Photograph of the Northern Lights, also known as an Aurora. Image: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images
Satellite image of the Northern Hemisphere on the first Earth Day in 1970. Image: NOAA
1. We may finally be separating global warming emissions from economic growth
For decades, trends in global warming pollutants like carbon dioxide went hand-in-hand with economic growth rates. As the economy grew, so too did emissions, as factories burned more fuels to make more goods, people bought more gas-guzzling cars and trucks. Yet recently, there have been indications that the U.S. and the world may be beginning to “decouple” emissions from changes in economic growth.
If this trend holds up, it will prove to be a key to a successful effort to curtail greenhouse gas emissions without stunting development in rapidly growing countries like Brazil, China and India, as well as the U.S. and other industrialized nations.
Energy use per capita, along with energy use per GDP, as forecast from a recent EIA report. Image: EIA 2014
According to a recent report from the International Energy Agency, global emissions of carbon dioxide flatlined in 2014, despite global economic growth during the year. This was the first time in 40 years in which there was a halt or reduction in greenhouse gas emissions without an economic downturn, according to the IEA, which is based in Vienna, Austria. The new data may indicate some progress is being made in addressing global warming, which is caused largely by increasing amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
The IEA data showed that emissions from the energy sector, which includes power plants that burn coal or natural gas to generate electricity, remained at 32.3 billion tonnes in 2014, which was about the same level as in 2013.
“This gives me even more hope that humankind will be able to work together to combat climate change, the most important threat facing us today,” IEA Chief Economist Fatih Birol said in a statement.
The IEA found that the halt in emissions growth is likely due to changing energy consumption in China as well as industrialized countries. In China, where rapid economic growth has led to massive pollution problems, there was a greater reliance on renewable energy sources in 2014, such as hydropower and wind energy.
However, a slowdown in the growth of emissions will not solve global warming by itself, since billions of tonnes of planet-warming gases are still being added to the atmosphere much faster than the rate at which the environment can absorb them into the oceans and forests. Last year was the warmest year on record globally, and the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere has already hit an all-time high so far this year, likely the highest levels since the dawn of the human civilization — or longer.
A report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) last year found that average energy use per person in the U.S. is declining each year, and is projected to plunge in the coming decades.
Another report from the EIA released in April found that although the U.S. saw its greenhouse gas emissions increase in 2014, its economy grew faster.
The new data showed that energy-related carbon dioxide emissions rose at a rate of 0.7% in 2014, while 2014 GDP growth was much higher, at 2.4%.
2. Renewable energy technologies are booming
Part of the reason for the relative separation between greenhouse gas emissions trends and economic development is related to the rapid shift from coal-fired power plants to natural gas as the top choice of fuel for generating electricity in the U.S. Natural gas emits about half of the carbon dioxide as coal does when it is burned, although total emissions of another global warming-gas, methane, are higher.
But another reason is the rapid growth of the renewable electricity sector, both in the U.S. and abroad.
According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the world is now adding more renewable energy than coal, oil and natural gas combined. This is a fundamental shift that will take decades to fully play out, but, depending on the pace of the transition, it could help countries achieve emissions cuts on the scale that scientists say would be necessary to avoid the most dangerous consequences of global warming.
Workers install photovoltaic modules on the roof of fishponds at Yantou Village on April 1, 2015 in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province of China. Image: ChinaFotoPress/ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images
Solar energy, in particular, is booming, as is wind power. In the U.S., renewables only generated 13% of its total electricity in 2013, but it is growing faster than any other power source. China has committed to obtaining about 20% of its electricity from renewables by 2030. This is no small commitment, as it would require China to add a total amount of low-carbon energy sources between 2015 and 2030 as nearly the entire electrical grid in the U.S.
A report released in March by the Solar Foundation found that employment in the U.S. solar industry jumped nearly 22% in 2014, with 31,000 new jobs added during the year. Wind energy jobs also increased during the period.
In India, too, solar is on the march. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a goal of increasing solar energy by 12 gigawatts per year, with eight gigawatts a year added in wind energy. Both these trends would be at least double the rates of growth seen in that country so far.
3. A successful climate agreement is already at hand
While global leaders have had trouble coming up with a successful global climate change agreement under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, there is actually another treaty that has already had major climate benefits, and is about to get even more effective.
The Montreal Protocol went into effect in 1989, and has successfully arrested and reversed the decline in stratospheric ozone over the North and South Pole. The Protocol regulates sale and use of chluorofluorocarbons, more commonly known as CFCs, and other ozone-depleting compounds. It just so happens that many of these are also effective global warming agents too.
One of the substitutes for CFCs that industry has turned to for refrigerators, air conditioners and insulating foams, are known as hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs. However, these are extremely effective at trapping heat in the Earth’s atmosphere, far more so than carbon dioxide is.
For years, environmental activists and diplomats from countries including the U.S. have advocated for adding HFCs to the Montreal Protocol in order to use that agreement to address a problem it wasn’t originally intended for.
On April 16, India dropped its longstanding opposition to such a plan, which was a move hailed by the U.S. climate negotiating team at the State Department. Now the U.S., China and India are a united bloc standing behind an amendment that would phase out HFCs over a period of 15 years.
Depending on the exact text that is passed, an HFC amendment could result in the equivalent of reducing more than 90 gigatons of carbon dioxide-equivalent through 2050, according to the State Department. This is about equal to two years of current global greenhouse gas emissions.
Durwood Zaelke of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development told Reuters that the move will help the UN climate talks, which are set to culminate in a Paris summit in December.
“It will build critical momentum for a successful outcome in Paris for the climate negotiations in December, and complement what is expected to be an agreement where all countries participate by pledging to attack climate pollutants at their own pace,” he said.
4. Some species are coming back from the brink
At the time of the first Earth Day in 1970 the outlook for many iconic species, such as the bald eagle, was bleak. Chemicals like DDT were harming a host of species, putting them on the endangered list, and some waterways in the U.S. were so polluted that they were catching on fire.
Today, not only have bald eagles recovered, but our water is far cleaner too, thanks to laws like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, among others. The gray wolf has been proposed for delisting under the Endangered Species Act, for example, in states like California, Oregon and Washington.
One of two female gray wolves at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC on May 4, 2014. Image: Linda Davidson/The Washington Post/Associated Press
New technologies such as high resolution, relatively low cost satellite imagery as well as artificial intelligence may open up new avenues for monitoring habitats where rare species are known to exist, such as tropical rainforests. In fact, the potential for innovations in the area of deforestation monitoring and prevention, species protection and other environmental goals that require constant vigilance and lots of data processing power seem limitless in the next several years.
Such technologies have already enabled the designation of the world’s largest marine preserve, announced by the UK in March.
Cure your Earth Day hangover: 4 reasons to be optimistic about the planet - Mashable
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