How Greenhouse gases cause Climate Change
GHGs trap heat in the lower atmosphere, warming the planet to a higher temperature that it would be without these gases. In this way, GHGs help control the surface temperature of the Earth; when the amount of these gases increases for an extended period, the Earth warms. Natural processes can cause GHGs to fluctuate slowly, but the rapid global warming over the past 50–60 years is almost entirely due to GHGs released by human activity.
The 3 main contributors to Climate Change are: 1. carbon dioxide 2. methane 3. nitrous oxide.
The main source of human carbon dioxide emissions is the burning of fossil fuels: coal, gas, petrol and oil. The manufacture of cement is also an important contributor to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Methane is emitted in the production and delivery of fossil fuels, wet rice cultivation, and by livestock and the decay of waste in landfills.
Nitrous oxide is emitted during agricultural and industrial activities and in the combustion of fossil fuels and solid waste.
THE CARBON BUDGET
A carbon budget can be defined as a tolerable quantity of greenhouse gas emissions that can be emitted in total over a specified time. The budget needs to be in line with what is scientifically required to keep global warming and thus climate change “tolerable.”
STAYING BELOW 1.5°C - CRUCIAL
What is the remaining carbon budget for a reasonable chance to stay below 1.5°C? This is, after all, the aspirational ambition of Paris Agreement.
Give or take, the remaining carbon budget for 1.5°C is about 150 billion tonnes CO2.
In 2020, we would have emitted enough carbon dioxide to push us over 1.5°C. Because of the inertia in the climate system, 1.5°C may come 10 years later. Whatever, that is just around the corner!
Whether the remaining budget is 150, 700, 800, or 900 billion tonnes CO2 is beside the point. The core message of the ‘carbon budget’ is that emissions need to go to zero at an unprecedented rate.
We have plenty of fossil reserves, but only a limited carbon budget.
SIXTH MASS EXTINCTION
'We are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction and the extinction rate is up to 10,000 times faster than that what is considered normal, with up to 200 species becoming extinct every single day'
Greta Thunberg
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