon footprint by 30 percent for large, already-efficient companies

o As much as 90 percent for the smallest and least efficient businesses

o Customers of fast-growing cloud computing giant Salesforce’s services produced 95 percent less carbon, on average

o The Salesforce community saved an estimated 170,900 tones of carbon in 2010

• Energy Efficiency

o Greenpeace estimate that cloud computing worldwide demanded 662 TWh of electricity in 2007, more than the power consumed by India or Germany.

o The cloud has certain advantages over on-site servers as these must be equipped for peak data usage

• Environmentally Friendly?

Greenest U.S. Companies Ranked By Newsweek

1. IBM

2. Hewlett-Packard

3. Sprint Nextel

4. Baxter

5. Dell

6. Johnson & Johnson

7. Accenture

8. Office Depot

9. CA Technologies

10. NVIDIA

11. Agilent Technologies

12. Hartford Financials

13. EMC Corporation

14. Adobe

15. Intel Corporation

How Companies have Become so Green

• Energy Savings Contracts

• Behavior Change Energy Conservation

– Strive for Five

– Reduce the Juice

– Slash the Trash

– Be Bold Go Cold

Working with:•Healthcare•Corrections•Commercial•Industrial•Utilities•State, local, & Municipal Government•Federal Government•K-12 Education•Higher Education (UMASSD!)

Climate Change: The Future Outlook

Environmental Effects of Climate Change

Climate Change:Regional Impacts

North America

o decreasing snowpack in western

mountains

o 5-20% increase in rain-fed agriculture

o heat waves

Latin America

o Tropical forest Savannah in eastern

Amazonia

o species extinction

o changes in water availability

Europe

o flash floods

o coastal flooding and erosion

o glacial retreat

o reduced snow cover

o extensive species loss

o crop productivity reduced

Climate Change:Regional Impacts

Africa

o year 2020: 75-250 million

people exposed to increased

water stress

o year 2020: up to 50% decrease

in rain-fed agriculture

o severely compromised

agricultural production and

access to food

Asia

o 2050s decrease in freshwater

availability in Central, South,

East, Southeast Asia

o increased flooding put coastal

areas at risk

o rise in death rate from flood

and drought-associated

disease

Increasing Effect on Natural Resources

Climate Change:Goals & Strategies

The Goal:

Stabilize Greenhouse Gases at about 450-550 ppm

How hot will it get in our Lifetime?

● Increase energy efficiency

● Green transportation

● Use more Renewable sources (Solar, Wind, Geothermal, Bioenergy,)

● Avoid fossil fuels

● Biofuels from crops

● Natural gas

● Storing CO2 emitted from fossil fuels underground

● Maintain and increase forestlands to naturally absorb CO2

National Geographic’s Great Energy Challenge

Real World Strategies

● Green Roofs

● Green Buildings

● Green Transportation

Works Cited

http://www.climatehotmap.org/global-warming-solutions/

http://www.environmentabout.com/1502/difference-between-climate-change-global-warming

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/interactive/2013/sep/27/climate-change-how-hot-lifetime-interactive

http://climate.nasa.gov/index

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/basics/

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27027876

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/524391/the-sochi-olympics-arent-as-green-as-advertised/

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/nuclear/nomorechernobyls/what-happened-in-chernobyl/

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/20/business/economy/unavoidable-answer-to-problem-of-climate-change.html

http://www.ipcc-wg2.gov/AR4/website/20.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Bry-Flk2S2c

http://www.noresco.com/index.html

Thank You!

Any Questions?