Wednesday 16th November 2011, The Irish Times
MINISTER FOR Energy Pat Rabbitte has pledged that long-promised tariff supports for offshore wind energy will be brought to Government before Christmas.
Mr Rabbitte made the commitment as he and his British counterpart Charles Hendry outlined the potential for Anglo-Irish co-operation on renewables in Dublin yesterday. They were both addressing [...]
Latest News
November 16th, 2011
Minister makes pledge on renewable energy
Our Green Future
Climate Change
The increasing demand for, and use of energy resources, and the subsequent affect on the environment, particularly the atmosphere, are among the greatest challenges facing humanity today. Until recently, doubts could be expressed regarding the causes of global warming. Now the evidence is so overwhelming that all but a few individuals accept that global warming is the result of intensified human activity.
The Greenhouse Effect forms a central part of this global warming phenomenon. The Greenhouse Effect is the process whereby short-wave radiation passes through the earth’s atmosphere to surface areas. The outgoing longer-wave radiation is absorbed and reradiated by a variety of greenhouse gases, thus retaining heat in the atmosphere. These greenhouse gases include carbon Dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, cfc’s and water vapour and are produced by everything from the burning of fossil fuels to farm animal digestion to vehicle exhausts to fertilizer production to name but a few examples.
The Greenhouse Effect
In the year 2000, Atmospheric levels of Carbon Dioxide were about 369 parts per million. In 2008, the figure was about 387 parts per million. This is the highest level for 650,000 years and it is growing at an excellerated rate because of globalization, over reliance on fossil fuels and other unsustainable energy sources, and the rapid emergence and expansion of industrial powers such as India and China, with their increasing demand for energy.
We don’t know in absolute terms what the impacts of climate change will be for the next few decades and beyond. Scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) state in their most recent report (2007) that ‘Observational evidence from all continents and most oceans shows that many natural systems are being affected by regional climate changes, particularly temperature increases’. They also note that ‘Many impacts can be avoided, reduced or delayed by mitigation.’ So changes we make now will alter the impacts of climate change into the future.
