Effective ways to combat global warming. Fighting global warming like a business scam

That global warming is the result of a sharp increase in the atmosphere greenhouse gases, say all environmental organizations. However, the fact that global warming is not only a consequence, but also the cause of an increase in the concentration toxic substances in the atmosphere, researchers have proven more recently.

Representatives of the International Geophysical Union found that unusual high temperatures in the Arctic and heavy rains in the tropics in 2007-2009 stimulated an increase in the level of methane in the atmosphere, which, along with carbon dioxide, was recognized as the main cause of the greenhouse effect. For comparison, if the degree of carbon dioxide impact on the climate is conventionally taken as a unit, then the greenhouse activity of methane will be 21 units.

The specialists analyzed the indicators of methane in air samples taken from 1983 to 2008 from the atmosphere in 46 regions of the world. “We found that after zero growth between 1983 and 2005, methane levels began to skyrocket and increased by nine units in some regions during 2007,” said study leader Ed Dlugokensky. - Moreover, the distribution of methane levels does not depend on the level of industrial development, but on climatic features region and, in particular, the pace of global warming. Thus, the highest methane emissions were found in the Arctic and in the tropics - areas most affected by global warming. In the Arctic, melting ice releases arctic hydrates that turn into methane, while in the tropics, increased rainfall and rising temperatures have increased the decay of biomass, which also releases methane.”

According to the scientist, the hypothesis that the growth of methane is due to anthropogenic factor, has not been confirmed. Although industry developed rapidly in 1983-2003, there was an increase in production capacity, methane was practically not traced in the atmosphere. In this way, main reason the appearance of methane in the air is climate change. “Human activity is not so strong influence on ecology, as previously thought,” says Ed Dlugokensky.

It turns out vicious circle: the more intense the process of global warming, the higher the level of methane. The more methane in the atmosphere, the more pronounced Greenhouse effect, which in turn contributes to rising temperatures and global warming. At the same time, it is quite possible that the role of carbon dioxide, the increase of which is due to human activity, is minimized in this process.

Scientists from the International Geophysical Union also agree with colleagues from the University of California who concluded that in most cases in the history of our planet, the main greenhouse gas was not carbon dioxide, but methane. “The end of the ice age 635 million years ago was triggered by a rapid and massive release of methane. It was then that there was a rapid warming, in terms of speed similar to that what is happening today, says University of California geologist Martin Kennedy. - Currently, the main driver of the process is the increase in temperature environment, which sooner or later will cause methane to rise from the oceans, and this will contribute to additional heating of the planet. Martin Kennedy notes that the impact of methane as a greenhouse gas will be short-lived, since this gas is reactive and will not linger in the atmosphere for tens of thousands of years, but its short-term impact can be catastrophic.

In this regard, scientists propose to radically revise the ways to combat global warming and deal with environmental imbalances with completely different methods. Methane is usually produced in oxygen-deprived environments - wetlands, peat bogs, rice plantations, landfills, abandoned mines. This gas accompanies the extraction of hydrocarbons and is released during fermentation and decay. For example, in the USA the largest number Methane is produced when anaerobic bacteria decompose carbon-containing garbage in landfills. Therefore, in order to prevent the growth of methane in the atmosphere, it is necessary to optimize the production of oil, gas and coal, reducing the free release of this gas, and organize waste disposal before they begin to decompose.

"Greenization" of the extractive and utilizing spheres - more than real challenge than the shutting down of enterprises whose by-product is the emission of carbon dioxide, which accompanies not only the extraction and processing of raw materials, but everything without exception production areas, electric power industry, operation of transport. The discovery of the primary importance of methane and the secondary importance of carbon dioxide in climate change will allow us to take a completely new look at the problem of global warming and develop an adequate strategy to prevent environmental imbalance.

Last year, one autumn day, engineer Armand Neukermans - a tall man with thick, short-cropped gray hair - turned on a noisy pump, standing in the far corner of the laboratory in the city of Sunnyvale A few moments later, small drops of mist appeared from a small atomizer - a haze of salt water formed under the influence of high pressure and temperature.

