Welcome to my blog, this blog is a part of the course GEOG3057 Global Environmental Change. In the next several months, I will use this blog to write about this course and issues related to the global environmental change.
My topic of this blog is "Carbon reduction". As the modern society develops constantly, the consumption of energy raises significantly, especially the combustion of fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas). Consequently, the proportion of carbon dioxide and also other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere increased considerably.
As the Keeling curve shows, the percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere had grown from around 315ppm to over 380ppm from 1960 to the year of 2010. Moreover, Mauna Loa dataset indicates that the value has reached to 391.07ppm in September 2012.
Since carbon dioxide is the major greenhouse gas and causes global warming and global climate change, a concept is proposed by scientists – “Carbon reduction”. Carbon reduction is also called carbon offset. The University of Oxford Environmental Change Institute describes carbon offset is "a widely discussed mechanism whereby individuals and corporations pay for reductions elsewhere in order to offset their own emissions"(Lovell. 2007).
In this blog, I will illustrate the origin of atmospheric carbon dioxide; natural storage of carbon dioxide; the development of atmospheric carbon dioxide in the past; the impacts of the change of atmospheric carbon dioxide on the environment and climate, meanwhile, I will discuss the potential approaches that may reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide and their pros and cons.
For the next post, I am going to talk about the change of atmopsheric carbon dixoide in histroy and its major sources. Here is a preview animation illustrates the history of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Reference:
- Mauna Loa dataset. http://co2now.org/
- Lovell, H., Buckley, H. and Liverman, D., 2007. Carbon offsetting: sustaining consumption?
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