Knocking May Lead To Global Climate Change

Global warming is a rise in temperature in the troposphere that may lead to climate change. Global climate change is a much broader term that discusses changes in any part of the climate on Earth. These changes could occur in temperature, precipitation, or storm intensity. A change in global climate could be a warning or a cooling of the temperature. Often associated with global warming is the Greenhouse effect. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere can trap and hold heat from the sun. Temperatures in the troposphere are strongly influenced by snow and ice near the North and South Poles as well as in mountain glaciers. Global air circulation causes the temperature to increase more at the poles as excess from the equator is transferred towards them. Scientists take measures of glaciers and winds which now show floating ice in the seas around the North Pole and a thinning ice sheet in Greenland. In addition, over the past 60 years, the average temperature of the sea surface has increased by 0.31 C. Although this doesn’t sound like a lot, rising temperatures by even …show more content…
“Knocking in Wedges” is a way of visualising what we need to do to save the planet from excessive global warming. There are seven wedges to achieve in order to have a standstill in CO2 emissions. Each wedge represents a reduction of 1 billion tonnes of CO2 by 2055. Wedge 1 Increase fuel economies in the world’s vehicle fleet from 30 mpg to 60 mpg or halve mileage from 10K to 5K per annum, Wedge 2 Better energy efficient buildings, Wedge 3 More efficient power generation, Wedge 4 Stop all power generation from coal. 700 1Gwatt nuclear power plants to displace all coal fired stations. Or carbon capture at 800 coal fired station instead, Wedge 5 2 million 1Mwatt wind turbines (a fifty fold increase on current capacity), Wedge 6 a 700 fold increase in photo-voltaic generation, Wedge 7