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7 Solutions to Climate Change Happening Now

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7 Solutions to Climate Change Happening Now

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This article speaks about the lack of action the U.S, responsible for the largest share of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, has put towards climate change. This is partly due to the inability due to political controversy surrounding the topic despite the president having strong feelings about supporting action. Greenhouse gas pollution has touched 400 parts per million, the highest in the nation’s history. The levels concentration have risen far beyond than normal that scientist believe the only way to remove CO2 from the atmosphere would be through new technology. The article states the seven ways to slow down climate change (too much admission has been exposed to our atmosphere that climate change is inevitably). To begin with, we must first clean our power plants. We have taken a step in the right direction. In 2013, the new power plants have relied less on coal for electricity cutting down the admission released into the air. Secondly, we must take local action. This includes lowering CO2 released by limiting car trips, turning off unneeded light, buying recycled products, etc. Next, the U.S has a duty to control methane leaks. Additionally, a priority for slowing down the effects of climate are tougher emission and efficiency standards meaning creating stricter laws on how much CO2 we should release. We must create greener farms. This means planting more plants to release oxygen. Private sector action or limiting CO2 releases by factories is also needed. In conclusion, the U.S must finds way to create new kinds of geopolitical consensus. This means big countries must pledge to limit CO2 emissions.

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A man who once flew all the way to Copenhagen from Washington, D.C., just to tell journalists that climate change wasn't that big a deal is likely now to return to lead (or at least strongly influence) the environment committee of the U.S. Senate. As Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said at that time, in December 2009, he came to Copenhagen to "make sure that nobody is laboring under the misconception that the U.S. Senate is going to do something" about climate change. His thinking likely will not change by 2015; in fact, Inhofe has already decried the new U.S.-China climate agreement as a " nonbinding charade."

Even though the U.S. is responsible for the largest share of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the country will not be able to take national legislative action on climate change anytime soon. Despite a president who avers that "those who are already feeling the effects of climate change don't have time to deny it -they're busy dealing with it," the U.S. Congress seems content to let climate change languish as a priority. National climate action is already devolving into a fight over approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline that would enable more oil to flow from Canada's tar sands and implementation of the Clean Power Plan, known to some as the " war on coal." In fact, the likely new Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was reelected in part based on a platform reduced to a bumper sticker: "Coal. Guns. Freedom."

As a result of similar complacency or intransigence around the globe, greenhouse gas pollution continues to rise and atmospheric concentrations have now touched 400 parts per million. Australia elected a climate skeptic as prime minister who promptly repealed its carbon tax-and pollution has promptly soared this year. In fact, the world has dawdled long enough that the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change now suggests that technologies to remove CO2 from the atmosphere will be required to prevent too much global warming this century.

But, believe it or not, action on climate change is taking place in the U.S. "We don't have time for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society," Pres. Barack Obama noted back in June 2013. So his administration has moved forward without Congress as a result, through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan and the new agreement to reduce pollution with China.

Here are seven solutions to global warming that are advancing and gathering steam in the U.S.-and around the world.

1. Clean Power Plants-More than 20 percent of new, large power plants built in the U.S. in 2013 employ sunlight to generate electricity. And that does not include solar panels on people's rooftops, which alone added nearly two gigawatts of capacity last year. In addition, natural gas replaced coal as the largest source of new electricity generation. The shale revolution enabled the U.S. to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions "while maintaining economic growth by switching from coal to gas," notes Nobuo Tanaka, former head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) and a now a visiting fellow at Columbia University.

Of the two coal-fired power plants that were completed last year, one was the coal gasification facility in Edwardsport, Ind., which could one day incorporate technology to capture its CO2 emissions. Per megawatt-hour, the new power plant also spews half the CO2 as the old coal-fired power plant it replaced.

Although the U.S. is currently retiring more nuclear reactors than it is building, the same is not true in China. In addition to its 22 operating reactors, it has 26 under construction and plans for even more. That's because the Chinese leadership sees nuclear power as one of the key ways-besides solar, wind and hydropower-to cut down on the country's coal burning, which is responsible both for its choking air pollution and swelling greenhouse gas emissions.

Without nuclear power the IEA and other energy experts suggest that curtailing climate change may prove impossible. Regardless, nuclear power today, along with hydropower, provides the bulk of low-CO2 electricity production. "We need everything," Tanaka says. "We need CCS [carbon capture and storage]. We need nuclear. We need renewables."

