Sustainability, Climate Change, Politics, and Renewable Energy

1
Sustainability, Climate Change, Politics, and
Renewable Energy

• Nov 17th

2
Earths Radiation Balance
3
Evidence of climate change

• Increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in
  the atmosphere
• Historic evidence of the link between greenhouse
  gases and climate
• We know which processes increase greenhouse gases
  in the atmosphere
• Measurements of global temperatures are rising
• Changes in flora and fauna
• Computer models

4
Indicators of Climate Change

• Table 5.3
• Consequences of climate change
• Table 5.4

5

• Gas Main Anthropogenic Sources Contribution ()
  
• CO2 Energy use, deforestation and
• changing land use, cement
• production
  65
• CH4 Energy production and use, enteric
• fermentation, rice paddies,
  wastes,
• landfills, biomass burning,
  domestic
• sewage
  20
• CFCs
• HCFCs Industrial primarily refrigeration,
• aerosols, foam blowing,
  solvents 10
• N2O Fertilised soils, land clearing, acid
• production, biomass burning,
• combustion of fossil fuels
  5

6

• Negative greenhouse gases reduce surface
  heating by scattering incoming insolation
• Sulfate aerosols
• Volcanoes
• Climate change

7
Surface pH within the USA
8
Sustainability

• Sustainability meeting the needs of the present
  generation without compromising the ability of
  future generations to meet their own needs
• Exhausting a natural resource, leaving debt, and
  doing irreversible harm to the planet conflict
  with the idea of sustainability

9
Sustainable Energy Technology

• Contributes little to manmade climate change
• Is capable of providing power for many
  generations without significant reduction in the
  size of the resource
• Does not burden future generations

10

• Unsustainable
• Fossil fuels
• Large-scale hydropower
• Thermal nuclear reactors

• Sustainable
• Solar
• Wind
• Wave
• Tidal
• Small-scale hydropower
• Biomass
• Geothermal
• Fast nuclear reactors
• Nuclear fusion

11
Economic Solutions to Environmental Problems

• 1. Environmental taxes
• Tax on product or service that is detrimental to
  the environment
• 2. Tradable permits
• Permit to emit a specified amount of waste
• 3. Regulation
• Government sets fixed limits on emissions

12
Kyoto Protocol Targets

• Country CO2 emissions of world Kyoto
  pledge CO2 per capita (t) CO2 per
  
• in 1990 (Mt) emissions
  of GDP
  (grams)
• US 4,957 23 7 cut
  19.83
  246
• Russia 2,389 11
  No rise 16.13
  1,071
• Japan 1,173 5.4
  6 cut 9.35
  107
• Germany 1,012 4.7
  21 cut 12.79
  169
• UK 584 2.7
  12.5 cut 10.04
  161
• Canada 457 2.1
  6 cut 16.64
  222
• Italy 428 2.0
  6.5 cut 7.51
  107
• Poland 414 1.9
  6 cut 10.88
  1,919
• France 367 1.7
  No rise 6.23
  84
• Australia 289 1.3
  8 rise 17.12
  268
• Spain 261 1.2
  15 rise 5.79
  126
• Romania 171 0.8
  6 cut 7.37
  1,220
• Czech Rep. 170 0.8
  8 cut 16.09
  1,431
• Netherlands 168 0.8
  6 cut 11.21
  161

13
Solar Power

• Every 10 minutes the surface of the Earth
  receives enough energy from the sun to provide
  primary energy needs for a whole year
• 0.007 of the surface area of the planet could
  meet our demand for energy 38,000 km²

14
Types of Solar Heating

• Active separate solar collectors used to raise
  a fluid to a much higher temperature
• Dish collectors
• Power towers
• Trough collectors
• Passive the solar collector is the structural
  fabric of the building
• Building materials
• Window orientation
• Vegetation

15
Solar Farm
16
Solar Power Plant
17
Solar Trough
18
Active Solar Power
19
Passive Solar Power
20
Photovoltaics

• Photovoltaic cells are semiconductors photons
  from sunlight knock electrons into a higher state
  of energy, creating electricity.
• Cells produce direct current electricity from
  light, which can be used to power equipment or to
  recharge a battery.

21
Impacts of pollutants

• Source Potential causes for concern
• Oil Global climate change, air
  pollution by vehicles, acid rain, oil spills, oil
  rig accidents
• Natural gas Global climate change,
  methane leakage from pipes, methane explosions,
  gas rig
• accidents
• Coal Global climate change,
  acid rain, environmental spoliation by open-cast
  mining, land
• subsidence due to
  deep mining, spoil heaps, ground water pollution,
  mining
• accidents, health
  effects on miners
• Nuclear power Radioactivity (routine release,
  risk of accident, waste disposal), misuse of
  fissile and
• other radioactive material by
  terrorists, proliferation of nuclear weapons,
  land
• pollution by mine
  tailings, health effects on uranium miners
• Biomass Effect on landscape and
  biodiversity, ground water pollution due to
  fertilizers, use of
• scarce water,
  competition with food production
• Hydroelectricity Displacement of populations,
  effect on rivers and ground water, dams (visual
• intrusion and
  risk of accident), seismic effects, downstream
  effects on agriculture,
• methane emissions
  from submerged biomass
• Wind power Visual intrusion in sensitive
  landscapes, noise, bird strikes, interference
  with
• 
  telecommunications
• Tidal power Visual intrusion and
  destruction of wildlife habitat, reduced
  dispersal of effluents
• (these concerns
  apply mainly to tidal barrages, not tidal current
  turbines)