global warming & control
DESCRIPTION
I want to stress that people have gotten an unfortunately weird view of global warming by listening to various people perhaps purposefully confuse the issue. What was really revelatory to me, as one of those people who was by no means an expert -- and I still don't consider myself a scientific expert -- is that we're not talking about a speculative thing. The notion that you put more CO2 up there and you get a warmer world is not debatable at all. This has been understood for a century now. Global warming is real. The only debatable issue is how warm it will get. That's really the only question. And, yes, it's complicated but everything that we've learned has tended to support the conclusion that the effects will be quite significant. What people ought to know is that there's nothing that's been learned that suggestsTRANSCRIPT
History of Earth
• Earth formed ~4.6 billion years ago
• Originally very hot
• Sun’s energy output only 70% of present
• Liquid water present ~4.3 billion years
Earth’s Atmospheric Gases
Nitrogen (N2)
Oxygen (O2)
Water (H2O)
Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
Methane (CH4)
Non-Greenhouse
Gases99%
GreenhouseGases
1%
Global Warming
• Global warming is when the earth heats up (the temperature rises).
• It happens when greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrous oxide, and methane) trap heat and light from the sun in the earth’s atmosphere, which increases the temperature.
Global Warming - Examples
1914 2004
Greenhouse EffectSun
• The greenhouse effect is when the temperature goes up, on Earth, since the sun’s heat and light energy is trapped in the earth’s atmosphere.
• While the heat from the sun enters our atmosphere, the heat has trouble leaving back out our atmosphere
Greenhouse Effect
Greenhouse Gases
Water
Carbon dioxide Sulfur hexafluorideNitrous oxide
Methane
CO2 | NH4 | N20
Control on Greenhouse Gases
Small changes really add up
Replace your old refrigerator with a new Energy Star: Annual savings: $90; 700 pounds CO2
Set your thermostat down a few degrees in the winterAnnual savings: $135; 1400 pounds CO2
Wash clothes in cold water onlyAnnual savings: $70; 500 pounds CO2
Drive JUST 10 fewer miles per weekAnnual savings: $80; 520 pounds CO2
Reduce your garbage by 10% through greater recycling or reduced packagingAnnual savings: 1200 pounds CO2
Replacing just 1 incandescent light bulb with 1 compact florescent bulb saves about 150 pounds of carbon dioxide per year!
Our take-home message…Save the WORLD its your home
No single technology will stop global warming, but there is a silver bullet: a cap on carbon that will launch all these solutions into the mainstream