Industrial Revolution and the Impact on Global Climate

<strong>Industrial</strong> <strong>Revolution</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>
<strong>Impact</strong> on Global Climate
By Michael Dore

• 1859 Tyndall
• 1896 Arrhenius
• 1870-1910 Second <strong>Industrial</strong>
<strong>Revolution</strong>.
• 1938 Callendar
• 1956 Phillips <strong>and</strong> Plass
• 1957 Revelle
• 1960 Keeling
• 1967 Manabe <strong>and</strong> We<strong>the</strong>rald
• 1985 Villach conference
• 1989 Fossil-fuel <strong>and</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r
industries form Global Climate
Coalition
• 2001 Third IPCC report
History

Industry
• <strong>Industrial</strong> <strong>Revolution</strong>- 18th to
<strong>the</strong> 19th century
• The largest source of CO2
emissions globally is <strong>the</strong>
combustion of fossil fuels such
as coal, oil <strong>and</strong> gas in power
plants, automobiles, industrial
facilities <strong>and</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r sources.

Overview
• The current warming trend is of particular
significant
• Greenhouse gases demonstrated in <strong>the</strong> mid-19th
century.
• Increased levels of greenhouse gases must cause
<strong>the</strong> Earth to warm in response.
• Ice cores drawn from Greenl<strong>and</strong>, Antarctica, <strong>and</strong>
tropical mountain glaciers show that <strong>the</strong> Earth’s
climate responds to changes in solar output, in
<strong>the</strong> Earth’s orbit, <strong>and</strong> in greenhouse gas levels.

Causes
• Most climate scientists agree <strong>the</strong> main cause
of <strong>the</strong> current global warming trend is human
expansion of <strong>the</strong> greenhouse effect.
– water vapor
– carbon dioxide
– methane
– nitrous oxide
– chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)

• Burning of fossil fuels
• The clearing of l<strong>and</strong>
• More than 90 percent probability that human
activities over <strong>the</strong> past 250 years have
warmed our planet.
• Carbon dioxide levels have raised from 280
parts per million to 379 parts per million in
<strong>the</strong> last 150 years.

CO2 production by humans
• 29 gigatons of CO2 a year
• Atmospheric CO2 is at its highest
level in 15 to 20 million years
• A natural change of 100ppm
normally takes 5,000 to 20,000
years. The recent increase of
100ppm has taken just 120 years.
• Atmospheric concentration of CO2
has increased by 35% since <strong>the</strong>
beginning of <strong>the</strong> age of
industrialization.

The Possible Consequences
• Hotter
• More Precipitation
• Higher Sea Level
• Shifting climate pattern

Carbon Dioxide Concentration

Sea Level

Global Surface Temperature

Arctic Sea Ice

What can we do?
• Individual responses
• Nuclear energy
• O<strong>the</strong>r carbon free energy sources
– solar power
– wind power
– hydrokinetics
• Switching from high-carbon fuels like coal <strong>and</strong> oil, to reducedcarbon
fuels
– natural gas
• Carbon sequestration
– Geologic sequestration
• In my opinion <strong>the</strong> best option is for a combination of all of <strong>the</strong>se

Recap
• Industry has made <strong>the</strong> st<strong>and</strong>ard of living significantly higher but it
has come at a cost that we are now seeing.
• Because with <strong>the</strong> industrial revolution brought about a significant
amount of burning fossil fuels for energy.
• The burning of a hydrocarbon (fossil fuel) produces carbon dioxide.
• This carbon dioxide production has become so significant that it has
led to increased temperatures, higher sea levels, <strong>and</strong> decreasing ice
amounts.
• If we as a society do not start making some changes it seems as if
<strong>the</strong> problem will only continue to persist <strong>and</strong> worsen.
• While <strong>the</strong>re are some options to help reduce carbon dioxide
emissions such as carbon free energy sources, using more reducedcarbon
fuels, <strong>and</strong> carbon sequestration it seems <strong>the</strong> best option
would to be to use a combination of <strong>the</strong>se while more technology is
developed.

Sources
• Conway EM. Atmospheric Science at NASA: A History Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 2008.
• Fleming JR, ed. Classic Papers on Global Warming Online (PALE). 2008. At
http://wiki.nsdl.org/index. php/PALE:ClassicArticles/GlobalWarming.
• IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, Summary for Policymakers.
• Le Treut H, Somerville R, Cubasch U, Ding Y, Mauritzen C, et al. Historical overview of climate
change science. In: Solomon S, Qin D, Manning M, Chen Z, Marquis M, et al. eds. Climate Change
2007. The Physical Basis of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group I to <strong>the</strong> Fourth
Assessment Report of <strong>the</strong> IPCC. Cambridge <strong>and</strong> New York: Cambridge University Press; 2007, 93–
127. Online at http://www.ipcc.ch/
• T.C. Peterson et.al., "State of <strong>the</strong> Climate in 2008," Special Supplement to <strong>the</strong> Bulletin of <strong>the</strong>
American Meteorological Society, v. 90, no. 8, August 2009, pp. S17-S18
• V. Ramaswamy et.al., “Anthropogenic <strong>and</strong> Natural Influences in <strong>the</strong> Evolution of Lower
Stratospheric Cooling,” Science 311 (24 February 2006), 1138-1141
• Weart SR The Discovery of Global Warming, 2nd ed. Cambridge: Harvard University Press; 2008
• Weart SR. The Discovery of Global Warming, revised edition. 2008. At
http://www.aip.org/history/climate
• Weart SR. The Idea of Anthropogenic global climate change in <strong>the</strong> 20 th century. WIREs Clim Change
2010 1 67–81.