Chapter 9: Conservation Strategies
Introduction
As previous chapters have mentioned, climate change is a natural process that human activity has
expedited. Continued global warming at our current rate will have catastrophic, irreversible effects on both
natural ecosystems and human infrastructure around the world. In this chapter, we explore two strategies
to combating climate change: conservation and mitigation.
Conservation is the idea that saving energy and non-renewable resources will help us reduce our
individual carbon footprints. To achieve this goal, we can use -energy more efficiently, switch from nonrenewable energy sources to renewable ones, and educate our youth about the importance of conservation.
If every person in the United States swapped just one incandescent light bulb to a fluorescent light bulb,
we would save enough energy to light 3 million home for one year! Making small change in habits and
having mindfulness in our daily lives adds up if everyone does pitches in. Conservation is a global effort,
and the strategies some countries are employing will be explored further later in the chapter.
Mitigation is the idea that we can prevent future damage to our planet caused by climate change and
repair what damage has already been done. In this chapter, we will discuss how we are protecting the
economy and wildlife of Sub-Saharan Africa with the Great Green Wall of Africa, the Three North Shelter
Forest Program being used in China's Gobi Desert, and geo-engineering techniques such as carbon
sequestration.
Conservation
Earth has many finite, non-renewable resources such as coal and petroleum. These two resources in
particular have been instrumental to the development of society. The United States alone uses 369 million
gallons of petroleum every day. However, we now know that these resources both damage the
environment and will eventually run out. To move in to the future, we must employ a step-by-step strategy
to conserve and wean off our dependence on fossil fuels. Conservation is defined as official supervision of
rivers, forests, and other natural resources in order to preserve and protect them through prudent
management.
Electricity
Conservation of electricity can be achieved in many ways.
About 50% of electricity generated in power plants is lost in
the lines while being delivered. Losses like these can be
reduced by improving insulation and producing electricity
more locally, shortening the distance the electricity has to
travel.
Moreover, it is relatively straightforward for us to conserve
electricity in our everyday lives. Unplugging charging devices
when they are not in use can save $20 worth of "phantom
electricity" every month. Turning off the lights
Transportation
The largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in developed
countries is transportation. Driving fuel-guzzling cars is
detrimental to both the United States economy and its
environment; it increases our dependence on Canadian and
Saudi Arabian oil imports and pollutes the air with carbon
dioxide and nitrous oxides. There are many ways by which
we can decrease our overall emissions from transportation.
Simply avoiding cars and walking or biking is one strategy.
For longer distance commutes, carpooling or taking mass
transport, like the subway, reduces your overall carbon
footprint.
LAB
How well does your house conserve
electricity? Follow these instructions to
find out.
1. For one day, record every activity
you do that requires electricity - this
can be anything from vacuuming to
turning on the faucet for 10 seconds.
2. Look up how many Watts each
process uses and sum them for the
day.
3. Extrapolate this sum to 30 days and
compare the number of Watts you
recorded using to the amount on your
month electricity bill.
4. Finally, take the number of recorded
Watts, divide it by the number of
Watts you were charged for, and
multiply by 100. This is the electric
efficiency of your home.
5. Answer the following questions:
a. How many Watts of electricity was
wasted?
b. Name three ways you can reduce
your electricity usage.
c. Name three ways you can reduce
your electricity waste.
d. One kilowatt-hour (using 1000
Watts for 1 hour) costs an average of
20 cents. How much could the United
States save if its citizens stopped
wasting electricity? The population of
the US is about 300 million people.
Another strategy being pushed by automotive companies is
the adaption or fuel-efficient hybrid cars and electric cars. Hybrid cars, such as the Toyota Prius, can have
up to double the miles per gallon of normal cars, simply by combining both electricity and gasoline as
energy sources. Electric cars avoid petroleum derivatives entirely, running off electric energy only. The
main issue with electric cars is the construction of recharging stations outside of one's own home; such
recharging stations are not very abundant and have yet to proliferate. As we move into the twenty first
century with increased environmental awareness, we may see more widespread usage of these recharging
stations.