2. Local Action-In 2008 six states in the northeastern U.S. launched a regional effort to cap CO2 pollution from power plants in the region via the use of alternative sources and energy-efficiency programs. By 2014, the effort had grown to include nine states and had helped cut such greenhouse gas emissions in nearly half. In fact, the program has been so successful that the states agreed to lower the overall cap by an additional 45 percent starting this year.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, aka RGGI, or "Reggie" for short, is not the only climate action in the U.S. in the absence of a federal effort. California has launched its own cap-and-trade market, and it has, along with 34 other states, some form of mandate for electricity generated from less polluting sources, such as the wind, sun and Earth's geothermal heat. Cities large (New York) and small (Dubuque, Iowa) have set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, cities around the world are reducing CO2 in a bid for self-preservation, and some, such as Copenhagen and Melbourne, are aiming to cancel out any CO2 emitted with CO2 absorbed or otherwise avoided.

As a result of these actions-and the surge in generation from cleaner power sources-U.S. greenhouse gas pollution has dropped by 10 percent since 2005. And the recent election holds out the prospect that RGGI may gain another member state-Pennsylvania.

3. Control of Methane Leaks-Colorado has become the first state in the nation to try to address methane-a greenhouse gas even more potent than CO2. Leaks in pipelines, storage tanks and other infrastructure will have to be fixed within weeks after their discovery, among other new regulations administered by the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission. The Rocky Mountain state is unlikely to remain the only place to act to control such pollution.

In this case even the federal government is taking action. The Obama administration has implemented new rules to capture the methane leaking from garbage dumps, coal mines and the manure piles created by large animal farms. And both the EPA and U.S. Bureau of Land Management are considering rules around methane for the oil and gas industry. At the local level Google has partnered with environmental groups and cities to sniff out leaks in aging gas infrastructure.

Methane currently accounts for 9 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas pollution-and growing because of fracking for oil and the gas itself. In fact, that number does not include all the methane that is flared-that is, burned off as a precaution to prevent explosions but in the process releasing CO2. So action against methane can buy more time to address the problem of rising CO2 pollution.

4. Tougher Emissions and Efficiency Standards-New standards for cars are becoming a global phenomenon, whether it's more stringent rules in China, the European Union or the U.S. As the world heads toward two billion vehicles, making sure that these cars emit less pollution-both smog-forming nitrogen oxides and heat-trapping carbon dioxide-will be crucial, whether it is accomplished via more efficient internal combustion engines or better hybrids. Electric cars, including the Chevy Volt, Nissan LEAF or Tesla Model S, can help, too, provided the electricity does not come from burning fossil fuels.

At the same time, power plants face ever-tighter requirements for air pollution. As a result, U.S. pollution is already 10 percent below 2005 levels and will drop lower. "You can't build a coal plant in the U.S. unless it complies with high emission reductions," says Ethan Zindler, head of policy analysis at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. "People do the low-cost option for compliance, which is to build a new gas plant." One day even natural gas-fired power plants may have to employ CO2 capture and storage, much like new coal-fired power plants in Mississippi and Texas do today.

And new efficiency standards for appliances, from air conditioners to washing machines, have helped keep electricity demand from growing, paired with improvements in basic technology, such as light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, replacing less efficient incandescent bulbs.

5. Greener Farming-The U.S. Department of Agriculture is helping farmers adapt to climate change, even if they don't believe in global warming. Regional climate hubs now provide extension agents with technical support on best practices to deal with a changing climate, including preserving buffer wetlands to cut down on both erosion and flooding. National forests and grasslands will now be managed with the goal of storing CO2, among other aims. Already farmers have begun adopting various techniques to reduce greenhouse emissions, including precision agriculture to grow crops efficiently, cover crops to reduce soil erosion and biodigesters to reduce animal waste.

Ultimately, farms may even help address climate change by providing energy crops for biofuels. Such fuel from plants paired with the kind of CCS used on coal-fired power plants could even begin to draw down the amount of CO2 already in the atmosphere. And the regrowth of U.S. forests as less land is devoted to farming is already helping restrain global warming.

6. Private Sector Action-It's not just that tech giants like Apple and Google are powering data centers with wind and solar. It's not just big food brands like General Mills and PepsiCo preparing their businesses for the crop and water scarcity predicted by climate change. It's not even the internal carbon prices employed at oil companies like Shell and even ExxonMobil. It's the fact that-outside of coal companies, a few coal-burning utilities and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce-it's hard to find businesses that do not accept the science on global warming or have plans to deal with it.

The simple fact is that climate change also means changes to business models, whether the company is an insurance giant like Swiss Re facing extreme weather risk or a utility, like NRG Energy, facing new regulations as well as customers desirous of a new relationship with power production and producers. And for those in the energy business like Alstom, General Electric, Siemens, Toshiba or Westinghouse, fortunes will be made-or lost-as China and other fast-developing countries build out cleaner energy options.

