1 / 18

The Necessity of Sustainable Energy in the 21st Century

The Necessity of Sustainable Energy in the 21st Century. The Necessity of Sustainable Energy in the 21st Century. Professor Kerry H. Cook Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Thanks to Rick Anthes of UCAR. Humans have transformed the earth over the last century.

aldona
Download Presentation

The Necessity of Sustainable Energy in the 21st Century

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. The Necessity of Sustainable Energy in the 21st Century The Necessity of Sustainable Energy in the 21st Century Professor Kerry H. Cook Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Thanks to Rick Anthes of UCAR

  2. Humans have transformed the earth over the last century City Lights from Space

  3. Mountain glacier are in retreat worldwide Glacier National Park … in 1911 … in 2000

  4. High latitude sea ice may be melting … in 1979 … in 2003 Satellite Views of the Arctic

  5. The chemical composition of the atmosphere is changing. Source: Mauna Loa Observatory, NOAA.

  6. Global Temperatures have risen by 1°F Source: NASA Goddard Institute for Space Sciences

  7. The observed changes in the atmosphere’s composition are rapid and unprecedented in human history.

  8. The Antarctic Ozone Hole Global Ozone Source: Environment Canada

  9. Carbon Emissions Marland, G., T.A. Boden, and R. J. Andres. 2003. Global, Regional, and National CO2 Emissions. In Trends: A Compendium of Data on Global Change. Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge, Tenn., U.S.A.

  10. Fundamental Driver: Increasing population. Is Earth reaching its carrying capacity?

  11. Increasing populations stress energy systems, and put more people in harm’s way. Hurricane Ivan 9/15/04

  12. Bangladesh 1998 Mozambique 2001

  13. What we do in our generation will determine the destiny of life on our planet

  14. Balancing the gains ofdevelopment against the detrimental effects of growth on the natural environment is an ongoing challenge for countries around the world. One of the most difficult elements of this dilemma is managing energy. Energy is crucial to all aspects of development, yet the impact of its production, distribution and use grows more severe with every decade.

  15. Some cleaner and more renewable energy technologies are being developed and implemented, but the rise in global energy consumption outweighs the economic and environmental benefits of these improvements.

  16. Population growth, and the growing number of peoplewithout access to a basic energy supply, predicates a rapid growth in demand in the coming years.

  17. The challenge lies in finding a way to reconcile the necessity and demand for energy supply with its impact on the natural resource base in order to ensure a sustainable path of development.

More Related