It didn't look like fog. But this, at first glance, the simplest steam is able to give great expectations and instill great fear. If research group Neukermans was able to properly adjust the mechanism that would spray salt particles into the sky optimal size and in the right amount, scientists would be able to create more reflective clouds in the sky above the coastline.

And this will allow us to hope that with the help of such clouds, humanity will be able to send thermal and light energy back into space, using clouds as screens that prevent climate change.

The fear, at least the one that is expressed more often than others, is that such interference with the characteristics of the atmosphere can provoke dangerous side effects.

“Ten years ago, people would have called this idea crazy,” says Neukermans. “But if global warming actually takes on catastrophic proportions, such measures would allow us to buy time.”

The fact that the planet is warming, now no one doubts. Glaciers are melting, ocean levels are rising, and extreme climate events such as droughts, floods and tornadoes are on the rise.

And even if the authorities manage to significantly reduce possible emissions into the atmosphere of hydrocarbon fuel combustion products - carbon dioxide and other gases that cause the greenhouse effect, which, according to climate scientists, are the cause of climate warming, then those hundreds of thousands of megatons that humanity has already thrown into atmosphere, apparently, have already done their job. Their consequences are already changing and will change life on earth.

Neukermans and his colleagues are part of an informal group of scientists, technicians, designers and engineers working in the San Francisco Bay Area who have embarked on a large-scale effort to prepare for global warming. They are testing non-standard methods solutions to the effects of warming that could either help adjust to those effects or prevent the possibility of them getting out of hand.

It is not yet clear whether these methods will be effective, or whether funding should simply be sought and development curtailed. All the methods considered will undoubtedly be costly and require ambiguous solutions.

However, much is at stake. Warming and rising ocean levels threaten homes, human habitats, businesses and infrastructure.

Risk compensation and benefits

The cloud whitening theory was born 22 years ago when British physicist John Latham first introduced it in Nature in a paper almost ignored.

But as the threat of global warming has grown, this theory, as well as other "geoengineering" concepts, have moved from the category of scientific fantasies and eccentricities to the number of central topics of scientific discussion. Geoengineering is a whole range of measures and influences that can be used to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere or reflect thermal energy back into the atmosphere. These include, among others, measures such as painting roofs in White color(creation of so-called "cool roofs" to reflect solar radiation- approx. Transl.), as well as the use of such a controversial method as the spraying of aerosols of sulfur dioxide in the stratosphere (to reduce the penetrating power sunlight through the atmosphere - approx. transl.)

The main idea behind cloud bleaching is to equip ships with mechanisms like the ones Neukermans' group is working on and aim them at clouds that hang relatively low over the western coasts of continents. This will probably require hundreds, if not thousands of vessels.

Few would want to intervene and tweak a system as complex, sensitive and intertwined as the climate. However, many scientists are concerned that countries simply will not be able to sufficiently reduce emissions of combustion products into the atmosphere, which would prevent global warming associated with humanitarian and environmental disasters.

“If we are forced to intervene, then research must be done now, because these plans are extremely complex and extremely risky,” says Jane Long, a former assistant director of the Livermore National Laboratory. Lawrence (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory). "Hopefully we never have to get involved, but I think it's irresponsible not to understand as much as possible in case it might be needed."

However, critics say scientists are talking about tampering with a system they don't fully understand. Opponents say changing clouds could change the distribution of precipitation, and the consequences could be catastrophic.

"Whatever the scale of these impacts on clouds, they will all lead to other climate changes, but they will not solve the problem itself," said Kert Davies, head of research at the environmental organization Greenpeace. He is convinced that instead it is necessary to direct scientific efforts and material resources to the creation of environmentally friendly technologies.

"Geoengineering is like taking an aspirin for pain without knowing what caused it."

Volunteering project

Neukermans, 72, comes from Belgium and is the author of a number of inventions. He agrees that the the best remedy prevention of global warming may be the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Cloud whitening "can never serve as a substitute for other measures that should be taken," he said. “We need to minimize our carbon footprint, and we need to do it as soon as possible.”