7. New Kinds of Geopolitical Consensus-On November 12 China and the U.S., the world's two most polluting countries, signed an agreement to combat climate change. China will cap its CO2 emissions by 2030 and plan to get 20 percent of its electricity from the wind, sun, dams and fission. The U.S. will ratchet up its pollution reduction trajectory aiming for a doubling of the annual rate of decline from just over 1 percent per year to more than 2 percent per year. Combined with the pledge of 28 countries of the European Union to reduce CO2 as well in the same time frame, more than half of global pollution is now set to decline in coming decades. "The politics in both countries are easier if both countries move forward together," notes Jennifer Morgan, global director of the climate program at the World Resources Institute (WRI). "If both are acting together, others cannot hide behind them and they can inspire greater ambition."

Nor is the U.S.-China deal the only bright spot, internationally. Brazil and Indonesia-the two countries where deforestation is fastest-are both attempting to reverse course.

At the same time, developing countries are aiming to skip fossil fuels in their drive for prosperity. Kenya has become the world's hotspot for geothermal power, thanks to the Rift Valley, where geology brings hot rocks close to the surface. Both Brazil and India have made big pushes for more solar power. And a recent survey by Bloomberg New Energy Finance found that 55 developing countries installed nearly twice as much renewable power as developed countries between 2008 and 2013. "If you're burning diesel to light your home, that isn't great," says Bloomberg's Zindler. "You can now displace that with PV," or photovoltaics, thanks to the price drop in these cleaner technologies in recent years.

That's one thing individuals can do: join the growing ranks of solar homeowners. But, at least in the U.S., there is another action that is probably more important to the fight against climate change in the long run: voting for politicians and policies that promise climate action. As WRI's Morgan notes, to keep the global average temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius by 2100, "the pace and scale of change just needs to increase dramatically."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

David Biello

David Biello is a contributing editor at Scientific American. He has been reporting on the environment and energy since 1999.

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7 Solutions to Climate Change Happening Now

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A man who once flew all the way to Copenhagen from Washington, D.C., just to tell journalists that climate change wasn't that big a deal is likely now to return to lead (or at least strongly influence) the environment committee of the U.S. Senate. As Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.)

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Historical satellite images reveal snow is melting earlier in Wyoming

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Historical satellite images reveal snow is melting earlier in Wyoming

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This article states that in Wyoming snow has started melting 16 days earlier from 1970 to the 1990's.This has caused a drought for the state because Wyoming depends on snow for most of its water souses. Also this has been a cause for more wildfires and ecosystem changes. Earlier snowfall has been observed by scientists since 1966. To find this data scientists used a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite to record data. These satelites look at stream flow because the stream flow is influenced by snow fall and rain fall. This data showed earlier stream runoff and snow melt. Meterologists hypothisied that increasing summer and spring night temperatures could be a cause. The scientists used over 1000 land sat scenes to create 227 snow maps for a 42 year period. However the experiment didn't have enough data so it could only be approximated.This indicates regional climate change.

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Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

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Images from NASA/USGS Landsat satellites show the snowcover in Wyoming's Fremont Lake Basin throughout 2013. NASA scientists have used Landsat data from 1972-2013 to determine that the snow is melting 16 days earlier. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Download video.

A NASA study of a basin in northwestern Wyoming revealed that the snowmelt season in the area is now ending on average about sixteen days earlier than it did from the 1970s through the 1990s.

"The Wind River Range is a very high mountain range, with lots of snow," said Dorothy Hall, lead author of the study and a senior research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "Earlier snowmelt impacts the water resources of most of the state of Wyoming, which has been undergoing a drought since 1999."

Snowmelt is a significant contributor to the water resources of Wyoming. Changes in its timing affect agriculture in the state and contribute to earlier and more frequent wildfires, ecosystem changes and other impacts.

Scientists have observed earlier spring snowmelt in the Northern Hemisphere since 1966 using the Rutgers University climate data record of snow cover, created using data mostly from a wide suite of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites. This record gives a good overall view of trends in the snow cover in the northern hemisphere but doesn't have the resolution to analyze specific basins.

The earlier snowmelt has been especially obvious in the Pacific Northwest and other coastal areas of the western U.S. Studies have shown a shifting toward earlier snowmelt in most of the mountain ranges of the western United States. Much of this research is based on analysis of streamflow data, gathered by stream gauges. But streamflow is influenced by both rain and snow melt. Hall's analysis employs satellite data, which is a more direct measure of snow cover changes, as the main source for determining dates of snowmelt.

