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By Georgina Gustin At its annual conference on climate change this week, the United Nations released a major report saying the world has little hope of reaching global climate targets without quickly lowering emissions of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that’s nearly 300 times more powerful at warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.
The dominant factors are changes in CO2 (a cooling), ozone depletion (a cooling), warming from big volcanoes, and oscillations related to the solar cycle. That means the greenhouse substances are basically just CO2 and ozone, and they absorb in quite different parts of the spectrum. The basic concept is easy to grasp though.
Step 1: There is a natural greenhouse effect. Thus there must be a large amount of IR absorbed by the atmosphere (around 158 W/m 2 ) – a number that would be zero in the absence of any greenhouse substances. Step 2: Trace gases contribute to the natural greenhouse effect. The Earth’s Energy Budget (NASA).
By Phil McKenna Emissions of a small group of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), man-made chemicals that destroy Earth’s protective ozone layer and fuel global warming, are back on the rise after their production was all but banned more than a decade ago, a new study concludes.
So this is an attempt to put all of that in context and provide a hopefully comprehensive guide to how, when, and why to properly compare the two greenhouse gases. You might recall that GWP is defined as the ratio on per-kg basis of the temperature impact of other greenhouse gases compared to CO 2 over a specific time period.
The cause of our changing climate is the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations that we have released into the air. Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) is the most important greenhouse gas that we have added to the atmosphere, however, some of it has been absorbed by land and oceans.
Last week, Senators Schumer and Manchin announced a compromise on a reconciliation bill, called the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 , that includes significant climate and air quality progress and a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions nationwide by 40 percent by 2030. A key step towards addressing climate change and air quality.
Westlaw searches for “global warming” and “greenhouse effect” pick up only a handful of citations before 1985. But it’s not totally clear what he meant, because “climate change” was used at the time to refer to a range of issues including acid rain, damage to the ozone layer, local weather control efforts, and desertification.
Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) were developed to replace a type of chemical that impacted the ozone layer in our upper atmosphere, but these replacements are potent greenhouse gases. Phasedown of hydrofluorocarbons There are several rules that inform and facilitate the phasedown of hydrofluorocarbons.
Medium- and heavy-duty vehicles (MHDVs), like the big rigs on our highways and the vans that deliver our packages, make up just over 1 in 10 of the vehicles on our roads, but are responsible for over half of ozone-forming nitrogen oxide pollution and lung-damaging fine particulate pollution from on-road vehicles.
For example, inclusion of a non-chemical stressor—higher daily temperatures—was considered in the scientific document used to support the ozone standard , since there is evidence that exposure to higher daily temperatures together with ozone exposure is associated with higher mortality.
They include, but are not limited to, altering rainfall and monsoon patterns, damaging the ozone layer, increasing global conflicts, and – most unacceptable of all – giving political cover for fossil fuel industries to continue polluting rather than cut greenhouse gas emissions.
A second set of climate model simulations can be run with all of the factors we think of as important – the natural drivers of course, but also the anthropogenic changes (greenhouse gas changes, air pollution, ozone depletion, irrigation, land use change etc.).
Trucks and buses on California’s roads and highways are responsible for the majority of lung-damaging fine particulate and ozone-forming nitrogen oxide emissions, and a sizable amount of climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions as well.
Plug gaps to measure ozone-destroying chemicals and greenhouse gases and verify compliance with Paris and Montreal treaties. Read the full story at Nature. Read more →
As governments enact mandatory greenhouse gas emission laws and as businesses voluntarily make “net zero” pledges, we are increasingly working with organizations, first to understand and calculate their GHG emissions, then to implement strategies for efficacious yet frictionless reductions. Air conditioning and refrigeration.
Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill Program recognized 12 food retail companies and one manufacturer of advanced refrigeration systems for their exceptional achievements to reduce the use of ozone-depleting substances and/or climate-damaging refrigerants. For more information, visit EPA's GreenChill Program webpage.
For example, EPA rules limiting ozone pollution or carbon from power plants move the first lever, while the combined $1.25 billion funding from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law are clear examples of the latter. These programs center agencies–whether state, local, territory, or tribal–as the target.
The Basin does not meet the state or federal ambient air quality standards for ozone and particulate matter, and existing regulations have to date proved insufficient to bring the Basin into compliance. The SCAQMD is the local agency responsible for attaining these clean air standards in the Basin. Facility-Based Mobile Source Measures.
Also missing is any realization that clouds also contribute to the greenhouse effect (roughly 25% of the total) and so whether cloud changes warm or cool depends very much on where the clouds are (high clouds have a very different effect than low clouds for instance).
million in Alternative Fuel Incentive Grants (AFIGs) to 18 cleaner fuel transportation projects statewide that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollutants. Transportation generates 47 percent of nitrogen oxide emissions in Pennsylvania, contributing to the formation of ground-level ozone.
The de riguer environmental imperative of responding to the immediate threat of global warming through reducing greenhouse gas emissions, to the detriment of other environmental impacts, is simply taking one environmental impact too far. This is not my perspective alone.
