Download - Climate Change & Sustainability
450 PPM
will mean something to you one day.
HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU TURNED ON A LIGHT TODAY?
If your answer is even once, then you are responsible for the
consumption of electrical energy. Our energy today is mass
produced at increasingly higher levels to meet the needs of
our global population—a modest 6,802,000,000 and rising.
The majority of our energy is generated by burning petroleum and
coal. Within the last 150 years the invention of the combustion engine
and other inventions born in the Industrial Revolution have made our
technology dependant upon them.
All energy comes from the sun. For example petroleum and coal are
products of decayed and pressurized once living organisms. This
fossilization process has created massive but finite quantities of these
fuels over centuries. Our once abundant resource, petroleum has
reached a point where many people speculate about a world in which
it has disappeared all together.
When either of these substances is burned, the by-products include
a number of gases, one of which is carbon dioxide. This may not be
news to you but perhaps you are wondering how a process like this
could attract the attention of our world leaders at the 2009 Climate
Conference in Copenhagen.
A lot of the concern has to do with the environment and how a gradual
shift in the concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere is warming our
planet. 100 years ago the atmosphere was void of any human manipulation
but today our hand is readily apparent.
FREQUENT & MORE DAMAGING HURRICANESHURRICANE SEASON 1900–2005
GALVESTON 1900
ATLANTIC-GULF 1919
MIAMI 1926
SAN FELIPE-OKEECHOBEE 1928
FLORIDA KEYS LABOR DAY 1935
NEW ENGLAND 1938
GREAT ATLANTIC 1944
CAROL AND EDNA 1954
HAZEL 1954
CONNIE AND DIANE 1955
AUDREY 1957
DONNA 1960
CAMILLE 1969
AGNES 1972
TROPICAL STORM CLAUDETTE 1979
ALICIA 1983
GILBERT 1988
HUGO 1989
ANDREW 1992
TROPICAL STORM ALBERTO 1994
OPAL 1995
MITCH 1998
FLOYD 1999
KEITH 2000
TROPICAL STORM ALLISON 2001
IRIS 2001
ISABEL 2003
CHARLEY 2004
FRANCES 2004
IVAN 2004
JEANNE 2004
DENNIS 2005
KATRINA 2005
RITA 2005
WILMA 2005
We are talking about greenhouse gases. This topic has been the subject
of much political, scientific and general debate. Everyone is wondering
the extent to which global climate change will effect our lives. How dire
has our situation become and what have we committed to?
Whatever your belief, you cannot refute the science behind
450 PPM. What does that mean you ask? Envision a cube
of air that is made up of 1,000,000 particles. In this case 450
of those particles are CO2 molecules. The parts per million
(PPM) is how many of these particles that are made up of
CO2. The CO2 parts are reflective so the greater their quantity,
the more heat our atmosphere will be trapping.
Paleoclimatology is the historic study of the earth’s climate. It was
sparked by the 19th century investigation of ice ages and their cyclical
nature. People like the physicist John Tyndell noticed the recurrence
of ice ages over millennia but had not properly understood the science.
Many factors that appear to be connected to this cycle including
solar variation and the movement of the earth’s axis in the presence
of C02 but essentially:
MORE CO2 = HOTTER LESS CO2 = COOLER
The paleoclimatologist Lonnie Thompson
investigated the relationship between
CO2 and it’s impact on the earth’s
temperature by drilling through high
altitude glaciers. He studied the air
bubbles that were inside of the ice and
was able to extract information about
atmospheric conditions from thousands
of years ago.
One of the more recent ice specimens
was removed from Antarctica. At a
depth of 3.2 kilometers, the ice fell as
the snow had 800,000 years ago.
Ice cores draw a clear correlation
between the concentration of CO2
and the earths temperature.
SPREADOF HARMFUL DISEASESIn countries north of the equator, the warmer the climate the more
species of disease-carrying insects will begin to emerge as a threat to
their inhabitants. Some believe that global warming is why malaria
cases are increasing in new regions of the Tropic of Cancer.
Sea levels will rise as the increase in atmospheric CO2 melts the
glaciers mass quantities of ice at the poles. The oceans will expand
as they become warmer. This will affect the flow of oceanic currents,
the life inhabiting them and the world’s coastal populations.
If climate change were to happen at the rate our current global
circulation models have determined, it will have distant effects on the
locations of these diseases. The major ones include those transmitted
by poikilothermic arthropods such as mosquitoes and ticks. Although
many scientists agree that global climate change will influence
infectious disease transmission dynamics, the extent of the influence
is not yet known.
However we can predict…
Up until 200 years ago our atmosphere contained 275 PPM of CO2. That
was a useful amount because without some CO2 and other greenhouse
gases our planet would be too cold to sustain human life.
The 18th century marks a point where coal and oil were burned to produce
energy and goods. The amount of carbon in the atmosphere began to
increase exponentially. Many of our everyday activities like turning on
the lights, cooking food, or heating or cooling our homes rely on energy
sources like coal and oil that emit carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping
gases into the atmosphere.
The current concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is about 387 PPM and
this number is rising by about 2 parts per million every year. The next
important figure is 450. There is no sure way to know how our environment
would adapt but it is difficult to foresee that our way of life could continue
under such uncontrollable climate conditions. We may reach that level
within the next 50 to 100 years.
IT USED TO BE 275THEN 390 & NOW…
In order for the atmosphere to stabilize, we must revert to a level like
350 PPM. To accomplish this we need to lower the amount of globally
emitted CO2 by 90% in the next 40 years.
LOOK AT THE PERSON NEXT TO YOU, CHANCES ARE YOU WILL BE COMPETING FOR VALUABLE RESOURCES IN THE NEAR FUTURE.
LOOK AT THE PERSON NEXT TO YOU, CHANCES ARE YOU WILL BE COMPETING FOR VALUABLE RESOURCES IN THE NEAR FUTURE.
Temperamental weather conditions mean that land surfaces will be warmer
and the sea will evaporate quicker. This will cause both droughts at the
equator and more rainfall at higher latitudes. These events will lead to a
falling water supply in arid regions and higher stress for indigenous and
agricultural plant species, animal migrations and human refugees.
Species will be lost as the temperature increases faster than they
can adapt. The effects of extinction will impact the entire food
chain. Every single study conducted on animal species over the
last one hundred years has indicated stress and or loss in numbers.
The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report
has stated that we are committed to 2–4 feet of sea level rise and 8–10
degrees Fahrenheit increase by the end of the century. The IPCC report also
emphasizes that these events will displace around 70,000,000 refugees.
Think about that in the context of less land.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
Before we start pointing fingers, we should consider the other
side of climate change—your role.
Educate yourself: know your enemy and be an example in
these dire times.
Be considerate: have you ever stepped back and evaluated
the way you live your life? It is often surprising how often
we disregard something until it posses an immediate threat.
1 2&
TAKE CLIMATE CHANGE & SUSTAINABILITYThe Maryland Institute College of Art
Spring 2010 » THERE IS ONLY A 6 AND A HALF YEAR WINDOW TO ACT!
Enrollment info: GFA 343.01
THOSE WHO DOUBT THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE,
CLIMATECHANGEANDSUSTAINABILITY
.EDUBLOGS.ORG
CLIMATECHANGEANDSUSTAINABILITY
.EDUBLOGS.ORG
LET’S JUST HOPE YOUARE RIGHT.