Nature
Projects like the Spine of the Continent undertaken to preserve wildlife and a migratory path for many
species.
Mitigation
Around the globe, we can already see the dangerous effects of climate change. Melting polar ice caps
means increased sea levels and lower global albedo. In the Pacific, the tropical storms El Nino and La
Nina have become more prevalent. Increasing temperatures has fueled desertification and driven some
species and bio-diversity hot spots to extinction. In order to combat these effects, aggressive
advancements in climate change mitigation have been made.
CASE STUDY - Combating
Desertification
Desertification
With the rise of global warming,
desertification has become a critical
Desertification is the process by which a desert expands,
issue in two regions: the Sub-Saharan
expedited by temperature and wind. Anthropogenic factors
and the Gobi deserts. Countries just
have contributed to the climate change that fuels
south of the Sahara, like Nigeria, battle
desertification. See the case study to the left to learn more.
the Saharan desert, hoping to slow its
encroachment into their lands; the
Sahara Desert is predicted to be
advancing at 5 km each year. One
solution they have discovered is the re- Geo-engineering
planting of trees to form a sort of
fence. This "green wall" strategy is also
Geo-engineering is an emergent science that has high potential.
being deployed in the Gobi desert in
The principles behind geo-engineering include designing
west China. The African Union
technological solutions to reduce and reverse the
dubbed this the "Great Green Wall of
environmental damage caused by human activity. The two
Africa". The trees serve as anchors and major techniques receiving significant attention are carbon
windbreaks in the desert, slowing
recapture and sequestration and sulfate aerosols.
erosion and preventing sand from
advancing.
Implementing these strategies is a process, like science. Carbon
One of the major issues concerned
recapture is the act of taking in carbon dioxide in the air,
with this strategy is the education of
effectively doing the opposite of emitting greenhouse gas. It
the general project; as you will see in
also includes capturing carbon emissions from stationary, point
the linked videos, many commoners
sources, such as factories and coal-fire power plants.
see trees as firewood and have no
Sequestration is the deposition of this captured carbon in
qualms chopping them down. To
storage sinks underground, typically porous bedrock.
ensure the trees in these green walls
Overhead, there must be solid, nonporous rock in order to
are not planted and subsequently
ensure that the gases to not escape. It is estimated that
harvested by commoners, they must
increasing current technologies in carbon capture and
become aware of the important role
sequestration could save the equivalent of planting 62 million
the trees play in combating
trees.
desertification.
Sulfate aerosols are sprays that, when deployed in the stratosphere via devices such as weather balloons,
would populate the atmosphere with highly reflective (high albedo) sulfur-based particles. These particles
would reflect a majority of the sun's infrared radiation and create a global dimming effect, reducing the
overall infrared radiation reaching the earth's surface. While at first glance sulfate aerosols seem promising,
its implementation remains questionable. There may be unintended side effects to this global dimming
effect, and many species may be harmed by the inevitable rain that flushes out these sulfur particles from
the atmosphere. Constant rain means that in order to maintain a reflective aerosol layer, it must be
constantly reapplied.
Overall, a very nice and well worded chapter. I would like to see the addition of some photos, as they
might help lighten it up and prove to convey some thoughts better with readers who are more visual
learners. You also could potentially get a little bit more specific – what are some of the ways we have of
taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, also how much energy do these methods take?
Also I did not see much data provided, this is where you could maybe put data about different electrical
things and how much more efficient some are than the other.
Some parts do seem a little short, not that they need expanded, but maybe that they need to be put with
something else.
Glossary Terms
Conservation: the idea that saving energy and non-renewable resources will help us reduce our individual
carbon footprints.
Mitigation: the idea that we can prevent future damage to our planet caused by climate change and repair
what damage has already been done.
Carbon recapture and sequestration: The process by which one captures carbon emissions and stores them
in reservoirs, typically underground.
Sulfate aerosols: Sulfur-based sprays that would form a reflective barrier in the earth's atmosphere.