However, this is simply not happening, even though scientists predict that temperatures will rise by more than 2 degrees Celsius this century. But this is the limit, the excess of which most climate scientists assess as a transition to a zone of obvious danger. It is for this reason that Neukermans and his colleagues believe that they must hurry with their developments.

Neukermans came to the USA in 1964. During his forty years at General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Xerox and others, he patented over 75 inventions. In 1997, he founded the company "Xros" for the production of optical switches, which at that time made it possible to realize cherished goal telecommunications: they used microscopic mirrors to move data through switches in a fiber optic network without converting light pulses into electrical signals. In 2000, the firm was acquired by Nortel Networks in exchange for shares worth $3.25 billion.

After retirement, Neukermans devotes all his time and spends his money on some social and environmental projects such as the development of anti-personnel mine detection technology or the development of low-cost prostheses for low-income people.

He took on the problem of cloud bleaching in 2010, and to solve it, he recruited a group consisting mainly of former colleagues. This came after the Bill Gates-funded Fund for Innovative Climate and Energy Research funded an initial feasibility study for the project.

"To my delight, he found the project more or less worthwhile," says Ken Caldeira, noted climate scientist at Stanford University's Carnegie Institution and co-manager of the foundation.

And while the group is working on the creation of a working prototype, Neukermans pays all the costs out of his own pocket, and the group works on a voluntary basis.

The five-member team is made up of recognized old guard ex-Silicon Valley workers. Most of them are 60-70 years old. They jokingly call themselves "the white edges of the cloud" (the expression is taken from English equivalent proverb "There is no silver lining", which literally sounds like "Every cloud has a silver (white) edge" - approx. transl.)

But at the same time, they can be called luminaries, who have a collective work experience of 250 years and developments in the form of 130 patents. The team consists of Lee Galbraith, the inventor of a revolutionary device for testing semiconductors, and Jack Foster, one of the first specialists in laser technology, who was involved in the invention of control scanners.

Ahead - tests

It is quite obvious that cloud bleaching is possible. Satellites have detected "traces of ships" or white lines on the clouds over the sea area, which were formed by accident when the ships, along with the exhaust, released particles into the atmosphere sea ​​water. It is not known whether people can do the same purposefully and on a large scale, sufficient to get a noticeable result, but at the same time not affect weather somewhere else.

Meteorological scientists at the Met Office Hadley Center in the UK are running large-area cloud bleaching simulations and are seeing a sharp drop in rainfall in South America that is devastating the Amazon rainforest.

Caldeira ran his own series of cloud simulations over oceans and found that rainfall over seas would decrease and over land would increase. Prior to this, the physicist Latham, who is now working in National Center Atmospheric Research Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado tested weather service models and found that the impact on the Amazon could be minimized by changing the location and scale of the bleaching clouds.

These conflicting results do not take into account some of the uncertainty about all the consequences, due in part to the difficulty of modeling the behavior of clouds. Therefore, as scientists get closer to developing mechanisms for cloud bleaching, there is a very important question: what standards should be followed before someone tests this method in real conditions?

Last September, Latham, along with other scientists, issued an address in which they urged colleagues to limit field testing when the spray technology was fully developed.

They emphasized in particular the fact that, in order to avoid any adverse impact on the ecosystem, tests should be carefully thought out and organized, and these tests should be carried out “openly and objectively”. There should be consultation between scientific organization and a potential stakeholder or project participant.

Questions and Concerns

Can any adverse atmospheric effects associated with such testing be prevented? Is it possible to reach a unanimous opinion on these issues between all parties involved?

Wil Burns is not sure.

The head of the energy policy and climate program at Johns Hopkins University admits to being a "hopeless skeptic" about cloud whitening. Even if this method is effective, he is not sure that scientists will be able to easily identify and control any unforeseen consequences.

In addition, there is the painful issue of social justice. A cloud whitening could cause global temperatures to drop on average, but what if it causes deforestation in South America or affects monsoon rainfall patterns in Asia? And if the planet's climate improves on average - especially in developed countries with a temperate climate - can individual countries be allowed to suffer?

