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What are the ways to reduce the climate change?

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What are the ways to reduce the climate change?

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How much renewable energy do we need to stop climate change?

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How much renewable energy do we need to stop climate change?

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How much time do we have to stop climate change?

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How much time do we have to stop climate change?

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What are the ways to reduce the climate change?

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What are the ways to reduce the climate change?

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Talk to your friends and family, inform the people around you.
Help them understand that there is only one WORLD.
Use renewable energy and recyclable products.
Don't waste water and food, cut back on meat.
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/how-you-can-stop-global-warming

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The temperature change caused by climate change is destroying the habitats of living things.

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The temperature change caused by climate change is destroying the habitats of living things.

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Drought, change of seasons, extinction of animals, increase in temperature...

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The average temperature of the Earth is rising, but that's not the only way we can tell the climate is changing. In fact, the signs are all around us! Observations and measurements from all over the world provide strong evidence that the climate has already started to change.

Learn more about some of the signs of global climate change and what additional changes we'll see in the future:

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The average temperature of the Earth is rising, but that's not the only way we can tell the climate is changing. In fact, the signs are all around us! Observations and measurements from all over the world provide strong evidence that the climate has already started to change.

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How much renewable energy do we need to stop climate change?

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How much renewable energy do we need to stop climate change?

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Avoiding the worst effects of global warming will require us to source at least 85 per cent of global power from renewables, with a minimum of two thirds of total energy from renewable sources – wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, bioenergy and the burgeoning tidal technology – by 2050.

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Limiting the global temperature rise to well below 2°C this century is one of the defining challenges of our age. Two thirds of greenhouse gas emissions come from energy-related sources. This makes the transition to sustainable energy the decisive factor in tackling climate change.

Renewable energy, together with energy efficiency, form the cornerstone of the world's mitigation strategy. They represent a safe, reliable, affordable and immediately deployable pathway to a low-carbon future that can achieve over 90 per cent of the energy-related CO ₂ emission reductions needed to meet climate goals. Avoiding the worst effects of global warming will require us to source at least 85 per cent of global power from renewables, with a minimum of two thirds of total energy from renewable sources - wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, bioenergy and the burgeoning tidal technology - by 2050. This means that we must utilise the solutions available to stimulate systemic transformation towards a digitalised, decentralised and decarbonised energy paradigm.

In addition to mitigating climate change, such an energy transition could also deliver long-term economic and social benefits. IRENA's Global Energy Transformation: A Roadmap to 2050 shows that it would boost global GDP by one per cent by 2050 and create millions of new jobs. Last year alone, the renewable energy sector created half a million new jobs, reaching a total of 10.3 million.

The business case for renewables has never been stronger.

It is encouraging that this transformation is already underway. Most notably, there is momentum within the electricity sector. Today, renewable energy meets a quarter of global electricity demand. In 2017 the world installed 167 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity - more than the total installed electricity capacity of Brazil - and a record in new capacity terms. Against a backdrop of falling costs across the technology spectrum, renewables are fast becoming the most cost-effective source of new power generation in much of the world. IRENA's 2017 Renewable Power Generation Costs analysis estimates that by 2020 renewables will be cost competitive with fossil fuels in most parts of the world, and in many cases be much cheaper.

Low-cost renewables have been a key factor in recent developments. The UK, for example, has reduced its reliance on coal for power from 40 per cent in 2012 to 6.3 per cent in the period October 2017 to September 2018, as a result of its rapid renewable energy adoption. Half of Europe's offshore wind-capacity growth in 2017 was in the UK. Furthermore, in June, the European Union increased its renewable energy targets to 32 per cent from 27 per cent by 2030, demonstrating that a cost-effective pathway to a higher share of renewables exists.

Renewables are a global trend.

In 2017, China added a world record of 53 GW of solar photovoltaic capacity. Meanwhile, Morocco is turning the desert into a resource and aims to generate 510 megawatts of concentrated solar power from its new plant in Ouarzazate. Even oil and gas-exporting countries worldwide are now investing in renewables. The energy strategy of the United Arab Emirates, where IRENA is based, seeks to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 70 per cent by 2050, and to generate 44 per cent of its power from renewables. Last year, the Russian Federation conducted its largest-ever renewable energy auction, awarding contracts for 2.2 GW.

Falling costs have brought corporate actors to the table too. Companies in 75 countries actively sourced 465 terawatt hours of renewable energy in 2017, an amount close to the overall electricity demand of France. More than 200 companies reported sourcing at least half of their power needs from renewables.

Outside of the power sector, however, progress is lagging. End-use energy sectors, such as heating and cooling in buildings, and transportation, are a major source of energy-related emissions. Yet the share of renewables in these sectors remains low, with little progress in recent years. Instead, they still rely predominately on fossil fuels.

