Climate Crisis and Clean Energy

 Climate Crisis and Clean Energy

Climate crisis is a term used to depict climate change, global warming and their consequences which is currently recognized as the major threat to the planet and its life whereas clean energy that is collected from renewable resources with zero emissions do not pollute the atmosphere when used and helps to save energy by energy efficiency measures can be considered as the best solution to climate change and global warming.

Change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere over comparable time periods is called as climate change. Apart from anthropogenic activities there are natural processes which contribute to climate change such as volcanic activity, changes in the sun’s energy output, variations in Earth’s orbit, cyclical ocean patterns like El Nino, La Nina etc as well.

Global warming or the enhanced greenhouse effect is the long-term heating of Earth’s climate system observed since preindustrial period due to human activities. Since the beginning of industrial revolution CO2, CH4 and N2O levels have increased. Most significantly the concentration of CO2 has been rising exponentially at a rate of about 0.17% per year as stated by American Chemical Society. What happens really is that when the concentration of greenhouse gases increase, more infrared radiation is returned towards Earth causing further increase of the Earth temperature. Combustion, anaerobic bacterial activity in swamp, landfills, biological processes in soil releases CO2, CH4, N2O respectively and tropospheric O3, water vapor, fluorinated gases are few examples for greenhouse gases.

Consequences of climate crisis affect climate system, terrestrial and wetland ecosystems, ocean ecosystem, water resources, land use, food security and productivity, human health and wellbeing, economic sector and services as follows. Both land and ocean temperature rise, occurring of more frequent heat waves, high risk of drought in Mediterranean, trends in frequency and intensity of floods and droughts are result due to the change in climate system. Risk of local species loss, impacts on species distribution, composition and risk of increased forest fires, spread of invasive species and ecosystem transformation are the affects toward terrestrial and wetland ecosystems on account of global warming. Change in water temperature, changes to ocean chemistry, sea level rising, decline in ocean productivity in ocean ecosystem and risk of water scarcity in water resources can be seen because of global warming. Reduction in crop yield, reduced food availability, risk in fishery and aquaculture, losses in coastal livelihoods are few threats on food productivity and land use. Reduction in economic growth, coastal flooding and impacts on population and infrastructure, changes to salinity of coastal groundwater and increase in storm severity and frequency can be considered as the affects for economic sector and coastal areas. Most importantly human health and wellbeing get affected by spread of vector borne diseases, ozone related mortality and heat related morbidity and mortality owing to global warming.

At present the resources used to produce energy are oil, coal, natural gas and renewable or the clean energy in decreasing order of percentage consumption respectively. Except for clean energy all the other energy sources mentioned contributes to the global warming directly or indirectly by emitting greenhouse gases. Clean energy is a fine example for sustainable energy which serve the needs of present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Technologies promote sustainable energy and they are also designed to improve energy efficiency. Sustainable energy can be categorized into three technologies as 1st generation technology, 2nd generation technology and 3rd generation technology and all the three technologies are consisting with renewable energy.

First generation technology is the most competitive. This generation helps to overcome challenges related to environment, mainly to reduce the climate crisis face today. Hydro power has been introduced in 19th-20th century and have a maximum use in 21st century by most of the Asian countries. Highly negligible CO2, NOx, SO2 generation, no waste production, being cheap compared to other electricity generation procedures and the long-life span of the plant often combined with flood control, supplying water for irrigation, creating new freshwater eco-systems are the pros why hydro power has been popular these days. Geothermal power plants are another example to clean energy generation which operate 24hr providing base load capacity with no harmful emissions. Biomass briquette is a clean energy source used as an alternative to charcoal in developing world because to produce charcoal, clearance of forest needs to be done which negatively affects environment in many ways. Wind energy is also used to generate electricity and this doesn’t emit any pollutant or greenhouse gases which is a plus point.

Second generation technology use byproducts and waste to generate energy. As an example, in Brazil they produce ethanol from sugarcane which provide 18% automotive fuel. But the challenge here is to broaden the market base. Ocean energy, bio refinery tech and solar cells are the examples for the third-generation technology which is not widely commercialized yet. For instance, active solar heating, daylighting, solar thermal engines, heat pumps, solar photovoltaic energy are the methods used to provide electricity, light or heat using solar energy.

Generating energy that produces no greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels while reducing air pollution with a diversifying energy supply resulting reducing dependence on imported fuels creating economic development and jobs in manufacturing, installation, and more can be considered as the overall benefits of clean energy. There are more advantages of using clean energy as mentioned above but there are some disadvantages for each renewable energy as well. High initial cost, intermittent nature, technical knowledge requirement and maintenance can be state as common disadvantages seen in the clean energy production.

The facts mentioned above portrait what is climate crisis, how it affects environment and the sustainable nature of clean energy and how it contributes to reduce the current climate crisis. At last, but not least it depicts clean energy, together with energy efficiency is the key to reduce the carbon emissions avoiding the worst effects of global warming.