Climate Change: Mitigation

This blog is part 2 of Climate Change: Adaptation and Mitigation, you can find the part 1 in the given link:

https://bit.ly/2MVmCRx

Mitigation is one of the two central approaches in the international climate change process. Mitigation involves human interventions to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases by sources or enhance their removal from the atmosphere by sinks. A sink refers to forests, vegetation or soils that can reabsorb CO2. Carbon Dioxide is the largest contributing gas to the greenhouse effect. In the 200 years since 1800, levels of CO2 have risen by over 30%. Since levels of greenhouse gases are currently rising even more steeply, leading to the most dramatic change in the atmosphere in at least 650,000 years, international action on mitigation is urgently required.

Mitigation can mean using new technologies and renewable energies, making older equipment more energy efficient or changing management practices or consumer behavior. It can as complex as a plan for a new city, or as simple as improvements to a home decor design. Efforts underway around the world range from high-tech subway systems to bicycling paths and walkways. Protecting natural carbon sinks like through green agriculture are also elements of mitigation. UNEP takes a multifaceted approach towards climate change mitigation in its efforts to help countries move towards a low-carbon society.

Manufacturing:

Changing the way industries make products will go a long way towards mitigation manufacturing’s negative environmental impacts. In some cases, simple redesigning a product can improve not only the product’s life span, but also lead to a more sufficient use of resources, easier recycling and less pollution during manufacturing process and life of the product. Modern innovations like recycling heat waste and closed-cycle manufacturing can save both resources and money.

Re-manufacturing and reconditioning, both labor-intensive activities, can create jobs and require relatively little capital investment. To enable these innovations, regulatory reforms and new policies will need to be set in motion, as well as mechanisms that ensure that environmental cost if factored into producers’ calculations.

Energy:

Energy is everywhere. It’s in the sunlight. It’s in the wind. It’s in the ocean. The ocean has heat from soaking up the light energy of the Sun and like the wind, the ocean has energy of motion in the form of waves and currents.

Another form of energy in the ocean is tidal energy. The energy for Earth’s tides comes mostly from the moon’s gravity and a little from sun’s gravity. The part of the ocean facing the moon bulges out. The part of the ocean on exactly the opposite side of earth bulges out too. So as earth turns, the ocean surface seems to rise and fall. Usually, there are two high tides and two low tides each day.

With all that water moving up and down, we ought to be able to capture some of that tidal energy. And we can! We can use tidal energy to supply electricity to our homes and businesses. We can use tidal energy in some places instead of burning coal and oil that contribute to global warming.

Tidal generators or simply turbines work like wind turbines, except it is ocean currents, not wind, that turns them. The spinning turbine is connected to another devices that produces electricity. The electricity then travels through wires to a city where people need it.

Now, the world’s biggest tidal energy generator is being placed off the coast of Invergordon, Scotland. The new tidal generator in Scotland is huge. The turbine blades are 18 meters (around 60 feet) across. It weighs 143 tons and stands 22.5 meters high. It is capable of generating enough electricity to power more than 1,000 homes.

Transport:

Current methods of getting from one place to another are generating serious problems for both human well-being and the environment. Transport gobbles up over half of the planet’s liquid fossil fuels and is responsible for almost a quarter of energy related greenhouse gas emission. Our motorized lifestyle is causing widespread air pollution, over a million fatal traffic accidents per year and chronic traffic congestion- impacts that can cost countries more than 10% of their gross domestic product.

For the moment, there is little sign that the global appetite for vehicular transport is diminishing. Vehicle use in developing countries is increasing at the current rate, the global vehicle fleet is triple by 2050. Yet investments in public transportation and vehicle efficiency can yield exceptional economic returns. Several studies show that a green, low-carbon transport sector by much 70%, with minimal additional investment. And when sustainable regulatory policies are added to the mix, the road to greener transport begins to look a lot shorter.

For this transformation to happen, however, there needs to be major shift in the way we think about investing in transport. UNEP proposes a three-pronged strategy: AVOID-SHIFT-CLEAN. Help users avoid or reduce trips without restricting mobility through smarter city planning and land use options. Shift passengers away from private vehicles to public and non-motorized transport, and freight users from trucks to rail or water transport. Finally, make vehicles cleaner, through both efficiency improvements and cleaner fuels.

Waste:

As countries’ economy grow, so does the volume of garbage increase. According to estimates, some 11.2 billion metric tonnes of solid waste are currently being collected around the world every year, and the decay of the organic portion is contributing around 5% of global greenhouse gas emission. What’s more, rubbish is becoming increasingly complex. The fastest growing waste stream in both developing and developed countries is electronic products, which contain hazardous substances that make disposal even more of a challenge.

Human health and the environment are increasingly at risk, particularly when dumpsites are uncontrolled or volume becomes unmanageable. Illness and infections, ground water pollution, GHG emission and ecosystem destruction are just some of the impacts of our overfilled global dustbin.

Turning the waste stream a brighter shade of green, however, can actually create economic opportunities. Managing waste, from collection to recycling, is a growing market, currently estimated at $410 billion per year, not including the substantial informal segment in developing countries. Recycling, in particular, will grow with a greening of the waste sector and actually creates more jobs than it replaces. Investment in waste management can produce many environmental and economic benefits, including resource savings, nature protection and employment or business opportunities.

The goal is to produce little waste as possible, recycle or re-manufacture as much as possible and treat any unavoidable waste in a manner that is the least harmful to the environment and humans or even as a source of sustainable energy.

Cities:

Cities are growing more quickly, especially in developing countries. Urban areas are now home to some 50% of the planet’s population, use a good 60% of available energy and account for an equal share of carbon emission. Rapid urbanization is affecting water supplies, public health, environment and quality of life, especially for the family which lower middle class and lower than that. Fundamental changes in urban development will have to take place in order to build a sustainable future.

Fortunately, the very density of cities may out to be their strongest advantage. Characterized by proximity, variety and density, cities can be fertile ground for collaboration between local and national governments, civil society, private partnerships and academia, all of whose input will be essential to the greening of our urban areas. With the right policies, practices and infrastructure in place, cities can be green models for efficient transport, water treatment, construction and resource use.

Really cold, or really, really cold?

Both the Arctic (North Pole) and the Antarctic (South Pole) are cold because they don’t get direct sunlight. The sun is always low on the horizon, even in the middle of summer. In winter, the sun is so far below the horizon that it doesn’t come up at all for months at a time. So the days are just like the nights-cold and dark.

Even though the North Pole and South Pole are “polar opposites”, they both get the same amount of sunlight. But the South Pole is a lot colder than the North Pole. Why? Well, the poles are polar opposites in other ways too. The Arctic is ocean surrounded by land. The Antarctic is land surrounded by ocean. The ocean under the Arctic ice is cold, but still warmer than the ice! So the ocean warms the air a bit.

Antarctica is dry and high. Under the ice and snow is land, not ocean. And it’s got mountains. The average elevation of Antarctica is about 7500 feet (around 2.3 km).

- Sarthak Niwate

info.sarthakfeeds@gmail.com