Global Warming and its solutions

Yogesh Athale D14, TE, EXTC e-mail:yogesh_a77@yahoo.com Ph:0251 2430065

Global Warming Global Warming is defined as the increase of the average temperature on Earth. As the Earth is getting hotter, disasters like hurricanes, droughts and floods are getting more frequent. It leads to increasingly hot days in the summer, and a host of negative impacts are expected to intensify in thecoming decades. More heat waves will likely increase the risk of heat-related illnesses and deaths. Cities and towns along the nation's major rivers will experience more severe and frequent flooding, while others will experience prolonged droughts. Over the last 100 years, the average temperature of the air near the Earths surface has risen a little less than 1 Celsius (0.74 0.18C, or 1.3 0.32 Fahrenheit). An increase of one degree Celsius makes the Earth warmer now than it has been for at least a thousand years. Out of the 20 warmest years on record, 19 have occurred since 1980. The three hottest years ever observed have all occurred in the last eight years. The global warming we now experience is not a natural occurrence and that it is not brought on by natural causes. The Earth is warming, and we are helping make it happen by adding more heat-trapping gases, primarily carbon

dioxide (CO2), to the atmosphere. The burning of fossil fuel (oil, coal, and natural gas) alone accounts for about 75 percent of annual CO2 emissions from human activities. Deforestation accounts for about another 20 percent. Our atmosphere has its limits. CO2 remains in the atmosphere for about 100 years. The longer we keep polluting, the longer it will take to recover and the more irreversible damage will be done. Solutions Make Better Cars and SUV's Better transmissions and engines, more aerodynamic designs, and stronger yet lighter material for chassis and bodies can cost-effectively increase the average fuel economy of today's automotive fleet from 24 mpg to 40 miles per gallon (mpg) over 10 years. This would be equivalent to taking 44 million cars off the roadand it would save individual drivers thousands of dollars in fuel costs over the life of a vehicle. For each gallon of gas burnt, 20 pounds of heat-trapping CO2 is released into the atmosphere. Hybrid engines give better gas mileage which reduces global warming. Modernize Electricity System Most electricity is produced today from outdated, coal-burning power plants that dump pollutants and heat-trapping gases into our atmosphere. In fact, power plants are the single largest source of CO2. Increasing our use of clean renewable energy, investing in energy efficiency, and reducing pollution from fossil fuel plants we can save money for consumers,

reduce heat-trapping emissions, and lessen the need for new coal or gas power plants. We could reduce power plant CO2 emissions by 60 percent till 2020. Consumers would save a total of $440 billion if this is accompalished.

remain standing. We should develop partnerships with other countries to help them better conserve their forests. Carbon Credits Carbon credits are generated by enterprises in the developing world that shift to cleaner technologies and thereby save on energy consumption, consequently reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. For each tonne of carbon dioxide (the major Green House Gas) emission avoided, the entity can get a carbon emission certificate which they can sell either immediately or through a futures market, just like any other commodity. We should expand the existing system to allow private companies to get credit for reducing carbon when they acquire and permanently set aside natural forests for conservation. Geologic Carbon Sequestration It involves storing carbon underground as a potentially viable way to reduce CO2 released into the atmosphere. CO2 could be captured at the power plant or other production unit and returned underground. The possibility of "fertilizing" our oceans with iron to enhance their natural capacity to absorb carbon, and marine sequestration, which involves injecting liquid carbon compounds into the deep ocean, is also being explored.However we must fully evaluate environmental coseqences of such processes before any widespread application.

Increase Energy Efficiency Better technology for transportation and power generation, the technology for more efficient motors, appliances, windows, homes is available which saves energy. In the past two decades, energyefficiency standards for household appliances kept 53 million tons of heat-trapping gases out of the air each year. By 2020, these efficiency gains alone will reduce the need for up to 150 new medium-sized (300 megawatt) power plants. Efficiency standards for commercial equipment such as refrigerators, heaters, furnaces, and public lighting also have significant room for improvement. Protect Threatened Forests Forests play a critical role in climate change: they store carbon, the base of CO2. When forests are burned, cleared, or degraded, their stored carbon is released into the atmosphere. Tropical deforestation now accounts for about 20 percent of all human-caused CO2 emissions each year.The forests could double their storage of carbon if timber managers lengthened the time between harvests and allowed older trees to

The above mentioned solutions are just a few simple ones among a plethora of steps that may be taken to avoid the serious consequences of Global Warming. This indicates that even a few simple steps can be the the instruments of a major change, which will definitely go a long way in restoring the Earths environmental balance.