2009年2月1日星期日
A summary to the lecture
200 tonnes carbon dioxide per second are released to the atmosphere. CO2 is one of the main gases which are responsible for global warming. The increase of CO2 in the atmosphere is largely due to consumption of fossil fuels. Consumptions of coal exist everywhere in the world. The United States, India, and China are the major countries consuming coal. If the business as usual scenario comes ture, there will be about 1300 ppm carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. That will be a severe threaten to our planet. Thus, we need to take some actions to avert the scenario from happening. There are five main ways to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide as the lecturer has mentioned: improving fuel efficiency and conservation, , capture and storage of CO2, mitigation, adaptation, and switching to alternative energy sources, such as solar, nuclear, wind, and biomass. Currently, a popular technology applied is to sink liquid CO2 to the bottom of the ocean. However, one disadvantage of this technology is that exceed CO2 will make the ocean water acidic and cause a serious biological effect. Actually, the political quetions are more difficult than the technological problems. The United States and Austrilia are the only countries that refuse to ratify the Tokyo protocol. But it is not all the United State's fault. It is an excuse for the politician all over the world who do not want to do anything to global warming. In Bratain, the government make some policies to control global warming, such as improve minimum standard for vehicle. It is not all governments' responsibility to take actions, we as individuals also need to something: giving up owning cars, stop wasting light, air-con, heat, and so on.
For us, for our offsprings
Recently, global warming becomes more and more obvious. To protect out habitats, our government must take some actions.
Our government should control the population. As the population keeps increasing, more and more natural resources are needed. The increasing demand causes significant effect to the climate. For example, more food means more farmland. As the currently existing farmlands are insufficient, more forests are likely to be converted to farmlands. Forests are ideal natural appratus to absorb green house gases, such as carbon dioxide. Nevertheless, forest devastation helps green house gases to survive and global warming to flourish. Moreover, a large amount of trees will be cut to build houses as the population increases. Actually, our government has already established some policies to reduce the increasing of our population, such as the one-child policy.
Furthermore, our government ought to emphasize on improving energy-using efficiency and researching on renewable resources. The traditional fuels produce lots of green house gases, like carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide. By improving the efficiency to use them, the amount of green house gases will be reduced to a large extent. What's more fascinating, green house gases will not be produced at all if some advanced technologies are developed. For example, water is the only gas that will be generated if hydrogen is used as fuel. Unfortunately, this kind of technology is not mature enough at this stage. Thus, the government should encourage the development of new technology.
Lastly, the government should balance between economy and environment. Economic benefits should not be the only goal that the government pursues. Some economic growth is at the price of environmental damage. The losses on environmental damage we will endure someday may outweigh the economic benefits we obtain currently. If the temperature continues increasing, the sea level will keep rising. People live in Shanghai and Beijing will become refugees in the near future. More than 60 million of people will be displaced. What a tragedy! To avoid tragedies like this, some strategies need to be considered. For example, the pace to develop heavy industry may be slowed down; some mine exploitations need to be prohibited.
All in all, the government is responsible for lessening the global warming, for us, and for our offsprings.
Our government should control the population. As the population keeps increasing, more and more natural resources are needed. The increasing demand causes significant effect to the climate. For example, more food means more farmland. As the currently existing farmlands are insufficient, more forests are likely to be converted to farmlands. Forests are ideal natural appratus to absorb green house gases, such as carbon dioxide. Nevertheless, forest devastation helps green house gases to survive and global warming to flourish. Moreover, a large amount of trees will be cut to build houses as the population increases. Actually, our government has already established some policies to reduce the increasing of our population, such as the one-child policy.
Furthermore, our government ought to emphasize on improving energy-using efficiency and researching on renewable resources. The traditional fuels produce lots of green house gases, like carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide. By improving the efficiency to use them, the amount of green house gases will be reduced to a large extent. What's more fascinating, green house gases will not be produced at all if some advanced technologies are developed. For example, water is the only gas that will be generated if hydrogen is used as fuel. Unfortunately, this kind of technology is not mature enough at this stage. Thus, the government should encourage the development of new technology.
Lastly, the government should balance between economy and environment. Economic benefits should not be the only goal that the government pursues. Some economic growth is at the price of environmental damage. The losses on environmental damage we will endure someday may outweigh the economic benefits we obtain currently. If the temperature continues increasing, the sea level will keep rising. People live in Shanghai and Beijing will become refugees in the near future. More than 60 million of people will be displaced. What a tragedy! To avoid tragedies like this, some strategies need to be considered. For example, the pace to develop heavy industry may be slowed down; some mine exploitations need to be prohibited.
All in all, the government is responsible for lessening the global warming, for us, and for our offsprings.
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