1 / 11

Understanding Climate Change: Causes, Effects, and Personal Actions

Climate change refers to long-term alterations in weather patterns, largely driven by human activities. It manifests in various forms, including global warming, which denotes a rise in average global temperatures. The leading causes include greenhouse gases like CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide, resulting in a thickening atmospheric blanket. Individuals can make a difference by being informed, assessing their carbon footprints, and making eco-friendly choices in transportation, energy use, and food consumption. Each person's effort contributes to addressing this critical global issue.

seanna
Télécharger la présentation

Understanding Climate Change: Causes, Effects, and Personal Actions

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Climate Change What do you know? and what are you going to do about it?

  2. Climate Change? • What do you know about it? • What are the causes? • What are greenhouse gases? • What are C02 equivalents? • What can you do to make a difference?

  3. What is Climate Change? In a nutshell, climate change occurs when long-term weather patterns are altered — for example, through human activity. Global warming is one measure of climate change, and is a rise in the average global temperature. davidsuzuki.org

  4. Causes of Climate Change? • Our atmosphere is like a blanket • Adding greenhouse gases makes the blanket thicker • Human Activity • ~32% increase in CO2 since 1900 • Methane - CH4(25x), Nitrous Oxide - N2O (300x), +… • We can consider the overall effect by considering CO2e • Natural Causes and Variation • “Levels of methane and carbon dioxide are the highest they have been in nearly half a million years.”

  5. What can you do? • Become informed • Examine how you contribute to climate change • Can you reduce your carbon footprint?

  6. Transportation • Typical car contributes ~5 T of CO2equivalents/year • What portion of that are you responsible for – through your choices?

  7. Shower • L/min shower, input temp, output temp? • 0.00116 kW-h of electricity to heat 1 L of water 1°C • Estimate 1kW-h in Canada is 0.2 kg of CO2e • Similar to natural gas emissions for the same amount • Recovery of energy (heat)?

  8. Electronics • Game systems • Computer systems • TV systems • Range from 100-400 watts in use, 1-20 watts standby • Estimate 1kW-h in Canada is 0.2 kg of CO2e

  9. Food • The food system is responsible for 1/3 of global greenhouse emissions and about 60% of that is linked to meat production – How? • High impact foods • (beef, lamb, shrimp, farmed salmon cheese, tofu?) • Medium impact foods? • (pork, chicken, imported fish, eggs, butter, imported/hh fruits and vegetables) • Low impact foods? • (local fruits and vegetables, wild fish, grains, beans, margarine, milk?)

  10. Reference points • Canada produces ~600 000 000 t of CO2e/year (1990) • ~20 t per person (significant portion is industry) • ~5-10 t per person for home and lifestyle choices

More Related