And leaving these issues unaddressed, Burns worries that politicians, energy companies and consumers will not be able to treat the proposed technologies in accordance with the expectations of scientists who consider cloud bleaching a last resort. He fears that these technologies are more likely to be used as an excuse to continue polluting the atmosphere with harmful emissions.

And even if geoengineering technologies are initially effective, scientists may face catastrophic consequences that will manifest themselves over time and, after a few years or decades, will force them to curtail their research and stop their activities.

“If these works (on cloud whitening) are curtailed, a kind of carbon shock will occur, and the temperature will rise 10-30 times compared to the previous level, i.e. before the end of action on climate change,” says Burns. “And then there will be a catastrophe.”

Caldeira, on the contrary, argues that if cloud bleaching is carried out on a limited scale, then long-term effects are likely to be minimal. At the same time, he emphasizes that any undesirable effects will begin to appear within a few weeks after the whitening is stopped. However, he also believes that, apparently, it is too early to conduct tests in real conditions. Too hasty action can only increase skepticism about the project, which will negatively affect the prospects in this area.

“In my opinion, it would be prudent to postpone the field trials in real conditions, and mainly because I fear negative consequences.”

As Long and others emphasize, at the very least, field testing should be carried out by organizations such as the National Science Foundation, under tight supervision and with the participation of government officials.

Think ahead

According to Caldeira, until geoengineering technologies are recognized and accepted at the state level, the world may hardly endure the heat in the literal sense of the word. It is possible that phenomena such as mass starvation or the migration of millions of climate refugees can be observed.

True, by that time it will become more difficult to conduct impartial research based on observations and exchange of opinions. Therefore, many tend to speed up research, because they are afraid that it will not be too late.

“We just want to test the ideas we're working on,” Latham says. “And then, if everything goes right, and they are effective, we will put these ideas on the shelf.”

Despite the reports that Neukermans and his colleagues intend to test their method in real conditions, scientists persistently refute these rumors. If they manage to create real prototypes, they are going to give them to scientists working in scientific or public institutions. They will be quite satisfied if others are involved in the implementation and discussion (of their inventions), and they themselves do what engineers are supposed to do - solve the intricate technical puzzles facing them.

But there is something else that drives Neukermans, who has four children and eight grandchildren. Having devoted his whole life to inventions and having exchanged his eighth decade, he would like to apply his talent and make another invention - one that would become truly important.

“We all need to think about the future generation,” he said. “I hope we won’t have to use our technology, but if such a need arises, we will do everything - and the value of our work will be so great that it is impossible to imagine.”

The materials of InoSMI contain only assessments of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the editors of InoSMI.

Many experts offer various options for dealing with. The conference on climate in Paris, which was organized by the UN, is devoted to this problem. It was attended by leaders of many countries, including the President of the Russian Federation. This conference was the most important historical event, during which agreements and commitments were developed to improve the climate in each country.

warming

Main global problem is warming. Every year the temperature rises by +2 degrees Celsius, which in the future will lead to global catastrophe:

• - melting glaciers;
• - drought of vast territories;
• — desertification of soils;
• - flooding of the coasts of continents and islands;
• - the development of mass epidemics.

In this regard, actions are being developed to eliminate these +2 degrees. For this, humanity has no more than 20 years left, therefore, coordinated joint work of all states is required. First of all, it is necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, ideally by 50% by the middle of the 21st century. However, this is difficult to achieve, because the cleanliness of the climate is worth huge financial investments, which will amount to trillions of dollars.

Russia's participation in reducing emissions

On the territory of the Russian Federation climate change in some places are more intense than in some other countries. The most dangerous regions are the Arctic and the Far East, where these processes are actively progressing. AT this moment Russia ranks fifth in terms of gas emissions. A strategy has been developed, according to which the Russian Federation undertakes to reduce emissions by 25% of the 1990 figures. For this, legislation will be changed, effective technologies will be developed. By 2030, the number harmful emissions should decrease by 2 times, the ecology of cities will improve.

