Read Climate Change Effects - January 2015

Climate Change Effects: Update February 2015
Written by Gary Matson
    On the “bad news” side, atmospheric CO2 concentration measured at Mauna Loa continues to increase. Measurements began in 1958 and were recorded to be 315.70 parts per million (ppm).*1 The measurement in January, 2015 was 399.85 ppm. The scientifically accepted “upper safety limit” for CO2, the level beyond which increasing climate change will occur, is 350 ppm.**2 The Scripps Mauna Loa data is the longest-running, high-precision instrument record for atmospheric CO2. The Scripps CO2 program was initiated in 1956 by Charles David Keeling who directed the program until he died in 2005.  The program is now operated by  Ralph F. Keeling who also runs the Scripps O2 Program that measures atmospheric oxygen and argon.   Both programs are based at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego (La Jolla) California.
   Good news is reported by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) President Fred Krupp.***3 He calls the recent agreement between the U.S. and China to cut global warming emissions “…one of the reasons I am optimistic we can prevail against climate change.” Krupp goes on to describe China’s commitment to have its carbon emissions peak by year 2030. The country will improve energy efficiency 25% by the year 2020 and shift its energy mix to one-third renewable energy, natural gas, and nuclear. For its part, the U.S. is committed to cutting emissions by 26-28% below 2005 levels by year 2025. (A similar recent agreement between the U.S. and India strengthens global resolve to address the dangers of climate change -ed)
 
Other reasons for Krupp’s optimism:
     •    “Emissions in the industrialized world are trending downward.” From 2005 to 2012 the European Union (EU) reduced CO2 emissions by about 13%
     •    “The clean energy future is now.” The price of solar panels is 80% less than in 2008. “At one point last year, wind generated nearly 40% of Texas’ electricity.”
     •    “We’re taking action on methane.” Methane is a more potent global warming gas than CO2 and accounts for one quarter of our current warming. Low cost technologies are now available to reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas industry by about 40%.
     •    “The kids are alright.” Eighty-five percent of Americans under 30 support limits on carbon pollution from power plants. These young voters are a growing segment of the electorate and will replace the over 65 cohort that is the least supportive of climate change control.

   Krupp concludes his article on a strongly positive note: “The price of renewables is dropping; the major emitters are taking action; young voters are fully on board. And the swing toward a clean energy future is fully in motion.”

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*1.    Scripps Institute of Oceanography,  http://scrippsco2.ucsd.edu/data/atmospheric_co2.html
linked in web site of “CO2 Now”  http://co2now.org/current-co2/co2-now/
**2.    CO2 Now, http://co2now.org/
***3.    Krupp, Fred. 2015. A plan for climate stability. EDF Solutions 46(1):8-11.
EDF is a science-based organization with a very long history of environmental defense. It was founded in 1967by two scientists and an attorney who were successful in their effort to ban the use of DDT. The pesticide was widely used for mosquito control but was ineffective because the insects became resistant to it. DDT bioaccumulated (insects-fish-osprey) and reached levels in the body  tissues of osprey that caused eggshell thinning and reproductive failure. During the years since its founding EDF has remained one of the most effective defenders of our environment. http://www.edf.org/about/our-history