| The Project | Climate Change | Wind Farm Benefits | How the scheme has been improved |
Wind farm myths | How you can help |
Links | Contact Us |
 |
|
|
| Climate change | ||
 |
||
How much pollution can we allow? |
||
| Current estimates suggest that to achieve a greater than 50 per cent chance of restraining global warming to two degrees above pre-industrial levels, it could be necessary to limit concentrations of carbon dioxide below 400 parts per million, a level that on current trends in emissions could be reached within a decade. | ||
But such is the continuing uncertainty about climate sensitivity that the target might still be achieved while allowing carbon dioxide levels to rise to 475 parts per million or even more, which would take several decades to reach. |
||
| Because carbon dioxide in particular has a long lifetime in the atmosphere, averaging more than 100 years before it is removed; any stabilisation target will eventually require a drastic cut in emissions. The only question is: when? | ||
| The 400 ppm target, for instance, would require an almost immediate diversion from business as usual, with emissions peaking within the next two decades and then reducing by as much as 50 per cent within half a century. A 475 ppm target could be achieved by stabilising emissions at current levels for 50 years and then reducing, or by allowing them to rip for a couple of decades before making draconian cutbacks. | ||
| The lower target appears extremely difficult to achieve. Two possibilities to get round this have been discussed. One would be to allow an overshoot beyond the threshold, followed by sharper cuts, bringing emissions close to zero so that nature can gradually absorb the excess carbon dioxide. This could be a viable short-term approach because there are time-lags of several decades in the conversion of high gas concentrations into raised temperatures, so the dangerous climate change associated with the higher concentrations would never be realised. | ||
| Second, some of the excess emissions could be soaked up by drastically increasing the capture, or "sequestration", of greenhouse gases. The Kyoto Protocol has provisions for countries to plant forests or alter natural environments to absorb more carbon dioxide. This could be extended to include direct capture of carbon dioxide from industrial plants and power stations for burial – perhaps in the holes in the ground from which the fossil fuels came, including oil-bearing rocks and coal mines. | ||
Information taken from the Environment Agency website: |
||
