| From The Newspaper (21) Environment (11) |
February 9, 2023
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| So far, his understanding about CO2 problem is like this: The world wants to reduce its CO2 output because of Global Warming. Global Warming started after the Industrial Revolution. Global Warming makes disasters more frequent and intensive. CO2 in the atmosphere won't decrease naturally. Because of this, CO2 in the atmosphere has been accumulating, and now the temperature has gone up 1.1℃ higher than before the Industrial Revolution. With the UN taking initiative, the world has decided to make some goals for CO2 reduction, ①To keep the temperature of 2030 plus 1.5℃ after the Industrial Revolution. ②To limit CO2 emission by zero in 2050. The target of CO2 reduction by 2030 depends on each country, so he checked on the internet. America : minus 50-52% from 2005; England : 68% or more from 1990; France, Germany, Italy, EU : 55% or more from 1990; Korea : 40% from 2018; Japan : 46% from 2013. Those countries' 2050 target is 'net zero', which means that they will meet the CO2 zero goal, in calculation times CO2 emission - CO2 absorption (by plants, etc.) = 0. After the decision, each country has been making various efforts. They have been encouraging renewable energies : Solar Power Generation, Wind  Power Generation, Hydroelectric Power Generation, Geothermal Power Generation, etc. Hydroelectric Power Generation and Geothermal Power Generation have existed since the old days and the places to set them are limited. Solar Power Generation and Wind Power Generation can be set anywhere, so governments have encouraged and helped develop technologies and provide subsidies, public investments began, a lot of companies' technologies improved and electricity producing efficiency went up, and its costs went down. But those methods are unstable, depending on the weather. As electricity can't be preserved suitably, if there are continuous cloudy and no wind days continued, cities will have blackouts, so each country has to have 'back up', Fossil Fuel Generation and Nuclear Generation. Even so, the world agreed to reduce fossil fuels, expecting that new technology will replace them. Especially coal, which produces high amounts of CO2 when burning. Recent tendency was to be shifting to natural gas, but Russia's war made the process backwards. Evaluation toward Nuclear Generation is divided by countries. Nuclear Generation doesn't emit CO2 but has another problem: the waste product. Plutonium is dangerous and to stockpile it for a long time is risky. If there is an accident, radioactive waste will spread to broad areas. Restoring the damage will take a long time and will have a large cost. CO2 is produced mainly for three major reasons. Fossil Fuel Generation Plants, gasoline for vehicles, and kerosene and gas for heating, cooking, hot water etc. In vehicles, gasoline cars have been replaced by electric cars little by little, remaining primarily in boats, and airplanes. A lot of scientists and researchers have been studying and experimenting with new technologies to reduce CO2. To absorb CO2 from the air, to decompose CO2 with water into air or hydrogen. To use hydrogen for new engines. To use algae to produce alcohol, algae absorbs CO2 when doing photosynthesis, so CO2 produced after burning is balanced. But, those new technologies might be realized too late. Some scientists predicted that if the permanently-frozen ground melts, packed methane will come into the air, making Global Warming irreversible. Shifting to Solar Power Generation and Wind Power Generation has been accelerating, but it has a basic problem which has been mentioned. Recently he watched a TV program which gave some solutions for this. A new company has started their new business to make a new system. Their plan is like this: They will find a company, and the company will set solar panels on their building. They will ask their workers to replace their vehicle with an electric car. The workers can charge their car at work while working. He thought that this idea was very smart, and could have various variations. |
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No. 508
*accumulate :積み重なる
*reduction :減少
*absorption :吸収
*evaluation :評価
*restore :回復する
*primarily :主として
*algae :藻
*photosynthesis :光合成