Replacing these polluting fuels with electricity, while also ensuring that this electricity is increasingly generated from renewables, is the key to reducing the carbon emissions of these end-use sectors. Transport is a good example of such an opportunity. Electrified mobility is on the rise. In 2017, 1.2 million new electric vehicles (EVs) were sold globally, equal to around 1.5 per cent of all vehicle sales. In the last five years, EV sales have grown at an annual rate of 52 per cent. By 2050, up to one billion electric cars could be on the road. In parallel, renewable power can provide energy for hydrogen production - an emission-free fuel, which can complement electricity and biofuels in the energy mix of the transport sector. While significant investments are required, this combination could lead to a 70 per cent fall in oil consumption for transportation, significantly reducing emissions.

Renewables are the key to a climate-safe world.

The deployment of renewable technologies can stimulate new economic activity; creating jobs, mitigating stranded assets and giving rise to cleaner, healthier environments. The benefits deriving from energy transformation significantly outweigh its costs. In economic terms, the cost savings resulting from improved human health, lower air pollution and avoided environmental damage by 2050 equal up to five times the additional investment needed to make the transition. If we were to meet our targets by 2050 nearly 40 million people would be directly employed in renewable energy and energy efficiency. And the global economy would enjoy a $52 trillion cumulative GDP gain.

Renewables are the key to a climate-safe world. Far from having to choose between mitigating climate change and economic growth, it is clearer than ever that an opportunity exists to ramp up investment in low-carbon technologies and shift the global development paradigm from one of scarcity, inequality and competition to one of shared prosperity - in our lifetimes. If we take bold decisions now, a sustainable energy future is within reach.
Originally published in Climate 2020

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Renewables are the key to a climate safe world

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Limiting the global temperature rise to well below 2°C this century is one of the defining challenges of our age. Two thirds of greenhouse gas emissions come from energy-related sources. This makes the transition to sustainable energy the decisive factor in tackling climate change.

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How much time do we have to stop climate change?

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How much time do we have to stop climate change?

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According to a report, the earth has 11 years to come back from global warming.

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The current rate of greenhouse gas pollution is so high that Earth has about 11 years to rein in emissions if countries want to avoid the worst damage from climate change in the future, a new study concludes.

Despite dipping in 2020 because of the global pandemic, greenhouse gas emissions are on track to return to pre-pandemic levels, according to the annual Global Carbon Budget report.

The findings, currently under review before publication, underscore that the urgency of cuttingemissions is even greater than previously thought if the world is to avoid a rise in average global temperatures that is greater than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels. That wasthe goal set by the 2015 Paris climate agreement and pursued by countries currently gathered for a major United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

The Global Carbon Budget is compiled with input from dozens of researchers around the world. It monitors the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that humans put out and how much room is left for such emissions to stay within the 1.5 C limit.

When the first report was issued in 2015, scientists projected that Earth had a 20-year time horizon before emissions would result inwarming above the set limit by the end of the century. But the output of greenhouse gases has risen even faster than expected, with half of that budget expended in just the past six years.

At current levels of emissions, there's a 50% chance that a rise in temperatures of 1.5 C by the end of this century will be locked in by 2033. With no reductions, more dire scenarios are equally likely - with a 1.7 degrees C increase inevitable by 2042 and a 2 degrees C jump unavoidable by 2054.

Global average temperatures over the past 150 years have risen about 1.1 degrees C (or about 2 degrees F), intensifying wildfires, floods and hurricanes worldwide.

"Global fossil CO2 emissions (excluding cement carbonation) in 2021 are returning towards their 2019 levels after decreasing [5.4%] in 2020," the report states.

The authors note that reaching net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050, which is the goal of those pushing climate action at the Glasgow summit, "entails cutting total anthropogenic [human caused] CO2 emissions" by an amount "comparable to the decrease during 2020."

Emissions from China, which in recent years has surpassed the U.S. as the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter, have exceeded pre-pandemic levels, growing by 5.5% according to data in the latest report. India's emissions have increased 4.4%.

However, there are a few encouraging signs in the report, notably that emissions have decreased over the past decade in 23 countries whose economies were growing before the coronavirus pandemic - including the U.S. and the United Kingdom. The list, which accounts for about a quarter of global CO2 emissions, also contains several wealthy nations in Europe as well as Japan.

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Earth has 11 years to cut emissions to avoid dire climate scenarios, a report says

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The current rate of greenhouse gas pollution is so high that Earth has about 11 years to rein in emissions if countries want to avoid the worst damage from climate change in the future, a new study concludes.

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What are developed countries doing to fight climate change?

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What are developed countries doing to fight climate change?

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How will climate change affect future generations?

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How will climate change affect future generations?

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What are the good sides of climate change?

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What are the good sides of climate change?

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Which countries are affected by climate change the most?

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Which countries are affected by climate change the most?

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How will climate change affect human health in the future?

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How will climate change affect human health in the future?

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Climate change triggers natural disasters.

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Climate change triggers natural disasters.

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Human activities are responsible for climate change.