Experts say that Russia has reduced the energy intensity of GDP by about 42% in the first ten years of the 21st century. This was influenced by the use natural gas instead of coal. The Russian government plans to achieve the following indicators by 2025:

• reduction in the electricity intensity of GDP by 12%;
• reduction of energy intensity of GDP by 25%;
• fuel economy - 200 million tons.

An interesting fact was recorded by Russian scientists that the planet is expecting a cooling cycle, as the temperature will drop by a couple of degrees. This opinion is shared by a group of American scientists. For example, in Russia, weather forecasters predict severe winters in Siberia and the Urals for the second year.

In atmosphere?

- Yes. After all, a significant part of this problem lies in the field of energy, and everyone needs energy: light, heat, transport, the production of any product requires energy, and we get energy in the process of burning fossil fuels, as a result of which greenhouse gases enter the atmosphere.

— Let's start with housing: people are not ready to give up comfort, they want to live in warm and bright houses, is it possible to somehow save energy?

Most of the energy in homes is spent on heating and hot water. Therefore, one of the most simple actions- insulate windows, doors, make sure that the batteries work well and are not clogged. In old houses, you can see batteries that are located under the window sills in recesses in the wall - so that behind the battery there is a thin wall through which most of heat escapes. This problem can be solved by sticking a layer of material on the wall behind the battery, which consists of insulation and foil. This material is simple, cheap, and easy to find in stores.

For savings hot water you can take a shower instead of a bath. You need 200 liters of water for a bath, 40-50 for a shower, 60 for the biggest shower lovers, but certainly not 200. There are also water-saving shower heads. In our country they are known as massage and can give a thin and strong jet of water. At the same time, the shower feels strong, and less water is wasted.

Using a washing machine and dishwasher is more economical than rinsing clothes or washing dishes under running water. Although, of course, if, of course, you, like an Englishman, plugged the sink with a cork, filled it with mild soapy water, washed the dishes, and only then poured clean water to rinse the dishes, you will save more resources than a dishwasher. In any case, you also need to keep track of consumption. detergents so as not to pollute once again wastewater and with them rivers and seas.

- One of the most known ways to save electricity is to use energy-saving light bulbs ...

- Yes, but you need to take into account that now fluorescent energy-saving lamps have been given up, because they contain poisonous, and it was not possible to arrange their disposal. Therefore, all over the world are switching to the use of LED lamps. So far, they are still expensive, but they consume almost 10 times less energy and last about 20 times longer than incandescent lamps, so they quickly pay for themselves.

To save energy, sensors are also very effective, which react to movement and turn on the light only when it is needed. They can be installed on stairs or in corridors. I know one five-story building where such sensors were installed on the stairs, and it turned out that the light was needed there for only 26 minutes, not 24 hours a day. But here we are no longer talking about a separate apartment, but about a common space in an apartment building.

— Are there many emissions into the atmosphere from transport and can they be somehow reduced?

— Transport consumes 4/5 of the world's oil reserves and in major cities gives 80% of air pollution, respectively, and it affects the climate in a decisive way. But here the choice is very simple: public transport instead of a car. And if you need to go on vacation, but not very far, then it is better to choose a train instead of a plane, it will be much more environmentally friendly. In the European Union, there is even a rule for business trips: for a distance of less than 400 kilometers, the plane is not paid - only the train. Well, for very short distances, it is best to choose a bicycle.

Another way people rarely think about reducing our impact on the climate is through our purchases. When we select products in a store, we tend not to pay attention to how far the product has been manufactured. If we choose oil from New Zealand, we must take into account that it has traveled 17 thousand kilometers. How much fuel was spent on the delivery of this oil, how much energy was spent on storing it in the refrigerator along the way! Extra packaging is also an extra waste of energy. For example, if instead of just a cucumber, buying a cucumber in polyethylene or on a pallet and in polyethylene, then this is also a waste of resources, which means an increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

The fact that the climate is changing and this is due to the burning of fossil fuels is no longer in doubt among scientists. The consequences of global warming, if it cannot be slowed down, could be

We rarely think about what should happen in the future. Today we have other things to do, responsibilities and chores. Therefore, global warming, its causes and consequences are perceived more as scripts for Hollywood films than as real threat the existence of mankind. What signals speak of an impending catastrophe, what are its causes and what future awaits us - let's figure it out.