Hall and her team compared snow maps derived from the NASA-U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Landsat satellite program with snow maps derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) instruments onboard NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites. The first Landsat satellite was launched in 1972, while Terra was launched in 1999 and Aqua in 2002. The scientists also studied daily stream discharge data from a local gauge and daily temperature and precipitation records. The discharge data show earlier peak runoff, associated to earlier peak snowmelt, and the meteorological data indicate that increasing spring and summer nighttime temperatures contribute to the earlier snowmelt.

The study has been accepted for publication in the journal Remote Sensing of Environment and is available online.

The scientists sorted through more than 1,000 Landsat scenes to create 227 snow maps for the 42-year period extending from 1972 to 2013. Much of the work to create snow maps for this study could not be automated, Hall said. For example, each map had to be checked manually to make sure clouds were not obscuring the snow in the basin.

Because so few clear-sky Landsat images are available during the snowmelt season, the team developed a method to fill in the gaps. They plotted all available snow extent data for a given decade and used a computer program to fit a curve, connecting the observed data points. This showed the trend of the timing of snowmelt in each decade, though the changes can only be given as an approximation, because there weren't enough data available to give precise dates.

"We didn't have enough Landsat images to see when the snow was melting each year, especially in the early part of the Landsat record," Hall said, "But when we averaged years together during each decade, we were able to construct mean snow-cover depletion curves."

This technique is not necessary with the MODIS data, since MODIS already provides daily snow maps - at least 200 snow maps of the region almost every snowmelt season beginning in 2000. MODIS overflies the study region more often than Landsat and its data can be automatically processed to fill in the cloud gaps, or the cloudy regions obscuring the snow underneath. The researchers compared the Landsat and MODIS snow-cover depletion curves for the decade of the 2000s, and they matched well.

Hall theorizes that earlier snowmelt is probably happening all along the Wind River Range, based on data from several stream gauges that she analyzed for a previous study. All gauges showed lower current stream flows in springtime in the 2000s than in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. There was a warming trend in spring and summer nighttime temperatures over those decades.

However, there were no observed changes to the timing of snowmelt during the MODIS record, from 2000 to the present. Hall said that local nighttime temperatures have not been rising noticeably after 2000 as they did from the 1970s to the 2000s. Streamflow has also remained more stable, although at a lower level than in the previous decades.

"Monitoring and documenting changes in the timing of snowmelt helps hydrologists to plan water resources management for human use and to optimize reservoir management," Hall said. "Also, the snow-cover timing changes can be indicative of regional climate change."

For more information about the related NASA MODIS Snow and Sea Ice Global Mapping Project, visit:
http://modis-snow-ice.gsfc.nasa.gov/

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Historical satellite images reveal snow is melting earlier in Wyoming - Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

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A NASA study of a basin in northwestern Wyoming revealed that the snowmelt season in the area is now ending on average about sixteen days earlier than it did from the 1970s through the 1990s.

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Climate Change Threatens to Kill Off More Aspen Forests by 2050s, Scientists Say

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Climate Change Threatens to Kill Off More Aspen Forests by 2050s, Scientists Say

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“I think of aspens as a good canary-in-the-coal-mine tree,” said William R. L. Anderegg, the Princeton University researcher who led the new study, released online Monday [March 30, 2015] by the journal Nature Geoscience. “They’re a wet-loving tree in a dry landscape. They may be showing us how these forests are going to change pretty massively as that landscape gets drier still." What he is saying is that, Aspen trees are kind of like a warning. The way they are talked about, it is saying that these trees would kind of be the first type of tree to die off. If they have been flourishing for many years before modern greenhouse gas emissions and now forests of them are starting to get damaged, then we should know that something is wrong in the picture. Last decade, a big drought and a lot of heat swept through Colorado killing millions of Aspen trees. If global emissions are not reduced by the 2050s, it is quite possible that if these patterns continued, that Aspen die-offs are imminent. In droughts, these trees die from tiny air bubbles that form in the soil when it gets too dry. The bubbles are then carried into the tree blocking water from passing through the rest of the tree. Dr. Anderegg and his collaborators have come up with a program to predict Aspen deaths with a 75% accuracy. Applying the continuing rates of greenhouse gases, it predicted a major Aspen die-off. With everything that is happening, other trees and forests will most likely be affected as well. Though they are all diverse and some cope better with certain conditions, if we keep up our habits, plants will begin to die. “The more we lower emissions, the less the risks become,” Dr. Anderegg said. “The choice is in our hands.”

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The beloved aspen forests that shimmer across mountainsides of the American West could be doomed if emissions of greenhouse gases continue at a high level, scientists warned on Monday. That finding adds to a growing body of work suggesting forests worldwide may be imperiled by climate change.

The new paper analyzed the drought and heat that killed millions of aspens in Colorado and nearby states a decade ago. Such conditions could become routine across much of the West by the 2050s unless global emissions are brought under control, the study found.

