Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Improving Air Quality
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The costs of climate change are estimated to be significantly greater if the
goals of the Paris Agreement are not met (Jevrejeva et al., 2018). Trillions of
dollars can be saved by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and limiting the
global average temperature rise to 1.5°C. In this case (1.5°C), the sea level
rise is estimated to be 52 cm by 2100 and the annual cost of this will be more
than $6 trillion/ year. One trillion dollars, much less $6 trillion, is difficult to
understand. With a worldwide human population of about 7.5 billion, that
means the cost is close to $1000 for every living person on the planet, or about
$18,500 for every one of the approximately 325 million living Americans.
Now consider that that is the annual cost of climate change by 2100, if we successfully limit the global average temperature rise to 1.5°C.
Byers et al. (2018) investigated several climate change risks and the management of those risks in terms of global exposure and the vulnerability of
different populations. There are few regions or human populations that will
not be impacted. Flooding risks predominate in coastal regions and other
low- lying areas. Arid regions that struggle with water availability will tend
to have more extreme problems with these same issues. The increase in
overall temperature is expected to have a significant impact across a swath
of regions. The greatest impacts are on the poorest populations, who will
experience the impacts of climate change even at the 1.5°C level of increase
in global average temperature. This helps to explain why, in Africa and South
Asia, there are very large projected benefits from poverty reduction and climate mitigation.
Research to estimate future temperatures, populations, and geographical population distributions associated with climate change is being
conducted (Harrington and Otto, 2018). The impacts of future temperatures
on populations will depend on where they are and the local temperatures
that they experience. Some amount of adaptation will clearly be necessary
to enable populations to reduce risks and the impact of temperature on individual health, welfare, and crop production.
2.4 Importance of Science and Technology
One of the most promising ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to
develop new technologies that replace the use of fossil fuels for energy. To
be feasible, these need to be cost competitive with combustion technologies. Two other very important developments that are receiving significant
attention are the electrification of transportation and the replacement of the
combustion of coal or natural gas to generate electricity with wind and solar
energy for electric power production.
As of September 2018, the world is about to reach 4 million electric
vehicles in service, when counting both automobiles and buses. With additional developments in technology, the point will soon be reached where
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16
The costs of climate change are estimated to be significantly greater if the
goals of the Paris Agreement are not met (Jevrejeva et al., 2018). Trillions of
dollars can be saved by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and limiting the
global average temperature rise to 1.5°C. In this case (1.5°C), the sea level
rise is estimated to be 52 cm by 2100 and the annual cost of this will be more
than $6 trillion/ year. One trillion dollars, much less $6 trillion, is difficult to
understand. With a worldwide human population of about 7.5 billion, that
means the cost is close to $1000 for every living person on the planet, or about
$18,500 for every one of the approximately 325 million living Americans.
Now consider that that is the annual cost of climate change by 2100, if we successfully limit the global average temperature rise to 1.5°C.
Byers et al. (2018) investigated several climate change risks and the management of those risks in terms of global exposure and the vulnerability of
different populations. There are few regions or human populations that will
not be impacted. Flooding risks predominate in coastal regions and other
low- lying areas. Arid regions that struggle with water availability will tend
to have more extreme problems with these same issues. The increase in
overall temperature is expected to have a significant impact across a swath
of regions. The greatest impacts are on the poorest populations, who will
experience the impacts of climate change even at the 1.5°C level of increase
in global average temperature. This helps to explain why, in Africa and South
Asia, there are very large projected benefits from poverty reduction and climate mitigation.
Research to estimate future temperatures, populations, and geographical population distributions associated with climate change is being
conducted (Harrington and Otto, 2018). The impacts of future temperatures
on populations will depend on where they are and the local temperatures
that they experience. Some amount of adaptation will clearly be necessary
to enable populations to reduce risks and the impact of temperature on individual health, welfare, and crop production.
2.4 Importance of Science and Technology
One of the most promising ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to
develop new technologies that replace the use of fossil fuels for energy. To
be feasible, these need to be cost competitive with combustion technologies. Two other very important developments that are receiving significant
attention are the electrification of transportation and the replacement of the
combustion of coal or natural gas to generate electricity with wind and solar
energy for electric power production.
As of September 2018, the world is about to reach 4 million electric
vehicles in service, when counting both automobiles and buses. With additional developments in technology, the point will soon be reached where