To understand the degree of danger, to assess the growth of negative changes and to understand the problem, we will analyze the very concept of global warming.

What is global warming?

Global warming is an indicator of growth average temperature environment for last century. Its problem lies in the fact that, starting from the 1970s, this figure began to increase several times faster. The main reason for this lies in the strengthening of industrial human activity. Not only did the water temperature increase, but also by about 0.74 °C. Despite this small value, the consequences can be colossal, according to scientific papers.

Studies in the field of global warming report that the change in temperature regimes has accompanied the planet throughout its life. For example, Greenland is a testament to climate change. History confirms that in the 11th-13th centuries Norwegian sailors called this place “Green Land”, since there was no snow and ice cover, as it is today.

At the beginning of the 20th century, heat prevailed again, which led to a decrease in the scale of the glaciers of the Northern Arctic Ocean. Then, from about the 40s, the temperature dropped. New turn its growth began in the 1970s.

The causes of climate warming are explained by such a concept as the greenhouse effect. It consists in raising the temperature of the lower layers of the atmosphere. Airborne greenhouse gases such as methane, water vapor, carbon dioxide and others contribute to the accumulation thermal radiation from the surface of the Earth and, as a result, heating the planet.

What causes the greenhouse effect?

1. Fires in the forest area. First, there is a release of a large amount. Secondly, the number of trees that process carbon dioxide and provide oxygen is decreasing.
2. permafrost. The earth that is in a vice permafrost, releases methane.
3. Oceans. They give off a lot of water vapor.
4. Eruption. It produces an ejection huge amount carbon dioxide.
5. Living organisms. We all contribute our share to the formation of the greenhouse effect, because we exhale the same CO 2 .
6. Solar Activity. According to satellite data over the past few years, the Sun has significantly increased its activity. True, scientists cannot give exact data on this matter, and therefore there are no conclusions.

We have considered the natural factors influencing the greenhouse effect. However, the main contribution is made by human activities. The increased development of industry, the study of the Earth's interior, the development of minerals and their extraction served as the release of a large amount of greenhouse gases, which led to an increase in the temperature of the planet's surface.

What exactly is man doing to increase global warming?

1. Oilfield and industry. By using oil and gas as fuel, we emit large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
2. Fertilization and tillage. Pesticides and the chemicals used to do this contribute to the release of nitrogen dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas.
3. Deforestation. Active exploitation of forests and cutting down of trees leads to an increase in carbon dioxide.
4. Overpopulation of the planet. The growth in the number of inhabitants of the Earth explains the reasons for point 3. To provide a person with everything necessary, everything is mastered more territories in search of minerals.
5. Landfill formation. Lack of waste sorting, wasteful use of products lead to the formation of landfills that are not recycled. They are either buried deep in the ground or burned. Both of these lead to changes in the ecosystem.

Automobile and the formation of traffic jams also contribute to the acceleration of environmental catastrophe.

If the current situation is not corrected, the temperature increase will continue further. What else will be the consequences?

1. Temperature variation: in winter it will be much colder, in summer it will be either abnormally hot or quite cold.
2. The volume of drinking water will be reduced.
3. The harvest in the fields will be noticeably poorer, some crops may disappear altogether.
4. In the next hundred years, the water level in the world's oceans will rise by half a meter due to the rapid melting of glaciers. The salinity of the water will also begin to change.
5. Global climate catastrophes, hurricanes and tornadoes will not only become commonplace, but will also spread to the scale of Hollywood films. Heavy rains will fall in many regions, which have not appeared there before. Winds and cyclones will begin to increase and become a frequent occurrence.
6. An increase in the number of dead zones on the planet - places where a person cannot survive. Many deserts will become even larger.
7. Due to the sudden change climatic conditions trees and many animal species will have to adapt to them. Those who do not have time to do it quickly will be doomed to extinction. This applies most of all to trees, because in order to get used to the terrain, they must reach a certain age in order to produce offspring. Reducing the number of “ ” leads to an even more dangerous threat - a colossal release of carbon dioxide, which there will be no one to turn into oxygen.