"I think of aspens as a good canary-in-the-coal-mine tree," said William R. L. Anderegg, the Princeton University researcher who led the new study, released online Monday by the journal Nature Geoscience. "They're a wet-loving tree in a dry landscape. They may be showing us how these forests are going to change pretty massively as that landscape gets drier still."

The study found that large aspen die-offs were a near-certainty only if greenhouse emissions were to continue at the runaway pace that has characterized the last decade. If global emissions are brought under control, the chances will improve that large stands of aspens could be preserved, the paper found.

In the fall, stands of trembling aspens are among the most breathtaking sights in the West, turning hillsides an iridescent golden hue.

Dr. Anderegg grew up camping and hiking in the aspen forests of southwestern Colorado and was dismayed when the trees started dying a decade ago. He has devoted part of his early scientific career to understanding the dieback - and the implications of it for forests elsewhere.

A central focus of the research has been to get a better handle on exactly how trees die in droughts, crucial for predicting how they will fare as global warming proceeds. Dr. Anderegg's research on aspens suggests that when the ground gets too dry, air bubbles appear in the tiny tubes that carry water through the tree.

"These air bubbles block the pipes and interrupt water transport, giving the tree a kind of heart attack, basically," Dr. Anderegg said.

He and his collaborators have devised a computer model that, when programmed with climate parameters, can predict aspen mortality with about 75 percent accuracy, and they are working to improve it. Applying their model to the rainfall and temperature conditions expected in coming decades as the climate warms under business-as-usual emissions yielded the prediction of a major aspen die-off.

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Drought and climate stress triggered widespread aspen forest mortality. Credit William Anderegg

Depending on exactly how dry the soil gets in the hotter climate, the mortality could extend beyond the West, with aspens - and perhaps many other types of trees - dying across the country, Dr. Anderegg said.

At a global scale, forests have been responding to the rising concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with accelerated growth, allowing them to pull large amounts of the gas out of the air and thus helping to limit the effects of human emissions. How robust this forest "carbon sink" will remain through time is among the most important topics in climate science.

Dr. Anderegg's paper fits with other recent findings suggesting that forests may not be as resilient to global warming as once hoped. For instance, a paper published two weeks ago found that the ability of the vast Amazon forest to pull carbon dioxide out of the air was weakening through time, with trees growing faster and dying earlier.

Craig D. Allen, a forest expert with the United States Geological Survey who was not involved in the new research, said Dr. Anderegg's work was a step toward understanding what might happen across broad landscapes.

But, he warned, a huge amount of work is still needed on other tree types, in other locales, before the picture becomes clear. "There's just a lot of variability between species," Dr. Allen said. He noted that aspens have relatively shallow roots, limiting their ability to tap deep water in a drought, whereas other trees could be more resilient.

Forest experts, including Dr. Allen, are particularly worried about future "hot droughts," similar to the one that struck Colorado and nearby states in the early 2000s. Huge stands of aspens died, and heat-loving beetles killed millions of acres of pine trees.

These droughts are characterized not just by a lack of rainfall but by high temperatures that suck residual moisture out of the soil. They are predicted to increase in a warming climate.

In addition to killing forests, these types of droughts may make food production more difficult, as is becoming evident in California, which is suffering through the fourth year of an especially warm drought.

The frequency and intensity of such lethal droughts later this century will most likely be reduced if efforts to control carbon dioxide emissions are successful over the next few decades, scientists believe.

"The more we lower emissions, the less the risks become," Dr. Anderegg said. "The choice is in our hands."

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: Climate Change Threatens to Kill Off More Aspen Forests by 2050s, Scientists Say. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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Climate Change Threatens to Kill Off More Aspen Forests by 2050s, Scientists Say

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The beloved aspen forests that shimmer across mountainsides of the American West could be doomed if emissions of greenhouse gases continue at a high level, scientists warned on Monday. That finding adds to a growing body of work suggesting forests worldwide may be imperiled by climate change.

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One of the strongest pieces of evidence for human-induced climate change is the consistent rise in carbon dioxide in modern times, as measured at NOAA's Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, where carbon dioxide has been tracked since 1958. In early 2015, the seasonally adjusted concentration of CO₂ in Earth's atmosphere was close to 400 parts per million (ppm), with a recent growth rate of between 2 and 4 ppm per year.

Around this seasonally adjusted average, the concentrations rise during northern spring and summer and drop during autumn and winter. The weekly average at Mauna Loa first rose above 400 ppm early in 2013 before falling back later in the year. The last time Earth's atmosphere held this much carbon dioxide was at least 3 million years ago.

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How much carbon dioxide is already in the atmosphere?

