Task 6 Global Warming

Question:

Supposed you are living in a coastal city. The city administrator has noticed that the mean sea level has been rising for the past 50 years. The raising is small but over a long period of time it may cause problems in the city cit y centre as the level of that part p art of the city is quite llow. ow. If you are hired as a consultant, write a plan of action on what can be done to reduce or mitigate the problems. The report must include Mitigation and and Adaptation measures.

INTRODUCTION

Global warming refers to an unequivocal and continuing rise in the average temperature of Earth’s climate system. Since 1971, 90% of the warming has occurred in the oceans. Despite the oceans’ dominant role in energy storage, the term “global warming” is also used to refer to increases in average average temperature of the air and sea at Earth’s surface. Global warming is caused by human activities that emit heat-trapping carbon dioxide has raised the average global temperature by about 1°F (0.6°C) over the past century. In the oceans, this change has only been about 0.18°F (0.1°C). Warming has occurred from the surface to a depth of about 2,300 feet (700 meters), where most marine life thrives. Human influence has been detected in warming of the atmosphere and the ocean, in changes in the global water cycle, in reductions in snow and ice, in global mean sea level rise, and in changes in some climate extremes. Due to the warming, the ocean organism especially coral has been the most vulnerable organism to temperature change. Other organism that could be affected by temperature change includes krill, an extremely important link at the base of the food chain. Research has shown that krill reproduce in significantly smaller numbers when ocean temperature rises. Eventually, it could affect life cycle of krill eaters, such as penguins and and seals which in turn causes food shortages for higher predators.

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The global mean land-ocean temperature change from 1880-2013 as shown in the figure above is relative to the 1951-1980 mean. The black line is the annual mean and the red line is the 5-year running mean. The green bars show uncertainty estimates.

The map above shows the 10-year 10- year average (2000-2009) global mean temperature anomaly relative to the 1951-1980 mean. The largest temperature increases are in the Arctic and the Antartic Peninsula.

ACTION PLAN

There are different views over the appropriate policy polic y response to climate change should be. These competing views weigh the benefits of limiting emissions of greenhouse gases a gainst the costs. In general, it seems likely that climate change will impose greater damages and risks in poorer regions. Now let start the action plan by reviewing the major causes of global



At the top half of the diagram, the threat of extinction is pictured. Global warming is seen to be escalating into runaway global warming, warming, to finally lead to wide-scale extinction. The diagram also pictures a proposed three-part climate cl imate action plan with the necessary necessar y lines of action in green and the recommended policies to combat this threat in the yellow field at the bottom. Several lines of action are needed to overcome this threat, for parallel implementation, as pictured in the diagram below.



Any nation can start moving toward a more sustainable economy without need for prior international agreements. In nations with both federal and state governments, they can direct the federal departments and agencies to reduce their emissions for each type of pollutant annually by a set percentage, CO 2 and CH4 by 10%, and HFC s, N2O and soot by higher percentages. Such federal benefits could include building interstate High-Speed Rail tracks, adaptation and conservation measures, management of national parks, R&D into batteries, ways to vegetate deserts and other land use measurements. The fee s can be rough calculated as the average avera ge of fees that other states impose in successful efforts to meet their target. Similar targets could be adopted elsewhere in the world, and each nation could similarly delegate re sponsibilities to states, provinces and further down to local communities. Apart from action to move to a more sustainable e conomy, additional lines of action are necessary to reduce the danger of runaway global warming. Extra fees on international commercial aviation could provide funding for ways to cool the Arctic. Their impact is crossing borders and these additional lines of action will need ongoing research, international agreement and cooperation.



Mitigation

Reducing the amount of future climate change is called mitigation of climate change. Mitigation is also defined as activities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions or enhance the capacity of carbon sinks to absorb greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Studies indicate substantial potential for future reductions in emissions by a combination of emissionreducing activities such as energy conservation, increased energy efficiency, reduce air travel, reduce motorized transportation as this has been the largest culprit in global warming causes, and also reforestation.

Cycling could help in reducing motorized transportation as practiced in Brehmen Cit y.

Use solar panel as energy source would be helpful in r educing electricity usage and thus reduce the temperature surrounds the electricity tower.



Adaptation

Other policy responses include adaptation to climate change. Adaptation to climate change may be planned, either in reaction to or anticipation of cli mate change, or spontaneous which is without government intervention. Planned adaptation is already occurring on a limited basis. The barriers, limits, and costs of future adaptation are not fully understood. A concept related to adaptation is adaptive capacit y which is the ability of a system s ystem (human and natural) to adjust climate change to moderate potential damages, to take advantage of opportunities or to cope with consequences. This includes upgrading drainage system, heat alert system for road lighting, business continuity plan by creating another area with higher ground, control of invasive species and disease control.

Task 6 Global Warming

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