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Human activities are responsible for climate change.

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What are developed countries doing to fight climate change?

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What are developed countries doing to fight climate change?

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Uk, USA and China have been trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by their countries and have been trying to use and spread renewable energy more. These countries kept their promises and succeeded in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. On the other hand, Australia, one of the countries that contributes the most to climate change, could not keep its promise and the experts find Australia’s plans to reduce carbon emissions insufficient.

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Climate change: Have countries kept their promises?

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Every one of the signatories to the Paris climate agreement has had to lodge a climate action plan with the UN to spell out what steps they are taking to curb carbon. Overall, according to a new assessment from global consultancy Systemiq, low-carbon solutions have been more successful in this period than many people realise.

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How will climate change affect future generations?

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How will climate change affect future generations?

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Children will be badly affected by climate change in the future. Many of them will become malnourished due to climate change and its effects on agriculture and food supply. Millions of children will face water shortages and have to live in areas without adequate water resources. Also, they will experience severe and long-lasting droughts which will affect them both physically and mentally. In addition to all these bad impacts of climate change, children will be living on a planet with extreme weather events that can prevent them from even going to school and cause continuous disruption of education.

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Save the Children's work ranges from food security programs for families suffering severe drought in the Horn of Africa, to providing emergency relief supplies for those recovering from the West Coast wildfires.

From green jobs that secure livelihoods, to disease reduction, to advocacy and more, Save the Children's experts consider the short- and long-term impacts of the climate crisis and how our programs can support the present and future of children in the U.S. and around the world.

Our Humanitarian Climate Change Initiative is pushing to sustain and scale up child-centered anticipatory action systems globally. We partner with communities to use early warning systems and pre-position funds so they have the tools and resources to take action before they are hit by devastating climate events.

In 2019 Save the Children Australia became the first non-environmental NGO to be accredited by the Green Climate Fund (GCF). In 2022, the organization signed a deal with GCF and the governments of Vanuatu and Australia to deliver the Pacific region's largest ever investment in community-based climate change adaptation in Vanuatu.

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Effects of Climate Change on Future Generations

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Save the Children's work ranges from food security programs for families suffering severe drought in the Horn of Africa, to providing emergency relief supplies for those recovering from the West Coast wildfires.

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What are the good sides of climate change?

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What are the good sides of climate change?

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Climate change has surprisingly good sides in terms of winter deaths, plant growth rates and greneery. Due to more heat caused by climate change, fewer winter deaths started to be seen especially in Britain and Greece. Some countries suffer from excess winter deaths and climate change helps them lower the mortality rates in winter. Also, rising carbon dioxide levels has a measurable positive impact on plant growth rates and they contribute to the amount of greenery on the planet according to the scientists.

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Climate change has done more good than harm so far and is likely to continue doing so for most of this century. This is not some barmy, right-wing fantasy; it is the consensus of expert opinion. Yet almost nobody seems to know this. Whenever I make the point in public, I am told by those who are paid to insult anybody who departs from climate alarm that I have got it embarrassingly wrong, don't know what I am talking about, must be referring to Britain only, rather than the world as a whole, and so forth.

At first, I thought this was just their usual bluster. But then I realised that they are genuinely unaware. Good news is no news, which is why the mainstream media largely ignores all studies showing net benefits of climate change. And academics have not exactly been keen to push such analysis forward. So here follows, for possibly the first time in history, an entire article in the national press on the net benefits of climate change.

There are many likely effects of climate change: positive and negative, economic and ecological, humanitarian and financial. And if you aggregate them all, the overall effect is positive today - and likely to stay positive until around 2080. That was the conclusion of Professor Richard Tol of Sussex University after he reviewed 14 different studies of the effects of future climate trends.

To be precise, Prof Tol calculated that climate change would be beneficial up to 2.2˚C of warming from 2009 (when he wrote his paper). This means approximately 3˚C from pre-industrial levels, since about 0.8˚C of warming has happened in the last 150 years. The latest estimates of climate sensitivity suggest that such temperatures may not be reached till the end of the century - if at all. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, whose reports define the consensis, is sticking to older assumptions, however, which would mean net benefits till about 2080. Either way, it's a long way off.

Now Prof Tol has a new paper, published as a chapter in a new book, called How Much have Global Problems Cost the World?, which is edited by Bjorn Lomborg, director of the Copenhagen Consensus Centre, and was reviewed by a group of leading economists. In this paper he casts his gaze backwards to the last century. He concludes that climate change did indeed raise human and planetary welfare during the 20th century.

You can choose not to believe the studies Prof Tol has collated. Or you can say the net benefit is small (which it is), you can argue that the benefits have accrued more to rich countries than poor countries (which is true) or you can emphasise that after 2080 climate change would probably do net harm to the world (which may also be true). You can even say you do not trust the models involved (though they have proved more reliable than the temperature models). But what you cannot do is deny that this is the current consensus. If you wish to accept the consensus on temperature models, then you should accept the consensus on economic benefit.

