Tag Archives: global warming

Global temperature rise constitutes serious threat to planet

According to an article in today’s Washington Post, professor Andreas Schmittner of Oregon State is predicting that if carbon emissions continue to rise, by 2100 the earth’s average temperatures will be more than 7 degrees (Fahrenheit) warmer than prior to industrialization. Most scientists agree that a temperature change of this magnitude will be catastrophic for humans. Schmittner said. “I was struck by the fact that the warming continues much longer even after emissions have declined.

In a separate study, Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institute found that the only way to keep the earth from further warming involves, “a much more radical change to our energy system than people are thinking about.”

While half of human carbon emissions naturally dissipate within a century, a significant percentage of carbon emissions will last for thousands of years.

Caldeira and his co-author, University of Montreal researcher H. Damon Matthews, wrote “each unit of CO2 emissions must be viewed as leading to quantifiable and essentially permanent climate change on centennial timescales.”

 

 

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Ethanol may actually worsen global warming

The Associated Press is reporting that a new research study claims that widespread ethanol production will lead to more global warming, due to an increased amount of land converted from forests and grassland into crop production. Researchers from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs estimated that using corn to produce ethanol will lead to an increase in greenhouse gases of 93%. The impact of using switchgrass to produce ethanol is less, but still significant. A spokesman for the Renewable Fuels Association called the study “simplistic.”

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