governments on the state of the science of the climate change issue. For example, the
IPCC organized the development of internationally accepted methods for conducting
national greenhouse gas emission inventories.
The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty that sets obligations and industrialized countries to lower their emissions of greenhouse gases. In the earlier sections of
this chapter, global warming potential (GWP) is a measurement of how well heat is
absorbed by greenhouse gases. The IPCC defines global warming potential (GWP)
as “the ratio of the time integrated radiative forcing from a pulse emission of 1 kg of
a substance, relative to that of 1 kg of carbon dioxide, over a fixed horizon period.
GWP is a relative index used to compare the climate impact of an emitted greenhouse gas, relative to an equal amount of Carbon Dioxide” [10]. Also, the IPCC
examines the GWP for 1 g of carbon dioxide at a 20-, 100-, and 500-year time
horizon in comparison to other greenhouse gases [9]. The six major greenhouse
gases determined by the Kyoto Protocol are carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), methane (CH 4 ),
nitrous oxide (N 2 O), HFCs, PFCs, and sulfur hexafluoride (SF 6 ). The lifetime among
the six gases ranges from 12 to 10,000 years. The value closest to the median is
sulfur hexafluoride, with a lifetime of 3200 years. At a time horizon of 500 years,
while carbon dioxide releases 1 g, sulfur hexafluoride releases 11,200 g of carbon
dioxide (11,200 times more!) for the same time horizon. A stronger greenhouse gas
can easily leak and create a major impact.
As a result of increased human activity, more greenhouse gases are warming the
earth, resulting in an increased temperature trend around the world. The following
graphs suggest the increase in emissions have led to the increase in CO 2 in the
atmosphere, thereby increasing the temperature of the earth’s surface on land.
Table 1.1 shows the global per capita carbon emission estimates versus years. It
appears that the global per capita carbon emission increases significantly after year
2000 [15, 41, 42].
As land temperatures rise, we find ocean temperatures rise as well. “The global
average combined land and ocean surface temperature data as calculated by a linear
trend, show a warming of 0.85 [0.65–1.06]
C, over the period 1880–2012, when
multiple independently produced datasets exist. The total increase between the
average of the 1850–1900 period and the 2003–2012 period is 0.78 [0.72–0.85]
C, based on the single longest dataset available. Table 1.2 shows an increase of
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from 1958 to 2012 [4], while Fig. 1.1 shows the
annual temperature anomalies from land ocean during the period 1880–2012
[16]. Based on the presented figures, an increase of global carbon emissions
shown in Table 1.1 leads to an increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
shown in Table 1.2 and finally results in a temperature increase on land and ocean
shown in Fig. 1.1.
10
L. K. Wang et al.
IPCC organized the development of internationally accepted methods for conducting
national greenhouse gas emission inventories.
The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty that sets obligations and industrialized countries to lower their emissions of greenhouse gases. In the earlier sections of
this chapter, global warming potential (GWP) is a measurement of how well heat is
absorbed by greenhouse gases. The IPCC defines global warming potential (GWP)
as “the ratio of the time integrated radiative forcing from a pulse emission of 1 kg of
a substance, relative to that of 1 kg of carbon dioxide, over a fixed horizon period.
GWP is a relative index used to compare the climate impact of an emitted greenhouse gas, relative to an equal amount of Carbon Dioxide” [10]. Also, the IPCC
examines the GWP for 1 g of carbon dioxide at a 20-, 100-, and 500-year time
horizon in comparison to other greenhouse gases [9]. The six major greenhouse
gases determined by the Kyoto Protocol are carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), methane (CH 4 ),
nitrous oxide (N 2 O), HFCs, PFCs, and sulfur hexafluoride (SF 6 ). The lifetime among
the six gases ranges from 12 to 10,000 years. The value closest to the median is
sulfur hexafluoride, with a lifetime of 3200 years. At a time horizon of 500 years,
while carbon dioxide releases 1 g, sulfur hexafluoride releases 11,200 g of carbon
dioxide (11,200 times more!) for the same time horizon. A stronger greenhouse gas
can easily leak and create a major impact.
As a result of increased human activity, more greenhouse gases are warming the
earth, resulting in an increased temperature trend around the world. The following
graphs suggest the increase in emissions have led to the increase in CO 2 in the
atmosphere, thereby increasing the temperature of the earth’s surface on land.
Table 1.1 shows the global per capita carbon emission estimates versus years. It
appears that the global per capita carbon emission increases significantly after year
2000 [15, 41, 42].
As land temperatures rise, we find ocean temperatures rise as well. “The global
average combined land and ocean surface temperature data as calculated by a linear
trend, show a warming of 0.85 [0.65–1.06]
C, over the period 1880–2012, when
multiple independently produced datasets exist. The total increase between the
average of the 1850–1900 period and the 2003–2012 period is 0.78 [0.72–0.85]
C, based on the single longest dataset available. Table 1.2 shows an increase of
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from 1958 to 2012 [4], while Fig. 1.1 shows the
annual temperature anomalies from land ocean during the period 1880–2012
[16]. Based on the presented figures, an increase of global carbon emissions
shown in Table 1.1 leads to an increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
shown in Table 1.2 and finally results in a temperature increase on land and ocean
shown in Fig. 1.1.
10
L. K. Wang et al.