Benefits From Fossil Fuel Use

Benefits from Fossil Fuel Use Environmental Aspects of Fossil Fuel Use | Fossil Fuel in General

Environmental Aspects of Fossil Fuel Use Overview: Color Pollution: Almost all fossil fuel use is by burning (or "combustion"). Burning produces waste products due to impurities in the fuel, especially particulates and various gases such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds. These waste products may affect our environment or people, in harmful ways. We have gone to great lengths to minimize the adverse effects of fossil fuel combustion, and continue to make progress. Then too, there are serious disagreements over whether some effects of fossil fuel use are harmful at all. In some cases the amount of waste is so small that the effect, if any, is difficult to detect. Mercury from coal burning is an example. Climate change: At the other extreme, all burning produces carbon dioxide and water vapor as byproducts. This is because carbon is part of what makes fossil fuel useful. But whether these byproducts are harmful, or beneficial, is a matter of intense public debate. Some argue that they are beneficial, because water and carbon dioxide are necessary for plant life on earth, which is the basis for all life. Some people believe, however, that our carbon dioxide emissions contribute to harmful global warming and climate change, either now or in the future. Those who fear climate change have proposed new government policies to drastically reduce the use of fossil fuels. Those who do not fear climate change are skeptical of these proposed policies. There is also great debate about the science of climate change.

What is climate change? Climate change can be defined as “statistically significant variation in either the mean state of the climate or in its variability, persisting for an extended period (Houghton et al, 2001)”. It is extremely important to define what can be labelled as climate change, and what cannot. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate (UNFCC) states that climate change is variation in the climate, which can be attributed to human activity, either directly or indirectly, and stresses that it must be in addition to natural variation being experienced during the same time period. It is essential to distinguish between “climate change” due to human activities and “climate variability” due to natural causes. Only when we have a comprehensive understanding of these factors can we understand what effect humans are having on the composition of the atmosphere (UNFCC, 2002). The potential problem of global warming was officially recognised in 1988 when the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC was created with the intention of being an objective assessor of peer reviewed published scientific literature. It’s fundamental objective to provide a comprehensive, and impartial view, regarding the science and potential impact of climate change due to anthropogenic factors, then to use this information to look at options for potential adaptation and mitigation. This lead to the creation of the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992, a result of the first IPCC Assessment Report, which was completed in 1990. The second IPCC assessment was published in 1995, and provided the basis for the Kyoto Agreement, which aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. A third IPCC report was completed in 2001, providing a comprehensive source of reference, which has been used internationally as the basis for the science and impact of global climate change. A fourth report is planned for 2007, and its scope and outline are currently under discussion (http://www.ipcc.ch).

Climate change is one of the most serious environmental challenges facing the world. Call for action. The need to address climate change is urgent. Climate change is a change or variability in the average weather of a region. It may be a positive change in some locations which may enhance the productivity of a region, however, the rapidity of the change will cause major disruption and there will be many more losers than gains if climate change advances as predicted and as initial indications are now beginning to show. To become fully engaged with the issue of climate change, it is important to understand the science. Understanding how the circulation of the Earth's carbon atoms drives climate change. Climate change is caused by the persistent build-up of greenhouse gases such as Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in the Earth's atmosphere. Climate change will also alter the availability of freshwater and potable water resources. There are a handful of other, mainly industrial, chemicals that also contribute to climate change. The scientific opinion on climate change at the moment is that 'the warming that has occurred in the past 50 years can be directly attributed to anthropogenic emissions. Many people confuse the hole in the ozone layer with climate change. In fact, the hole in the ozone layer, which is now beginning to mend itself due to the efforts, and agreements, made worldwide for industry to limit and reduce ozone depleting emissions, has nothing to do with climate change. The Kyoto Protocol is the international plan to reduce climate change pollution. But climate change is about much more than perceptions of scientific certainty or uncertainty. For example, water vapor is not typically considered part of the climate change problem, although larger amounts of water vapour are known to be present now than in the past, and this will also have an effect on climate. Climate change is a change in the 'average weather' that a given region experiences, and average weather changes will be unevenly dispersed around the world, with some places experiencing much greater rises than others. Climate change in the Arctic will be greater than in most other regions, and is expected to move the permafrost boundary north by several hundred kilometers. The issue of climate change is closely linked to other environmental issues, and to the challenge of sustainable development itself. The impacts of climate change once thought of as unimaginable and farfetched are now occurring. Climate change, sometimes called “global warming”, is the most serious and most complex environmental issue ever to confront the international community.

Climate change isn't a problem for the future, it's affecting people around the world today. A vast amount of research has been done on climate change, its causes and implications. Many positive feedbacks also exist where the effects of climate change accelerate global warming. However, developing countries in particular are becoming more and more concerned about how climate change will affect them, and they do not possess the wealth to protect their populations from the effects of natural disasters such as flooding.

