Global warming
We’ve read about the success of the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Sen. Loren Legarda, in her speech on the event, said that the most important aspect of the negotiations among 195 countries meeting in Paris, France, “is that all nations have accepted the reality of climate change and the need for urgent climate action with the aim of limiting global temperature rise to “well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.”
“Although the agreement is not 100 percent the way we would have wanted it to be, we are optimistic that all nations will be committed to doing their fair share of the deal. The Agreement has been hailed by many sectors as signaling the end of the fossil fuel era and ushering in sustainable economic growth fueled by clean energy,” the senator added.
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Many people, including myself, are still hazy about the term ?“global warming.” Surfing through the Internet, one finds the definition of the term as “a gradual increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere and its oceans, a change that is believed to be permanently changing the Earth’s climate. There is great debate among many people, and sometimes in the news, on whether global warming is real (some call it a hoax). But climate scientists looking at the data and facts agree the planet is warming. While many view the effects of global warming to be more substantial and more rapidly occurring than others do, the scientific consensus on climatic changes related to global warming is that the average temperature of the Earth has risen between 0.4 and 0.8 °C over the past 100 years. The increased volumes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases released by the burning of fossil fuels, land clearing, agriculture, and other human activities, are believed to be the primary sources of the global warming that has occurred over the past 50 years. Scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate carrying out global warming research have recently predicted that average global temperatures could increase between 1.4 and 5.8 °C by the year 2100. Changes resulting from global warming may include rising sea levels due to the melting of the polar ice caps, as well as an increase in occurrence and severity of storms and other severe weather events.”
Notes from scientists reveal the following facts: “The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused (directly or indirectly) by human emissions of greenhouse gases. There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring, and that human activities are the primary driver. Many impacts of climate change have already been observed, including glacier retreat, changes in the timing of seasonal events (e.g., earlier flowering of plants), and changes in agricultural productivity.
“Future effects of climate change will vary depending on climate change policies and social development. The two main policies to address climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions (climate change mitigation) and adapting to the impacts of climate change. Geoengineering is another policy option.
“Near-term climate change policies could significantly affect long-term climate change impacts. Stringent mitigation policies might be able to limit global warming (in 2100) to around 2 °C or below, relative to pre-industrial levels. Without mitigation, increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels might lead to global warming of around 4 °C. Higher magnitudes of global warming would be more difficult to adapt to, and would increase the risk of negative impacts.”
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Another article goes: “Earth is very special planet – its orbits close enough to the sun to receive a lot of energy, but far enough away not to be scorched.
“It is in what you might call the ‘goldilocks zone,’ where the conditions are just right for life as we know it.
“To help keep these conditions constant, our planet is wrapped in a layer of greenhouse gases.
“This layer acts like a blanket, keeping the earth warm and shielding it from the cold of universe. This is commonly referred to as the greenhouse effect.
“Carbon dioxide (CO2), which, while not the most potent greenhouse gas, is nevertheless the main driver of the greenhouse effect.
“When fossil fuels – coal, oil and natural gas – are burnt they release CO2 into the atmosphere.
“Because of this the layer of greenhouse gas is getting thicker, which is in turn making the Earth warmer.
“Thus the ongoing unlimited burning of fossil fuels is the cause of climate change.
“In order to satisfy our endless hunger for energy we are burning unlimited quantities of fossil fuels.
“But this does not have to be the case, thanks to human ingenuity there are now more ways to make energy.”
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WFF Germany’s Andrew Kerr writes that “the biggest climate polluter is the global power sector which generates around 40 percent of all global electricity from coal. We need electricity – but when you take into account the true cost of coal there are much better ways to get it!
“According to the International Agency the power sector is responsible for 37 percent of all man-made Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions. It creates about 23 billion tons of CO2 emissions per year – in excess of 700 tons a second.
“In turn, this CO2 continues to heat up our planet which poses an unprecedented threat to us and the environment.
“Generating electricity through the burning of fossil fuels, in particular carbon-heavy coal, has a greater impact on the atmosphere than any other single human activity.”
“According to Andrew Kerr, “Weaning humanity off coal will not be easy. There is an estimated billion billion people with no access to domestic electricity, and recoverable reserves of coal exist in about 70 countries, according to the World Coal Institute, an industry lobby group (the largest reserves are in the United States, Russia and China). Coal is considered a cheap form of energy.”
But, writes Kerr, “The true cost of coal is not found on any balance sheet, but in the lives and health of people and ecosystems. If the global power sector could be made fully accountable for the true costs of pollution and climate change, it would probably turn away from fossil fuel overnight.
“Too many governments still subsidize coal production which distort the energy market. OECD countries support their coal industry with a whopping US$430 billion annually.
“Much cleaner renewable energies are hampered in their ability to compete with a dirty fuel that is so heavily subsidized. Politicians have the power to remove fossil0fuel subsidies or, better still, transfer them to renewable energy.”
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Senator Legarda hailed US President Barck Obama’s plan to significantly reduce emissions from US power plants “as part of his commitment to fight climate change.”
Obama and the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan aims to reduce overall carbon emissions by 32 per cent by the year 2030, as compared to 2005 levels.
Legard, UN Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation for Asia-Pacific, said that she hopes more nations, including the Philippines, will express their commitment to mitigate climate change through a clear-cut climate action plan especially on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction.
The senator, said her media bureau said the senator added that the Philippines, a very low GHG emitter with only 0.31 per cent average global share from 1990-2010, should also shift to a low-carbon economy,
“We need to progressively decrease our dependence on fossil fuels, especially coal, and shift to renewable energy. I hope we do not approve more coal-fired power plant projects, otherwise, we are contributing to our own destruction.”
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