Overall, Prof Tol finds that climate change in the past century improved human welfare. By how much? He calculates by 1.4 per cent of global economic output, rising to 1.5 per cent by 2025. For some people, this means the difference between survival and starvation.

It will still be 1.2 per cent around 2050 and will not turn negative until around 2080. In short, my children will be very old before global warming stops benefiting the world. Note that if the world continues to grow at 3 per cent a year, then the average person will be about nine times as rich in 2080 as she is today. So low-lying Bangladesh will be able to afford the same kind of flood defences that the Dutch have today.

The chief benefits of global warming include: fewer winter deaths; lower energy costs; better agricultural yields; probably fewer droughts; maybe richer biodiversity. It is a little-known fact that winter deaths exceed summer deaths - not just in countries like Britain but also those with very warm summers, including Greece. Both Britain and Greece see mortality rates rise by 18 per cent each winter. Especially cold winters cause a rise in heart failures far greater than the rise in deaths during heatwaves.

Cold, not the heat, is the biggest killer. For the last decade, Brits have been dying from the cold at the average rate of 29,000 excess deaths each winter. Compare this to the heatwave ten years ago, which claimed 15,000 lives in France and just 2,000 in Britain. In the ten years since, there has been no summer death spike at all. Excess winter deaths hit the poor harder than the rich for the obvious reason: they cannot afford heating. And it is not just those at risk who benefit from moderate warming. Global warming has so far cut heating bills more than it has raised cooling bills. If it resumes after its current 17-year hiatus, and if the energy efficiency of our homes improves, then at some point the cost of cooling probably will exceed the cost of heating - probably from about 2035, Prof Tol estimates.

The greatest benefit from climate change comes not from temperature change but from carbon dioxide itself. It is not pollution, but the raw material from which plants make carbohydrates and thence proteins and fats. As it is an extremely rare trace gas in the air - less than 0.04 per cent of the air on average - plants struggle to absorb enough of it. On a windless, sunny day, a field of corn can suck half the carbon dioxide out of the air. Commercial greenhouse operators therefore pump carbon dioxide into their greenhouses to raise plant growth rates.

The increase in average carbon dioxide levels over the past century, from 0.03 per cent to 0.04 per cent of the air, has had a measurable impact on plant growth rates. It is responsible for a startling change in the amount of greenery on the planet. As Dr Ranga Myneni of Boston University has documented, using three decades of satellite data, 31 per cent of the global vegetated area of the planet has become greener and just 3 per cent has become less green. This translates into a 14 per cent increase in productivity of ecosystems and has been observed in all vegetation types.

Dr Randall Donohue and colleagues of the CSIRO Land and Water department in Australia also analysed satellite data and found greening to be clearly attributable in part to the carbon dioxide fertilisation effect. Greening is especially pronounced in dry areas like the Sahel region of Africa, where satellites show a big increase in green vegetation since the 1970s.

It is often argued that global warming will hurt the world's poorest hardest. What is seldom heard is that the decline of famines in the Sahel in recent years is partly due to more rainfall caused by moderate warming and partly due to more carbon dioxide itself: more greenery for goats to eat means more greenery left over for gazelles, so entire ecosystems have benefited.

Even polar bears are thriving so far, though this is mainly because of the cessation of hunting. None the less, it's worth noting that the three years with the lowest polar bear cub survival in the western Hudson Bay (1974, 1984 and 1992) were the years when the sea ice was too thick for ringed seals to appear in good numbers in spring. Bears need broken ice.

Well yes, you may argue, but what about all the weather disasters caused by climate change? Entirely mythical - so far. The latest IPCC report is admirably frank about this, reporting 'no significant observed trends in global tropical cyclone frequency over the past century ... lack of evidence and thus low confidence regarding the sign of trend in the magnitude and/or frequency offloads on a global scale ... low confidence in observed trends in small-scale severe weather phenomena such as hail and thunderstorms'.

In fact, the death rate from droughts, floods and storms has dropped by 98 per cent since the 1920s, according to a careful study by the independent scholar Indur Goklany. Not because weather has become less dangerous but because people have gained better protection as they got richer: witness the remarkable success of cyclone warnings in India last week. That's the thing about climate change - we will probably pocket the benefits and mitigate at least some of the harm by adapting. For example, experts now agree that malaria will continue its rapid worldwide decline whatever the climate does.

Yet cherry-picking the bad news remains rife. A remarkable example of this was the IPCC's last report in 2007, which said that global warming would cause 'hundreds of millions of people [to be] exposed to increased water stress' under four different scenarios of future warming. It cited a study, which had also counted numbers of people at reduced risk of water stress - and in each case that number was higher. The IPCC simply omitted the positive numbers.

