Source: New Scientist.This isn't really a tech or social media story that I normally like to share about Apple, Google, and others but the news that carbon dioxide emissions in 2014 was the same as the previous year is pretty significant. And in some part, it has to do with alternative energy sources that came only despite a growing global economy.
The only times this has happened were during economic slowdowns experienced in the early 80s, the recession of 1992, and the Great Recession in 2009. While researchers at Tyndall Institute for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK had expected a 2.3% increase in carbon emission, changing energy use and patterns should have alerted them to the possibility that carbon increase should slow dramatically.
As dirty as China is, renewable energy use is increasing in the Middle Kingdom while coal use is down. Furthermore, tempered growth in China is also contributing to the carbon level in 2014 equaling that of the previous year.
It's just one year and the trend is continuing carbon increases. But the level in 2014 showed that it does not have to be this way. Fortune 500 companies like Apple, Google, and Walmart have taken the lead combating global warming by switching over the solar, wind, and other renewable sources of energy.
Furthermore, energy consumption of coal and oil is down in the United States as well. This is despite the fact that gas prices have down come in the last year. If we can put together a string of 4-6 years of lower carbon emission, who knows. Perhaps that might be enough to reverse some of the warming effects.
And maybe in five years, a March day in Los Angeles like today won't be in the 90s and we'll start getting more rains and snow cover in the local mountains.
The only times this has happened were during economic slowdowns experienced in the early 80s, the recession of 1992, and the Great Recession in 2009. While researchers at Tyndall Institute for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK had expected a 2.3% increase in carbon emission, changing energy use and patterns should have alerted them to the possibility that carbon increase should slow dramatically.
As dirty as China is, renewable energy use is increasing in the Middle Kingdom while coal use is down. Furthermore, tempered growth in China is also contributing to the carbon level in 2014 equaling that of the previous year.
It's just one year and the trend is continuing carbon increases. But the level in 2014 showed that it does not have to be this way. Fortune 500 companies like Apple, Google, and Walmart have taken the lead combating global warming by switching over the solar, wind, and other renewable sources of energy.
Furthermore, energy consumption of coal and oil is down in the United States as well. This is despite the fact that gas prices have down come in the last year. If we can put together a string of 4-6 years of lower carbon emission, who knows. Perhaps that might be enough to reverse some of the warming effects.
And maybe in five years, a March day in Los Angeles like today won't be in the 90s and we'll start getting more rains and snow cover in the local mountains.
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