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One of the strongest pieces of evidence for human-induced climate change is the consistent rise in carbon dioxide in modern times, as measured at NOAA's Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, where carbon dioxide has been tracked since 1958.

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Amazon Forest Becoming Less of a Climate Change Safety Net

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Amazon Forest Becoming Less of a Climate Change Safety Net

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The article is basically saying that we can not rely on our oceans and plant life to do most of our work for us in reducing the carbon pollution. Yes the trees were able to keep up with all the excess, but with that in mind, they have their growth altered. “With time, the growth stimulation feeds through the system, causing trees to live faster, and so die younger,” Oliver L. Phillips, a tropical ecologist at the University of Leeds and one of the leaders of the research, said in a statement. About 2 billion tons a year of carbon dioxide is taken up by 189,000 trees over a span of 30 years. This number has since reduced by half its starting point. The Amazon has been weakened by the pollution happening around us. Now scientists are concerned about other forests and trees having the exact same thing happen to them. If this does happen, less help will be given by the trees and major carbon emission cuts will have to be made to take action. “Forests are doing us a huge favor, but we can’t rely on them to solve the carbon problem,” Dr. Phillips said. “Instead, deeper cuts in emissions will be required to stabilize our climate.”

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The ability of the Amazon forest to soak up excess carbon dioxide is weakening over time, researchers reported last week. That finding suggests that limiting climate change could be more difficult than expected.

For decades, Earth's forests and seas have been soaking up roughly half of the carbon pollution that people are pumping into the atmosphere. That has limited the planetary warming that would otherwise result from those emissions.

The forests and oceans have largely kept up even as emissions have skyrocketed. That surprised many scientists, but also prompted warnings that such a robust "carbon sink" could not be counted on to last forever.

In a vast study spanning 30 years and covering 189,000 trees distributed across 321 plots in the Amazon basin, researchers led by a group at the University of Leeds, in Britain, reported that the uptake of carbon dioxide in the Amazon peaked in the 1990s, at about 2 billion tons a year, and has since fallen by half.

Initially, the researchers postulated, the Amazon may have responded well to rising carbon dioxide levels, which are known to increase plant growth, but that response appears to be tapering off. Drought and other stresses could be playing a role, but the main factor seems to be that the initial acceleration of growth sped up the metabolism of the trees.

"With time, the growth stimulation feeds through the system, causing trees to live faster, and so die younger," Oliver L. Phillips, a tropical ecologist at the University of Leeds and one of the leaders of the research, said in a statement.

Further research is needed, but the scientists say that climate forecasting models that assume a continuing, robust carbon sink in the Amazon could be overly optimistic.

At a global scale, studies suggest that forests are still absorbing far more carbon than they release into the atmosphere, even as stresses like fires and beetle attacks increase because of climate change. In essence, rising forces of growth have been outracing rising forces of death in the world's forests.

Perhaps the big question now is whether that will flip. Will forests beyond the Amazon, such as the boreal forest that encircles the Northern Hemisphere, eventually follow the Amazon and weaken as carbon sinks?

That would mean, in effect, that human civilization would have less help from trees, and cuts in carbon emissions would need to be sharper than previously thought to limit global warming to tolerable levels.

"Forests are doing us a huge favor, but we can't rely on them to solve the carbon problem," Dr. Phillips said. "Instead, deeper cuts in emissions will be required to stabilize our climate."

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Amazon Forest Becoming Less of a Climate Change Safety Net

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The ability of the Amazon forest to soak up excess carbon dioxide is weakening over time, researchers reported last week. That finding suggests that limiting climate change could be more difficult than expected. For decades, Earth's forests and seas have been soaking up roughly half of the carbon pollution that people are pumping into the atmosphere.