Why does this matter? Even if climate change does produce slightly more welfare for the next 70 years, why take the risk that it will do great harm thereafter? There is one obvious reason: climate policy is already doing harm. Building wind turbines, growing biofuels and substituting wood for coal in power stations - all policies designed explicitly to fight climate change - have had negligible effects on carbon dioxide emissions. But they have driven people into fuel poverty, made industries uncompetitive, driven up food prices, accelerated the destruction of forests, killed rare birds of prey, and divided communities. To name just some of the effects. Mr Goklany estimates that globally nearly 200,000 people are dying every year, because we are turning 5 per cent of the world's grain crop into motor fuel instead of food: that pushes people into malnutrition and death. In this country, 65 people a day are dying because they cannot afford to heat their homes properly, according to Christine Liddell of the University of Ulster, yet the government is planning to double the cost of electricity to consumers by 2030.

As Bjorn Lomborg has pointed out, the European Union will pay £165 billion for its current climate policies each and every year for the next 87 years. Britain's climate policies - subsidising windmills, wood-burners, anaerobic digesters, electric vehicles and all the rest - is due to cost us £1.8 trillion over the course of this century. In exchange for that Brobdingnagian sum, we hope to lower the air temperature by about 0.005˚C - which will be undetectable by normal thermometers. The accepted consensus among economists is that every £100 spent fighting climate change brings £3 of benefit.

So we are doing real harm now to impede a change that will produce net benefits for 70 years. That's like having radiotherapy because you are feeling too well. I just don't share the certainty of so many in the green establishment that it's worth it. It may be, but it may not.
Disclosure: by virtue of owning shares and land, I have some degree of interests in all almost all forms of energy generation: coal, wood, oil and gas, wind (reluctantly), nuclear, even biofuels, demand for which drives up wheat prices. I could probably make more money out of enthusiastically endorsing green energy than opposing it. So the argument presented here is not special pleading, just honest curiosity.

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Why climate change is good for the world

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Climate change has done more good than harm so far and is likely to continue doing so for most of this century. This is not some barmy, right-wing fantasy; it is the consensus of expert opinion. Yet almost nobody seems to know this.

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What is the difference between global warming and climate change?

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What is the difference between global warming and climate change?

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Which countries are affected by climate change the most?

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Which countries are affected by climate change the most?

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African countries are the ones that are affected by climate change the most. They are the most vulnerable ones when it comes to the impacts of climate change. Pollution is constantly  increasing in the continent and this affects Africa negatively in terms of economy, human health and natural life. For example, Senegal is one of these vulnerable countries and natural disasters are increasing in the country due to the effects of climate change, which in turn affects its agriculture, food supply and social life.
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Climate Change report: Eight of the top 10 most affected countries are in Africa - Eye on Africa

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How will climate change affect human health in the future?

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How will climate change affect human health in the future?

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Climate change will affect human health in many ways and unfortunately these effects will not be positive. The risk of heatstroke will rise in the future and the lack of food supply will cause many people to be malnourished. Hotter days, more rain and higher humidity will give ticks a greater chance to reproduce. As climate change triggers natural disasters such as floods, droughts and heat waves, many people will experience mental health problems such as depression and anxiety caused by these disasters. There will also be longer allergy seasons and respiratory illnesses due to more heat.

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Climate change isn't just bad for the planet's health-it's bad for people's too. Effects will vary by age, gender, geography, and socioeconomic status-and so will remedies. A recent international study in the Lancet says that many more people will be exposed to extreme weather events over the next century than previously thought-"a potentially catastrophic risk to human health" that could undo 50 years of global health gains.

Solutions are in the works. In flood-prone Benin, national health insurance has been expanded to cover diseases likeliest to increase as the world warms and sea levels rise. In the steamy Philippines, programs are helping low-income residents manage weather-related risks with loans, hygiene education, and waste and water control. Meanwhile public health experts everywhere are calling for new measures to help people stay healthy despite floods, droughts, and heat waves.

1. Power outages in extreme weather could cripple hospitals and transportation systems when we need them most.

2. Crop declines could lead to undernutrition, hunger, and higher food prices. More CO ₂ in the air could make staple crops like barley and soy less nutritious.

3. Occupational hazards such as risk of heatstroke will rise, especially among farmers and construction workers. Labor could shift to dawn and dusk, times when more disease-carrying insects are out.

4. Hotter days, more rain, and higher humidity will produce more ticks, which spread infectious diseases like Lyme disease. Ticks could be in much of the eastern U.S. by 2080.

5. Trauma from floods, droughts, and heat waves can lead to mental health issues like anxiety, depression, and suicide.

6. More heat can mean longer allergy seasons and more respiratory disease. More rain increases mold, fungi, and indoor air pollutants.

7. Mosquito-borne dengue fever has increased 30-fold in the past 50 years. Three-quarters of those exposed so far live in the Asia-Pacific region.

8. Senior citizens and poor children-especially those already afflicted with malaria, malnutrition, and diarrhea-tend to be most vulnerable to heat-related illnesses.

