Preventing the increase of water vapor released into the atmosphere means we have to switch from fossil fuel production – our main energy source – to renewable energy sources. Climate change has become like a massive snowball rolling down the hill for some time now; it becomes more and more of a problem as time goes on creating a bigger challenge in our fight to mitigating Climate Change. Carbon Dioxide warms the earth surface thus making more water vapor which amplifies the warming of the Earth. We must cut back our carbon emissions since fossil fuel production is responsible for 90 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions according to the United Nation Climate Action website. Especially dangerous is carbon dioxide produced in the process of burning coal which is a main source of cheap energy worldwide.
It is known that burning fossil fuels makes up 90% of carbon emissions. Unfortunately United Nation has stated that “Fossil fuels account for more than 80% of global energy production”, making it difficult to change our energy production methods to renewable energy in a short period of time. Knowing this we should first try to find ideas on how to reduce the number of pollutants produced from coal plants, which won’t stop climate change, but it is a first step to mitigate global warming while we can slowly rely more and more on renewable sources.
Coal plants can also lessen their emissions by using scrubbers to create “clean coal”, which is coal that has been burned using advanced technologies to reduce emitted pollutants. Any sort of change that aids mitigating climate change is worth discussing and considering. While humanity transfers their dependence on renewable sources, we may also change our original power producers more environmentally friendly.
Resources
- “The National Academies Presents: What You Need to Know about Energy.” Our Energy Sources, Coal –, http://needtoknow.nas.edu/energy/energy-sources/fossil-fuels/coal/.
- “Renewable Energy – Powering a Safer Future.” United Nations, United Nations, https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/raising-ambition/renewable-energy
image: https://www.ge.com/news/reports/spring-cleaning-world-scrubbing-coal-power-plants-toxic-gas