. -- Air pollutant reductions and human-health improvements – the DEP Electric Vehicle Roadmap indicates that a number of Pennsylvania counties consistently exceed EPA human-health standards for ozone and fine-particulate matter. The burning of transportation fuels, such as gasoline and diesel, is a substantial source of air pollution.
And third, in a few key design elements it is modeled on the provisions to cut CFCs in the Montreal Protocol – the only international environmental regime that has achieved a socio-technical transformation of remotely the scale required for greenhouse gases. Targeting fossil fuels not emissions.
1 allowance = 1 metric ton of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A key critique of California's Cap & Trade program has been that it hasn’t reduced health-harming criteria pollutants , including carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, sulfur dioxide, and particulates. What are allowances + offsets? Download the CCA Fact Sheet.
This is replacing the traditional hydrofluorocarbons which have been found to damage the ozone layer. Total greenhouse gas emissions could reach 1.028 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent throughout the preparation and post-Beijing Games in 2016-2022, and about a third less than the 1.6
Shapiro’s Work Group Concludes A Cap-And-Invest Carbon Pollution Regulation Program Would Be Optimal Approach To Reducing Greenhouse Emissions From Power Plants; Scale Up Solar Energy [PaEN] -- AP: Gov. 1-7; PA Climate Convergence Oct. 23-24 In State College [PaEN] -- PA Forestry Assn.
The CPDW is thought to be affected by the shift in the westerly winds around Antarctica which have increased in recent decades due to a combination of greenhouse gas forcing and the polar ozone hole ( Miller et al, 2006 ). 2020) or Sadai et al.
It also helps lower the level of carbon dioxide, one of the greenhouse gases heating up the climate, in the air. Gasoline and diesel vehicles generate 47 percent of nitrogen oxides emissions in Pennsylvania, contributing to ground-level ozone.
Over the past 15 years, Partners have avoided emissions of over 500 metric tons of ozone-depleting substances and roughly 100 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. This is roughly equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from consuming over 11 billion gallons of gasoline. Click Here for the complete release.
Some in the industry see the warming as an opportunity, as passages through the Arctic open for longer periods, even going so far as to claim there will be lower overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the shorter voyages.
This makes methane reduction crucial for addressing the urgency of climate change and buying time for the development and implementation of longer term greenhouse gas strategies. Co Benefits for Human Health : Methane is a key precursor of tropospheric ozone (ground level), a harmful air pollutant.
Gasoline and diesel vehicles generate 47 percent of nitrogen oxides emissions in Pennsylvania, contributing to ground-level ozone. The transportation sector makes up 22 percent of Pennsylvania’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
The Montreal Protocol, which banned most uses of ozone-destroying chemicals known as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and called for their global phase-out by 2010, has been a great success story: Earth’s ozone layer is projected to recover by the 2060s. Read the full story in Nature.
Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) were developed and introduced in the late 1980s to serve as replacements for ozone-depleting substances (ODS) primarily used in the air conditioning, refrigeration, aerosols, fire suppression, and foam blowing industries.
In addition to the 22 percent passenger and light duty vehicle requirement, the proposed regulation will also add a greenhouse gas fleet average requirement for Pennsylvania sales. There is no ban on traditional internal combustion engine vehicles.
Or: “Write a history of EPA’s regulation of ozone.” Or: “What are the global impacts from the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.” “Write a summary of the available technologies for controlling the emission of sulfur dioxides.”
The ITLOS advisory opinion crafts a series of interlocking and mutually reinforcing obligations across international climate law and international law of the sea that may ultimately serve to strengthen states’ duties to reduce greenhouse gas (‘GHG’) emissions and minimize the serious environmental harms resulting from climate change.
Much of the discussion of climatology in public discourse concerns anthropogenic climate change - the contribution of human activity to such events as carbon particles, greenhouse gases, and their effects such as the Greenhouse Effect and coral bleaching. This leads to the greenhouse effect. Greenhouse Gases.
Up until now, the main justification for initiatives to control leaks from oil and gas infrastructure from the wells through the distribution system has been because those leaks contain methane-- a potent greenhouse gas-- and volatile organic compounds-- a precursor to the formation of ozone air pollution. Read more here.
For example, the ongoing debate over the impact of certain pesticides in agriculture , greenhouse gas emissions are often a battle between the science and industry's attempts to muddy the science and government lobbying to roll back legislation (2). Typically used in conjunction with “greenhouse gas” but some emissions are not GHGs.
the UHIE occurs in metropolitan areas and “can affect communities by increasing summertime peak energy demand, air conditioning costs, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, heat-related illness, mortality, and water quality.”. for example, allows both open-air and greenhouse rooftop farming. gency (EPA). , Through green-roofs. ,
to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. including urban photochemical smog, acid rain and increased tropospheric ozone, and climate change at the local, regional, and global level respectively. Once all these new rules take effect, how do we actually achieve the emissions reduction goals? One option is to engage the. free market.
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