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There are cycles of certain elements that run along side us in this world. One of the main cycles is the cycle of carbon through the atmosphere by Biological, Human, Geological, and Physical/Chemical processes. There are also cycles of Nitrogen, where Nitrogen is recycled from being fertilizer to be gas by bacteria with decomposition, and Phosphorus, where Phosphorus is cycled through phosphate in the form of phosphate rock, sediments, or minerals through the atmosphere. Nitrogen is needed for production of amino acids and Phosphorus is needed for formation of DNA and RNA. Carbon, in particular, is important due to Carbon itself being part of all compounds that are organic, with also being part of carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. Carbon Dioxide, from Oxygen and Carbon, is the main component of our atmosphere and is the item that cycles Carbon through out the cycle. In Geological processes dead organisms, like animals, plants, or trees, become part of the ground as sediments or rocks. These dead organisms can be used as oil, natural gas, or coal by decomposition, pressure, and heat. The oil/natural gas/coal is used by us as humans for energy, which releases Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere. The Carbon Dioxide then gets absorbed by plants undergoing photosynthesis. The plants die off and by decomposition/pressure/heat become a fossil fuel. The Carbon Dioxide can also dissolve into the oceans and be recycled as sediment and then to carbonate rocks. The Biological process involves using the processes of photosynthesis by plants and cellular respiration by animals or consumers. The plants absorb Carbon Dioxide and water to do photosynthesis and produce oxygen. Cellular respiration involves absorbing this oxygen and making water, energy, and Carbon Dioxide. Humans also take part in this cycle too, by using fossil fuels produced by the Geological cycles via pressure, decomposition, or heat, to make energy by using coal or oil. With also deforestation by burning, this releases Carbon Dioxide into the air, which then is either cycled back through Geological processes or by Biological processes. In the Physical/Chemical process, the Carbon Dioxide dissolves in rain water, and then dissolves in oceans to return back into the atmosphere. The Carbon Cycle has to be maintained equal because, if there is too little plants to take Carbon Dioxide, then the gas itself goes more into the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas to trap heat from the sun into our atmosphere. This in turn increases climate change and global warming so it is very important that this cycle is maintained if we are to prevent climate change which melts our glaciers.

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Morgan Freeman talks with us in his majestic and manly voice soothing our minds as he describes to us the issues of climate change.

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Irreversible Climate Change Would Result From Continued Inaction

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Irreversible Climate Change Would Result From Continued Inaction

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This article states that basically we as humans need to do something to help against climate change or else we can't change the climate back to what it once was in the future. By greenhouse gases being exposed to the atmosphere, up to 27 ecosystems will receive severe impacts. We can adapt to this climate change and prepare for the impacts, but it isn't an effective way because eventually we can't adapt enough to counter climate change, when instead we can try to reduce the effects by reducing greenhouse gas exposure. The point were the irreversible effect of climate change , according to scientists, is when the global climate rises 2 degrees Celsius. To stop that point from getting reached, global emissions must decrease to 40%-70% of what they are currently by 2050. Without nations cutting emissions, the Earth could warm up to 4 degrees Celsius, where, "substantial species extinction, global and regional food insecurity, consequential constraints on common human activities, and limited potential for adaptation in some cases", as the article states. The world can hold up to 2,900 Gigatons of of Carbon Dioxide from a report by scientists, and we have apparently used 2/3 of the space already. A method of reducing carbon emissions by reducing the carbon intensity of electricity generation has been introduced, but the problem is that some nations, like India, rely on coal for their energy. If these Carbon Dioxide emissions aren't controlled, heat waves will occur more often, and the Arctic sea ice would disappear before the year 2050. Currently, to limit warming by 2 degrees Celsius, the world would have to restrain Carbon Dioxide levels to 450 parts per million by 2100-the concentration now is about 400 parts per million and is rising.

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Continuing to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere will trigger "severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people, species and 27 ecosystems," concludes a landmark draft U.N. science report expected to be approved this week.

Adapting to climate change, according to a final draft obtained by ClimateWire, can reduce some risks. But, it argues, "there are limits to its effectiveness, particularly if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced."

In order to keep global temperatures from rising above 2 degrees Celsius beyond preindustrial levels-the point at which experts predict the planet will experience the irreversible effect of climate change-net global emissions must plummet 40 to 70 percent by 2050, hitting zero by the end of the century. And yet, the report will argue, there is still time to act.

"Risks from mitigation can be substantial, but they do not involve the same possibility of severe, widespread, and irreversible impacts as risks from climate change, increasing the benefits from near-term mitigation action," the draft notes.

The sythesis report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) pulls together three sweeping scientific works that the United Nations' top climate science body has released over the past 13 months. They include documents detailing the latest climate science, the impacts to ecosystems and people, and options for reducing emissions. Scientists and delegates from more than 100 countries are meeting behind closed doors in Copenhagen, Denmark, this week to complete it as well as an even shorter "summary for policymakers" that will be released Sunday.

It comes as governments prepare to meet in Lima, Peru, for annual U.N. negotiations toward an international climate agreement. The deal is expected to be signed in Paris at the end of 2015, and several officials noted that the bite-sized summary could help put global warming on the radar screen of world leaders over the coming months.

"Policymakers like short, up-to-date documents that present a clear, balanced view of the key issues around the problem on their table," said IPCC Vice-Chairman Jean-Pascal van Ypersele. "It will also, most probably, contain a catchy series of headline statements, which will provide easy to remember elements of context for the impending climate negotiations."

The headline statements will make the report more digestible "in the same way that a cake is much more palatable than the dry ingredients it is made from," he said. "Climate negotiations need to be informed by the best assessment of scientific information. That is what the IPCC Synthesis Report will provide."