By Stephen Leahy Inter Press Service October 23, 2006 Soaring worldwide demand for energy is driving climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions dangerously higher, and even as investments grow in new "clean" energy sources, existing technologies to reduce energy use are being neglected. Energy remains crucial to economic development in a world where over 1.6 billion people have no access to electricity. While the media and government focus has been on greener and cleaner ways to generate power through renewable sources like biofuels, wind, solar and hydrogen, experts say that major improvements in energy efficiency could dramatically reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, save money and provide the breathing space needed to improve and develop new energy sources. Scientists estimate that to avoid dangerous climate change (generally viewed as a two-degree rise in global temperatures), world greenhouse gas emissions need to be reduced by about 60 percent from today's levels by 2050. At the same time, world energy demand is projected to increase by over 50 percent between now and 2030, and that will raise energy-related carbon dioxide emissions 52 percent higher than they are today, reported the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its 2005 World Energy Outlook, considered the definitive report on global energy. That energy path is unsustainable, warns the IEA, which is calling for major changes. "The need to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions means a drastic overhaul of how we produce energy," said Christopher Flavin, president of the Worldwatch Institute, a U.S. environmental group. "We are facing the biggest economic transformation since the Industrial Revolution," Flavin told IPS. Few

people have been able to get their heads around the scope and breadth of the changes, he said. Alternative ways of generating energy with little or no carbon emissions, improvements in energy efficiency and using less energy overall will all be needed on a massive scale. That is beginning to happen in terms of wind, solar and biofuel energy, which are growing at double-digit rates and now generate close to 10 percent of the world's energy, said Flavin. However, energy efficiency in North America and elsewhere has been on the back burner since the oil crisis of the 1970s. The European Union is an exception, where even centuries-old apartment buildings are lit by low-energy compact fluorescents equipped with motion detectors or timers so they only turn on when needed. By contrast, lights are on 24 hours in hallways and stairways as well as offices and stores across North America. This fall, EU countries, already twice as energy efficient as the U.S. or Canada, announced an action plan to reduce their energy needs by another 20 percent by 2020. "It is easier and cheaper to improve energy efficiency than produce more energy," said Nathan Glasgow, a senior consultant at the Colorado-based Rocky Mountain Institute. The opportunities to improve energy efficiency are nearly endless, Glasgow said in an interview. The Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), headed by energy efficiency guru Amory Lovins, has designed programs for large and small companies that have dramatically reduced energy use and saved billions of dollars. Converting coal at a U.S. power plant into energy that lights an incandescent light bulb is only three percent efficient, RMI research shows. Coal plants waste 70 percent of the energy they generate as heat, transmission lines lose another 10 percent, and so on. Wasted heat from U.S. coal plants amounts to 20 percent more energy than Japan uses for everything, Lovins has written. Such inefficiencies add up to hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S. and more than one trillion dollars a year globally. But governments prefer to focus on building new power plants or investing in new energy technologies like hydrogen fuel cells despite the fact that the tools to make dramatic efficiency improvements already exist, says Glasgow. The compact fluorescent lamp is one such tool. It uses 70 to 80 percent less electricity and lasts 10 to 13 times longer than an incandescent bulb, and costs between two and five

dollars. "You'll find more compact fluorescent lamps being used in China than the U.S.," Flavin said. India, China and other countries are facing a very different world as they develop, one with less oil and a need to reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. "They know their development path will be different and could leapfrog ahead into adopting and creating new technologies," he said. That path means using less energy while continuing to grow economically, agreed Stephan Barg, senior corporate advisor at the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). The IISD is a policy research think tank based in Winnipeg, Canada. "Efficiency is not about doing with less but getting the services (economic development) we want with less energy," Barg told IPS. Ironically, the U.S. and Canada may have more trouble making this adjustment than developing countries. "The way we've organised our cities in North America, with extensive unsustainable urban sprawl, makes improvements in energy efficiency difficult," Barg said. During the energy crisis of the 1970s, the United States and Canada developed strong energy efficiency programs, but most of them have fallen into disuse, he said. The Canadian government funded the development of a super energyefficient home design in the 1970s called R-2000. But only a few thousand have ever been built because they cost about five percent more. "If Canada had adopted R-2000 as the building standard for homes, we would be a much more energy efficient country," Barg told IPS. The current U.S. and Canadian governments have so far refused to mandate higher efficiency standards or establish national energy efficiency policies, as European countries have done. Humanity responds to short-term, urgent crises but often ignores longterm ones, Barg said. "Politicians and the public don't understand the urgency of the climate change problem," he noted. "We are reaching a crisis globally with climate change. The key question is whether we will be able to respond in time."

Every day we burn large amounts of gasoline, oil, coal and natural gas. These important sources of energy power our cars, run our businesses and provide electricity. But burning these fossil fuels also produces harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Like the glass in a greenhouse, these gases collect in the atmosphere and create a barrier that prevents the earth’s excess heat from escaping. As the barrier grows, the earth’s temperature increases. This is magnifying the natural greenhouse effect and the result is climate change. We now consume petroleum products at a tremendous rate. Burning fuel in our cars, factories and power plants has pumped billions of tonnes of microscopic particles and greenhouse gases into our atmosphere, fundamentally changing its composition. Switching from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy sources is vital to protect our atmosphere and climate. Natural Gas  Coal  Oil  Offshore Oil and gas