So you want to slow global warming?
Tim Garrett
Assistant Professor
Department of Meteorology
University of Utah
Combustion makes the world go round
Fossil fuels + Oxygen
give us
water vapor + carbon dioxide
+ ENERGY
How much energy?
About 400,000,000,000,000,000,000 J
Energy makes our world
Transportation of people and goods
Manufacturing of goods
Construction of buildings and roads
Production and transportation of food
Even production and maintenance of people
Without today’s energy production almost everything (and everyone) we know would be gone
Carbon dioxide is the garbage of the world economy
Fossil fuels + Oxygen
give us
water vapor + carbon dioxide
+ ENERGY
How big is the carbon dioxide garbage heap we’ve made?
~300 billion tons
Adding about 10 billiion tons per year
How big a box would contain all that carbon dioxide?
Carbon dioxide is a global forcing. How much man-made carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere currently? Take the temple for example. How big a box to the height of the temple would need to be built to contain all man-made carbon dioxide generated through history that is currently in the atmosphere? Assume unpressurized at ground level
It would have to cover all the western states with the exception of New Mexico
Why do we care?
Carbon dioxide is non-toxic, odorless and invisible
Plants love it
It makes soda fizzy
Because carbon dioxide is a “Greenhouse gas”
What can we do?
What can we do?
To just stabilize carbon dioxide concentrations at their already high level requires cutting fossil fuel energy production by at least two-thirds.
Reducing carbon dioxide concentrations will require bigger cuts
Even then it will take 100s to 1000s of years for human carbon dioxide to go away
How do we cut energy by two thirds?
Shutting down the economy would not be popular
Switching energy source is the alternative
Options
Solar, wind, and other renewables
Specific drawbacks: quantity, transmission, and intermittancy
“Burn” uranium instead of fossil fuels
Specific drawback: public fears about safety
You will shape your future