9. Drought and chronic water shortages harm rural areas and 150 million city dwellers. If localities don't adjust quickly, that number could be nearly a billion by 2050.

10. Rising sea levels can threaten freshwater supplies for people living in low-lying areas. More severe storms can cause city sewage systems to overflow.

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5 Ways Climate Change Will Affect You: Health Risks

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More people will likely be exposed to the effects of climate change in the next century, with potentially catastrophic implications for human health. Experts are calling for new measures to help people stay healthy despite floods, droughts, and heat waves.

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What is the difference between global warming and climate change?

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What is the difference between global warming and climate change?

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The rise in global temperatures because of greenhouse gases is called global warming while the increasing changes over time are called climate change.

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What is the difference between global warming and climate change?

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Although people tend to use these terms interchangeably, global warming is just one aspect of climate change. "Global warming" refers to the rise in global temperatures due mainly to the increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

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Warmer summers are the result of climate change. This change makes the flowering progress faster, so they bloom earlier than usual.

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Extravagant gardens may elevate the appearance of a home or business. We utilize plants for their aesthetic appeal, gifting flowers to loved ones on special days. But the importance of plants extends beyond perennial gardens and Valentine's Day roses, and with rising global temperatures, to preserve our plants we must consider how does global warming affect plants?

Plants support the global ecosystem by filtering carbon dioxide and providing vital oxygen to life on Earth. They also provide a habitat for species big and small, and food for mammals like us humans. Without our little green friends, life on Earth would cease to exist.

Unfortunately, a rise in the global temperature is jeopardizing the wellbeing of all plants. To understand how vegetation is suffering, we must first explore global warming as an independent concept.

Global Warming

When we talk about global warming concerning plants, there are two notable sectors - increased atmospheric greenhouse gases and climate change. The cause of global warming is an increase in air pollutants emitted into the environment. As these gases reach the atmosphere, they conduct the greenhouse effect.

Human contributed pollutants absorb the sun's energy, transforming it into heat. Unlike naturally occurring atmospheric gases, they trap heat in the atmosphere for extended periods. This entrapment causes the global temperature to increase slightly over time.

To keep the environment from warming, plants absorb some gases on Earth's surface to filter them before they reach the atmosphere. The immense increase in human-induced pollutants places plants in overdrive. Changing weather patterns also affect the stability and function of vegetation.

Climate change is a consequence of the rising global temperature, which alters consistent weather patterns. Increased precipitation, drought periods, and natural disasters affect the development of vegetation. The growth patterns, pests, flowering, periods, and water use of plants are affected by changes in their environment.

Growth Patterns

As summers become hotter, vegetation must adapt its growth patterns for survival. Because plants cannot migrate like some species, they grow taller to cool themselves off. As they grow upward, their stalks become longer, their leaves shrink, and they grow farther away from other plants.

The rise in plant height, and the increased distance between them, leaves plants unsupported and unstable. Without other stalks to lean on, the plants are more likely to bend and break. The increase in carbon dioxide also affects the growth of plants.

Vegetation utilizes carbon dioxide to promote growth. As the amount of these human-induced air pollutants rises, the growth of vegetation increases. Air composition alterations may stimulate the development of allergens and poisonous plant species.

Poison ivy grows at high rates in warmer, carbon dioxide-rich environments. Around 80% of civilians are allergic to this plant, so overgrowth may negatively affect human health. Other allergens will continue to invade Earth's surface as the temperature and greenhouse gases increase, further impacting humans' wellbeing.

Pests

As temperatures increase, plant affecting pests migrate to outrun environmental destruction. Insects and rodents will become concentrated in the North as they escape the heat of the South. Ecologists predict that pests-related vegetation loss will increase by 46% in wheat, 19% in rice, and 31% in maize. These statistics reflect a significant risk to humanity's access to food.

The rising global temperature may also affect the vitality of all plants due to physical pest responses. Insects are ectotherms, meaning that as their body temperature rises, so does their metabolism. To meet physical needs, they must consume a higher amount of food. So, as the environment warms, pests will eat through more vegetation.

Flowering Periods

Climate change causes warmer summer temperatures and inconsistent precipitation patterns. These environmental alterations affect the flowering periods of plants globally.

As the global temperature increases, plants will flower earlier in the season. Earlier bloom times reduce the plant's ability to withstand the entire season. As precipitation decreases, flowers may bloom later in the season. This affects the species which rely on this bloom for food, shade, and more.

Water Use

As the planet warms, growing seasons become more prolonged, and precipitation may increase. Vegetation will have more time to consume water to continue its growth, drying out the soil. When plants deplete soil nutrients, soil becomes uninhabitable for plant, animal, and insect species.

How You Can Help

Fortunately, there are actions we can take to slow global warming and limit the impact on plants. Utilizing alternate forms of transportation, reducing meat consumption, and limiting energy use can reduce the rise of global temperatures.

