Can renewable energy save the planet?
United Nations warns that if emission of polluting gases continues, the temperature by 2030 would rise 1.5 degrees Celsius
Earth is emitting clear signals: powerful hurricanes, unusual tornadoes, melting glaciers, heavy downpours that flood entire populations, and heat waves that cause huge fires. Everything indicates that these natural events are product of Climate Change, something that for many, like the case of US President Donald Trump, does not exist.
Leer en español: ¿Podrá la energía renovable salvar el planeta?
According to the report issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in South Korea, the target of 1.5 degrees Celsius that was expected to increase the temperature by 2100, according to the Paris agreement in 2015, would occur because of greenhouse gases and would be met between 2030 and 2052. The consequences would be catastrophic for humanity and the environment.
"Exceeding 1.5 degrees centigrade increases the risk of profound or even irreversible changes, such as the loss of some ecosystems," explains Hans-Otto Pörtner, co-chair of the IPCC, in publication of Semana magazine.
The study, based on more than six thousand scientific references, reviews the effects of an increase of 1.5 and compares them with those of an increase of 2 degrees, which would lead to an increase in sea level of up to 10 centimeters. It would cause direct exposure to about 10 million people in the world.
"The report shows that we have only one opportunity, very small, to avoid unthinkable damage to the climate system that makes us live," said Amjad Abdula, representative of the small island countries in a statement issued by Semana magazine.
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The drive to curb environmental deterioration must be immediate to achieve the goal of the end of the 21st century, reducing by up to 45 percent the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas and most of which come from fossil fuels.
To achieve the objective, experts point to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar energy, which should contribute between 70 and 85 percent of the energy consumed on Earth, free of polluting gases.
"The report gives policy makers the information they need to make decisions to fight against climate change without forgetting the needs of populations (…) The next few years will be the most decisive in our history," said South African Debra Roberts, assistant to the meeting in Asian territory, in statements collected by the web portal Ahora Noticias.
Currently, it is estimated that three quarters of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by energies where coal, gas, and oil are involved. As for reversing global warming, it seems impossible, since the accumulation in the atmosphere of gases emitted since the Industrial Revolution and more in the 50s of the previous century, when coal was added oil and gas in the global economic boom.
LatinAmerican Post | Jorge Hernández
Translated from “¿Podrá la energía renovable salvar el planeta?”
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