Where Are We Going?

The amount of carbon that has been emitted globally by anthropogenic emissions and land clearing, from 1750 to 2011 is totaled at  555 ± 85 PgC (1 Pg is 1015 grams, or one billion metric tonnes), this rate of release of carbon is only seen at one other period in the geological past, the Palaeocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM). The PETM occured at ~56Ma, when it's postulated that massive methane hydrates were released from the sea, which then oxidised to CO2, stimulating a huge greenhouse effect, resulting in ~5oC global average increase in temperatures, persisting for ~100,000 years. 

 The current concentration of CO2 in the atmopshere is 403.3 ± 0.1 ppm, and is increasing at 2.21ppm per year, continuing along this path without drastic changes in government policy as well changes to lifestyle choices, is going to lead to a world similar to that of the PETM. This experiment we're running with world climate is unacceptable from a global perspective, with the most vulnerable people often those who will feel the strongest effects.

 You can calculate your carbon footprint and identify the most effective ways for you to reduce your input of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. My results are below.

Figure 1. Showing the authors' carbon footprint. For everyone on Earth to have a similar lifestyle as myself, we would need ~3 Earths worth of resources, obviously not a sustainable scenario. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

To go Green, we'll have to get Dirty

Image
To elaborate from the previous posts in this bog, which have touched upon the Australian renewable sector, I wanted to approach a potentially feather ruffling topic. A key way in which Australia will be incorporated into the global communities struggle, to mitigate anthropogenic climate change, is by proving the raw materials from which a greener future will be built.  A quote from which I have not been able to find a source, although there are frequent bumper stickers in more industrial and agricultural reliant communities reads; "Everything is either farmed or mined"  D e-industrialisation  through western Europe has led to a population which can be significantly removed from where the everyday items of their life come from.  I bring this to your attention, because there is a largely overlooked issue of how we will produce solar panels, wind turbines, wave power generators, as well as the large scale battery systems which will enable humanity to be weaned from fo
Read more

Frosty the Bushman

Image
CSIRO ( The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation)  blog CSIROscope, recently posted , summarizing a paper  documenting the anomalously high number of frosts  during the winter of 2016, in SW Western Australia and tried to identify an anthropogenic climate change fingerprint in this  (sub-zero temperatures and frosts in WA shown in Fig.1). Figure 1. Left) Temperatures locally of -3.5 o C in SW Australia during July 2017 . Right) Freezing conditions recorded in Western Australia during July 2017. Photos - J Chapman. The paper concludes that variations in the large-scale circulation patterns, resulting from anthropogenic influence have caused an enhancement in weather systems, causing more cold episodes, during winter, in SW Western Australia. Showing that the outcomes of climate change can be unexpected and complex, even though nation wide the temperature has risen by  +0.94° C  since 1911. The SW region of WA is known as the wheatbelt  (as touched
Read more