Alternate Forms of Transportation

Around 28.2% of greenhouse gas emissions come from the transportation sector. To limit these emissions, you can engage in alternate forms of transportation. Biking, walking, and riding electric vehicles can reduce your contribution to atmospheric air pollution. This will reduce the amount of heat trapped in the environment, which causes changes to the climate.

Reduce Meat Consumption

Beef and dairy production contributes methane to the atmosphere. Methane is a highly potent greenhouse gas that efficiently transfers the sun's energy into heat. In the West, we overproduce cattle due to a heightened demand for meat by consumers. Reducing your consumption of animal products will limit this demand and the adverse effects of methane on the environment.

Use an Energy Efficient Thermostat

Much of our residential energy use comes from heating and cooling our homes. Most of these systems burn fossil fuels to provide energy for temperature regulation. Limit the emission of these greenhouse gases by installing an energy-efficient thermostat in your home. These systems limit the amount of energy residential temperature control utilizes.

Community Awareness

To extend your impact beyond the individual level, talk to your community about adopting sustainable practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Installing renewable energy systems in community buildings and local businesses can aid in the conservation of the environment. Hosting informational meetings about eco-conscious residential actions may also help increase awareness around environmental issues, like vegetation degradation.

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How Does Global Warming Affect Plants? - Environment Co

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We are reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn affiliate commission. Extravagant gardens may elevate the appearance of a home or business. We utilize plants for their aesthetic appeal, gifting flowers to loved ones on special days.

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Personal vehicles are a big issue. Production, extraction, and delivery of fuel cause nearly thirty percent of global warming problems in the US. That makes it the greatest cause.

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Our personal vehicles are a major cause of global warming. Collectively, cars and trucks account for nearly one-fifth of all US emissions, emitting around 24 pounds of carbon dioxide and other global-warming gases for every gallon of gas. About five pounds comes from the extraction, production, and delivery of the fuel, while the great bulk of heat-trapping emissions-more than 19 pounds per gallon-comes right out of a car's tailpipe.

In total, the US transportation sector-which includes cars, trucks, planes, trains, ships, and freight-produces nearly thirty percent of all US global warming emissions, more than almost any other sector.

Unfortunately, oil-related emissions may rise in the coming years as the oil industry extracts and refines "unconventional" oils, such as tar sands and tight oil. Using less oil-and avoiding unnecessary emission from the oil we do use-is the real solution.

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Our personal vehicles are a major cause of global warming. Collectively, cars and trucks account for nearly one-fifth of all US emissions, emitting around 24 pounds of carbon dioxide and other global-warming gases for every gallon of gas.

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Burning fossil fuels cause to climate change.

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Burning fossil fuels cause to climate change.

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Increasing livestock farming causes climate change.

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Increasing livestock farming causes climate change.

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Is there a link between aerosols and climate change?

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Is there a link between aerosols and climate change?

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Is it too late to prevent climate change?

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Is it too late to prevent climate change?

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How have the world's nations agreed to act on climate change?

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How have the world's nations agreed to act on climate change?

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Is it too late to prevent climate change?

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Is it too late to prevent climate change?

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Humans have caused primary climate changes already but we still continue to harm the planet.  However, if we don't emit greenhouse gases anymore, the increase in global temperatures would begin to fall in a few years.

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Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

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Credit: Pixabay

Humans have caused major climate changes to happen already, and we have set in motion more changes still. However, if we stopped emitting greenhouse gases today, the rise in global temperatures would begin to flatten within a few years. Temperatures would then plateau but remain well-elevated for many, many centuries. There is a time lag between what we do and when we feel it, but that lag is less than a decade.

While the effects of human activities on Earth's climate to date are irreversible on the timescale of humans alive today, every little bit of avoided future temperature increases results in less warming that would otherwise persist for essentially forever. The benefits of reduced greenhouse gas emissions occur on the same timescale as the political decisions that lead to those reductions.

Without major action to reduce emissions, global temperature is on track to rise by 2.5 °C to 4.5 °C (4.5 °F to 8 ° F) by 2100, according to the latest estimates.

Thwaites Glacier. Credit: NASA.

But it may not be too late to avoid or limit some of the worst effects of climate change. Responding to climate change will involve a two-tier approach:

"Mitigation" - reducing the flow of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere

"Adaptation" - learning to live with, and adapt to, the climate change that has already been set in motion. The key question is, what will our emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants be in the years to come?

Read more about NASA's efforts to address climate change at https://climate.nasa.gov/solutions/resources/.
READ MORE

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national aeronautics and space administration

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Is it too late to prevent climate change? - Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

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Vital Signs of the Planet: Global Climate Change and Global Warming. Current news and data streams about global warming and climate change from NASA.

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Is there a link between aerosols and climate change?

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Is there a link between aerosols and climate change?

