Climate

"Before the Industrial Revolution, that is, before 1750, the carbon dioxide concentration was about 280 ppm. with the discovery of coal and oil, it began to climb. It is now around 400 ppm and rising by about 2 ppm per year." (Robertson 2014)

It doesn’t take a genius to see there is some sort of correlation between the burning of fossil fuels and the increased CO2 in the air. Everyone knows that the increased amount of CO2 in the air relates to the increase in temperature. If we continue on this path of unrestricted use of fossil fuels, the ppm in the atmosphere will continue to increase exponentially. Finding alternatives to fossil fuels has become top priority for many car companies as they develop new technologies for cars. They will eventually have to replace most if not all of the cars that are on the road today with cars that don’t add a substantially amount of CO2 to the atmosphere. It would the best of both worlds if they could find a car that would take in CO2 and clean up the air while not polluting it.

CO2 in the air posted on doityourself.com

"Changes predicted by computer models reviewed by the IPCC include heat waves; extremes of weather conditions including floods, droughts, and hurricanes; melting of glaciers and polar ice; sea level rise; changing ocean currents; changes to terrestrial and marine ecosystems including extinctions; and changes to human lifestyles including agriculture and economic issues." (Robertson 2014)

We have already started to see some of these changes in our lifetime. Each year seems to be hotter than the last, we have increasingly bad droughts in the west, our glaciers are melting so the sea is rising, and many animals and plants are using their habitats. There seems to be some efforts to prevent this from happening but there is not enough. Currently, our government wants to cut funding to the EPA and other governmental agencies that are trying to protect the damaged environment. This is very counterproductive to we should be doing and it will hurt us in the long run. If we don’t start doing more now, the ice caps will continue to melt, more plants and animals will lose their environments or become extinct, and we will eventually have crop shortages because of the heat.

Changing Climate posted on oliveoiltimes.com

"Emissions trading is, in a way, the inverse of offsetting. an offset is a reduction in emissions created by one entity and purchased by another entity. emissions trading, also known as a cap and trade system, refers to the buying and selling of permits to pollute." (Robertson 2014)

I didn’t know there was such a thing as emissions trading in the world. I don’t know what the limit is on the amount of emissions a company is allowed to use without going over their limit and it would be interesting to see the science that goes into deciding the number. I think that if a company is under their allowed emission usage they should not only get to see back their permit but they should also get tax breaks that encourages companies to try to be under. Additionally, companies that go over should have to pay more to get the permits because in a way they are breaking a law. This would greatly encourage companies to either stay right at their limit or under so they don’t have to pay a bunch of additional money.

Emission Trading posted on greenreport.it

Robertson, M. (2014). Sustainability Principles and Practice. New York, NY: Routledge.