Climate Change - a new clean exciting world
Global temperatures are rising and are predicted to cause imminent species extinctions and the rising of sea levels (see IPCC report). The way the political world is addressing climate breakdown is to try to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere. CO2* is a greenhouse gas, as its molecules vibrate, absorbing infrared and then re-transmitting it - effectively reducing infrared re-radiation into space and so increasing the earth’s temperature. Currently, levels are too high which causes global heating. Water vapour, methane, nitrous oxide, HFC's are more powerful greenhouse gasses but have shorter half lives. Water vapour can work both ways. It forms cumulus clouds, which act to reflect and cool the earth. Water vapour allows a positive feedback loop as warmer air holds more water.
So, the problem is that the earth is over-heating and the politicians and scientists have identified CO2 as the main culprit. Nevertheless, atmospheric CO2 continues to rise year on year with no hint of slowing down (see graph).
*(CO2 is essential for life on earth. It is the source of our carbohydrate and plant life as well as it’s normal greenhouse gas function of keeping the earth 30 deg warmer than the default -18 deg C. We need some of it to be a greenhouse gas! It is very wrong to call it a pollutant.)
The problems are
1) The amount of pollution we produce damages our ecosystems, having extremely negative impacts on humans, other animals, plants, fungi and all living organisms.
2) Our transport system is dominated by cars and trucks, causing greenhouse gases to be released, pollution and casualties in humans and other animals. In fact, cars kill over 1.3 million people and injure ~40 million people every year. Motorised traffic is not conducive to children playing outside or adults drinking coffee on the pavement inches away from vehicles. Combustion engines produce pollutants like nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, carbon particles and carbon monoxide. Electric vehicles still produce these pollutants at distant power stations, there is not enough green electricity in the grid to power expected EV's.
3) Animal agriculture - the biggest polluting industry by far. The industry produces poisonous pollutants, river death, rainforest destruction, excess greenhouse gasses, excess land and water use, and unnecessary death and harm to billions of animals. Over 1 billion people don't have clean drinking water. A plant based system would free up 75% agricultural land. Most crops are grown to feed the 80 billion land animals we kill each year.
4) Housing - every human should be allowed to build a non transferable (but swappable) house on 1 acre of land.
Solutions
If we address the three problems above, as a by-product we will reduce CO2 emissions. So, instead of abstract concepts like reducing CO2, we need excellent public transport, investment in clean energy generation, super insulation, housing and plant based agriculture. This would create a clean, safe, human friendly planet that we will want to live on. It makes the problems into exciting solutions.
We know that we are failing to reduce atmospheric CO2 year on year, we need to accept that. In addition to the above, we need to paint vast amounts of the built environment with highly reflective material. Some of this can be PV which reflects infrared but absorbs other frequencies, other materials can be very cheaply painted with chalk paint or whitewash. Re-clouding is a similar reflective technology, we need to pursue. We need to purchase the Amazon rainforests via a UN trust, re-forest and protect in perpetuity.
There is a danger that by concentrating solely on CO2 reduction as our solution to the climate crisis, the three problems above will still exist and increase. Pollution, unnecessary casualties and ecosystem destruction will still continue even if we miraculously are able to halve atmospheric CO2 overnight.
Graph below shows CO2 is increasing every year and the rate of increase is increasing.
Global temperatures are rising and are predicted to cause imminent species extinctions and the rising of sea levels (see IPCC report). The way the political world is addressing climate breakdown is to try to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere. CO2* is a greenhouse gas, as its molecules vibrate, absorbing infrared and then re-transmitting it - effectively reducing infrared re-radiation into space and so increasing the earth’s temperature. Currently, levels are too high which causes global heating. Water vapour, methane, nitrous oxide, HFC's are more powerful greenhouse gasses but have shorter half lives. Water vapour can work both ways. It forms cumulus clouds, which act to reflect and cool the earth. Water vapour allows a positive feedback loop as warmer air holds more water.
So, the problem is that the earth is over-heating and the politicians and scientists have identified CO2 as the main culprit. Nevertheless, atmospheric CO2 continues to rise year on year with no hint of slowing down (see graph).
*(CO2 is essential for life on earth. It is the source of our carbohydrate and plant life as well as it’s normal greenhouse gas function of keeping the earth 30 deg warmer than the default -18 deg C. We need some of it to be a greenhouse gas! It is very wrong to call it a pollutant.)
The problems are
1) The amount of pollution we produce damages our ecosystems, having extremely negative impacts on humans, other animals, plants, fungi and all living organisms.
2) Our transport system is dominated by cars and trucks, causing greenhouse gases to be released, pollution and casualties in humans and other animals. In fact, cars kill over 1.3 million people and injure ~40 million people every year. Motorised traffic is not conducive to children playing outside or adults drinking coffee on the pavement inches away from vehicles. Combustion engines produce pollutants like nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, carbon particles and carbon monoxide. Electric vehicles still produce these pollutants at distant power stations, there is not enough green electricity in the grid to power expected EV's.
3) Animal agriculture - the biggest polluting industry by far. The industry produces poisonous pollutants, river death, rainforest destruction, excess greenhouse gasses, excess land and water use, and unnecessary death and harm to billions of animals. Over 1 billion people don't have clean drinking water. A plant based system would free up 75% agricultural land. Most crops are grown to feed the 80 billion land animals we kill each year.
4) Housing - every human should be allowed to build a non transferable (but swappable) house on 1 acre of land.
Solutions
If we address the three problems above, as a by-product we will reduce CO2 emissions. So, instead of abstract concepts like reducing CO2, we need excellent public transport, investment in clean energy generation, super insulation, housing and plant based agriculture. This would create a clean, safe, human friendly planet that we will want to live on. It makes the problems into exciting solutions.
We know that we are failing to reduce atmospheric CO2 year on year, we need to accept that. In addition to the above, we need to paint vast amounts of the built environment with highly reflective material. Some of this can be PV which reflects infrared but absorbs other frequencies, other materials can be very cheaply painted with chalk paint or whitewash. Re-clouding is a similar reflective technology, we need to pursue. We need to purchase the Amazon rainforests via a UN trust, re-forest and protect in perpetuity.
There is a danger that by concentrating solely on CO2 reduction as our solution to the climate crisis, the three problems above will still exist and increase. Pollution, unnecessary casualties and ecosystem destruction will still continue even if we miraculously are able to halve atmospheric CO2 overnight.
Graph below shows CO2 is increasing every year and the rate of increase is increasing.