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Yes. Aerosols have a heavy effect on the climate as greenhouse gases, they can change the world's balance. Aerosols can operate how much energy from the sun reaches the plane. It is because of the fact that they change the amount absorbed in the atmosphere and the amount that is scattered back out to space.

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Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

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While the word "aerosol" may conjure up thoughts of things that come in spray cans, it means something quite different to scientists. And it turns out that aerosols have a far bigger role to play in climate change and global warming than originally thought. Dr. Amber Jenkins spoke to researcher Dr. Nadine Unger to find out more.

1. What are aerosols? Aren't they the things that come in spray cans?

Aerosols are tiny particles in the air that can be produced when we burn different types of fossil fuels - coal, petroleum, wood and biofuels - in different ways. A significant man-made source of aerosols is pollution from cars and factories. If you live in a big city you're probably pretty familiar with soot, an aerosol that forms black layers on your windowsill. But aerosols can also be produced naturally, for example, through being given off from trees or burning vegetation.

The word "aerosol" is used by scientists to mean "atmospheric particulate". But it was used a lot by the media during the 1980s and 1990s to refer to the spray cans that released chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) into the air, which damage the ozone layer and created the ozone hole. So it's no surprise that there is some confusion over the word!

2. Is there a link between aerosols and climate change?

Yes. Aerosols have a profound impact on the climate because, just like greenhouse gases, they are able to change the Earth's "radiative", or energy, balance. Aerosols can control how much energy from the sun reaches the planet's surface by changing the amount that is absorbed in the atmosphere and the amount that is scattered back out to space. It turns out that most aerosols are cooling - that is to say, they reflect the sun's energy back out into space. There is only one aerosol - soot, also known as black carbon - that actually helps contribute to global warming by boosting the warming effects of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have pumped more and more aerosols into the air, and this in turn has actually counteracted global warming to a significant degree. Using climate models, we estimate that aerosols have masked about 50 percent of the warming that would otherwise have been caused by greenhouse gases trapping heat near the surface of the Earth. Without the presence of these aerosols in the air, our models suggest that the planet would be about 1 °C (1.8 °F) hotter.

3. So aerosols are a good thing then?

No. It's true that aerosols have limited the warming that we've experienced on Earth since the Industrial Revolution. But they also have very big, detrimental impacts on human health, and have been implicated in health problems such as lung damage. Aerosols also affect other parts of the climate system like rainfall - reducing rain in areas like India and China where it is desperately needed for food production - and they alter patterns of wind and atmospheric circulation.

4. How can we reduce aerosol levels?

In the US, diesel vehicles are the major source of soot, and filters on exhaust pipes can help reduce the amount that they pump into the air. In terms of sulfate aerosols, which are created by sulfur dioxide given off by power plants, the US and Europe have very successfully used sulfur dioxide scrubbers in power plants to reduce these emissions over the past 20 years or so. But we can definitely do more.

By reducing aerosol (soot) emissions, we can buy ourselves some climate time - about 5 to 10 years - while we work on reducing emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) in parallel. CO2, you see, hangs around in the atmosphere for an extremely long time, from decades to centuries, so even if we implement cuts today, it will take years for them to take effect. Aerosols, on the other hand, have much shorter lifetimes. If we work to reduce soot emissions now, which can enhance the global warming effect of CO2 by 20-50 percent, the climate impacts will be felt more rapidly.

5. What are you working on right now?

I have a paper in review at the moment that is quite exciting; we're looking at the future total climate impacts of current emissions from different industries, taking into account the effects of both greenhouse gases such as CO2, ozone and methane, and the impacts of aerosols. What we've found is that for the next 40 years, emissions from road vehicles will have the largest global warming impacts of all human activities - because of the air pollutant effects that enhance greenhouse gas warming. After 2050, however, power sector emissions are by far the largest global warmer because of the build up of CO2 in the atmosphere from that activity.

There are a few other relevant questions coming out of this. In particular, should we be including the effects of aerosols (also known as "non-CO2 effects") in emissions trading schemes? The aviation industry is starting to consider this, but shouldn't we be doing it for all the other industries and sectors as well?

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Just 5 questions: Aerosols - Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

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While the word "aerosol" may conjure up thoughts of things that come in spray cans, it means something quite different to scientists. And it turns out that aerosols have a far bigger role to play in climate change and global warming than originally thought.

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How have the world's nations agreed to act on climate change?

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How have the world's nations agreed to act on climate change?

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By signing the Paris Agreement, countries promised to lower their emissions and adapt to climate change. Their efforts are called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). As they are enforced through national laws and policies and as their agreement publicized transparently, they are made to be bound to their pledge. They aim to have a balance between human emissions and the removal of greenhouse gases.

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What are the world’s countries doing about climate change?

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The world’s countries signed up to the Paris Agreement in 2015. This is the most important pact for international cooperation to act on climate change. By signing the Agreement, nations have committed to limit the increase in global warming to ‘well below 2°C’, with a goal to keep it to 1.5°C.