Challenges from the developing world
Yet the summary is more than just a wrap-up of the science; it is a road map for negotiations, which means that each statement could hold nations politically accountable in the future-so nations consider wording with great care.

Several points of disagreement exist between developing and developed nations, said Sanjay Vashist, director of the Climate Action Network.

The draft report states that if nations do not cut emissions further, warming could exceed 4 C. This would result in "severe, widespread, and irreversible" impacts. It would lead to "substantial species extinction, global and regional food insecurity, consequential constraints on common human activities, and limited potential for adaptation in some cases," the report states.

Several observers called for greater clarity in wording in the report, according to observers who said they expect that section to be a subject of debate.

The report does not state that the impacts of climate change would disproportionately affect the developing world, Vashist said.

"The reason it is so far being indirectly referred to is because developed countries would not like that losses and damage clearly coming out in IPCC," he said, "because then it will be politically a burden on them, and they will be under pressure to deliver."

India is challenging the "carbon budget," which refers to the hypothetical limit to fossil fuel combustion the world must abide by to limit warming. The draft states that the world has a maximum of 2,900 gigatons of CO2 to emit, of which two-thirds has already been used up.

"That curtails the development agenda of developing countries, so India would like to make sure that if it is articulated in the SPM, then it should be in a manner that more is available for developing countries and mitigation ambition is raised for developed countries," Vashist said.

The United States, others noted, also has concerns about the carbon budget. Indeed, the debates over the wording describing where responsibilities should lie for tackling climate change are expected to be the most sensitive.

"I think that's going to be an important one to see where that lands in the synthesis report," said Leo Hickman, chief climate change adviser to WWF-UK. "It spells out that we have this finite amount of carbon left to burn. The numbers are there, and it's pretty clear what road we're on and what road we need to take."

The draft also mentions that decarbonization by reducing the carbon intensity of electricity generation is an important strategy to cut emissions. India would have a problem with that, since coal provides up to 50 percent of its primary energy mix, Vashist said.

"For India, it is an issue of curtailing development and leaving millions without any basic amenities," he said. "This is a red line for India."

Act fast, or feel the heat
Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said: "It will come down to the discussions over who does what. I don't think there's going to be many people arguing about the risks. That's pretty much agreed now. But this ties into the negotiations process, and there are some countries that still, unfortunately, regard the negotiations as a zero-sum game where some countries have to lose for other countries to win."

The IPCC treads lightly on the topic of extreme weather events. It states that cyclones, floods, droughts and other extreme weather events in recent times have exposed the vulnerabilities of current infrastructure, but does not go into further detail on storms and precipitation anomalies. Instead, it focuses most of its attention on heat waves, which it states have become more frequent in Europe, Asia and Australia.

If CO2 emissions are not controlled, heat waves will very likely occur more often and be of longer duration, the report states. In the business-as-usual state, Arctic sea ice would disappear in September before 2050, glaciers would continue to retreat, oceans would acidify and global sea levels would rise.

"Climate change will create new risks for natural and human systems and amplify existing risks in countries at all levels of development," the report states.

A key message of the draft is that acting now and acting fast are needed to limiting warming to 2 C above preindustrial levels by 2100. Delayed action would be more expensive and challenging, the draft suggests.

Still, the report strikes a note of hope that the 2-degree target, which some observers have questioned in recent months, is achievable (ClimateWire, Oct. 3).

To limit warming to below 2 C, the world would have to constrain carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere to 450 parts per million (ppm) by 2100, according to the report. The concentration is currently hovering at 400 ppm and growing quickly.

To curb CO2 emissions, the world would have to change its energy system and alter land-use patterns by midcentury, the draft states. And nations would have to phase in mitigation strategies by 2030 to avoid even bigger challenges in the future, the report states.

"Implementing such reductions poses substantial technological, economic, social, and institutional challenges, which increase with delays in additional mitigation and technology constraints," the report states.

The IPCC states that even a 1.5 C target would be plausible if nations adopt mitigation and adaptation strategies before 2030.

Kaisa Kosonen, a climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace Nordic, said the low targets would be possible if the world were to switch to renewable energy and adopt other measures.

"It is really up to us to make those decisions and get there," she said. "We are no longer in the business of just controlling emissions or managing them; we need to phase out fossil fuel emissions altogether, and we need to start very soon. The more we delay, the harder it will be to get there."
Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500

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Irreversible Climate Change Would Result from Continued Inaction

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Continuing to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere will trigger "severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people, species and 27 ecosystems," concludes a landmark draft U.N. science report expected to be approved this week. Adapting to climate change, according to a final draft obtained by ClimateWire, can reduce some risks.