Ecologists have identified several places where global warming will affect the Earth in the first place:

• Arctic- melting arctic ice, rising permafrost temperatures;
• Sahara Desert- snowfall;
• small islands- rising sea levels will simply flood them;
• some Asian rivers- they will spill and become unusable;
• Africa- the depletion of the mountain glaciers feeding the Nile will lead to the drying up of the floodplain of the river. Surrounding areas will become uninhabitable.

The permafrost that exists today will move further north. Global warming will change the course sea ​​currents, and this will cause uncontrolled climate change throughout the planet.

As the number of heavy industries, oil and gas refineries, landfills and incinerators grows, the air will become less usable. Already, this problem is preoccupied by the inhabitants of India and China.

There are two forecasts, in one of which, with the same level of greenhouse gas generation, global warming will become noticeable in about three hundred years, in the other - in a hundred if the level of emissions into the atmosphere continues to grow.

The problems that the inhabitants of the Earth will face in the event of global warming will affect not only ecology and geography, but also financial and social aspects: the reduction of territories suitable for life will lead to a change in the locations of citizens, many cities will be abandoned, states will face food shortages and water for the population.

Reports of the Ministry of Emergency Situations report that over the past quarter century, the number of floods in the country has almost doubled. At the same time, many parameters of such disasters are recorded for the first time in history.

Scientists predict the impact of global warming in the 21st century primarily on Siberia and the subarctic regions. Where it leads? Rising permafrost temperatures threaten radioactive waste storage facilities and entail serious economic problems. By the middle of the century, temperatures are projected to rise by 2-5 degrees in winter.

There is also the possibility of periodic occurrence of seasonal tornadoes - more often than usual. floods on Far East have repeatedly brought great harm to the inhabitants of the Amur Region and the Khabarovsk Territory.

Roshydromet suggested the following problems related to global warming:

1. In some regions of the country, unusual droughts are expected, in others - floods and soil moisture, which leads to the destruction of agriculture.
2. The growth of forest fires.
3. Ecosystem disturbance, displacement species with the extinction of some of them.
4. Forced air conditioning in the summer in many regions of the country and the resulting economic costs.

But there are also some advantages:

1. Global warming will increase navigation by sea ​​routes north.
2. There will also be a shift in the boundaries of agriculture, which will increase the territory of agriculture.
3. In winter, the need for heating will decrease, which means that the cost of funds will also decrease.

It is still quite difficult to assess the danger of global warming for humanity. Developed countries are already introducing new technologies in heavy production, such as special filters for air emissions. And the more populous and less developed countries suffer from industrial consequences. human activity. This imbalance without affecting the problem will only grow.

Scientists monitor changes thanks to:

• chemical analysis of soil, air and water;
• studying the rate of glacier melting;
• charting the growth of glaciers and desert zones.

These studies make it clear that the rate of impact of global warming is increasing every year. Greener ways of working in heavy industry and restoration of the ecosystem are needed as soon as possible.

What are the ways to solve the problem:

• quick gardening large area land;
• creation of new varieties of plants that are easily accustomed to changes in nature;
• use of renewable energy sources (for example, wind energy);
• development of more environmentally friendly technologies.

Solving the problems of global warming today, a person must look far into the future. Many documented agreements, such as the protocol adopted as an addition to the UN Framework Convention in Kyoto in 1997, did not give the desired result, and the introduction environmental technologies happens extremely slowly. In addition, the re-equipment of old oil and gas plants is almost impossible, and the cost of building new ones is quite high. In this regard, the reconstruction of heavy industry is primarily a matter of economics.

Scientists are thinking different ways solution to the problem: special carbon dioxide traps have already been created, located in mines. Aerosols have been developed that affect the reflective properties of the upper layers of the atmosphere. The effectiveness of these developments has not yet been proven. The automotive combustion system is constantly being modified to protect against harmful emissions. Alternative energy sources are being invented, but their development is worth big money and moving very slowly. In addition, the work of mills and solar panels also accompanied by the release of CO 2 .