Those who worry about CO2 should worry about methane, too

Methane concentrations are now more than two-­and-­a-­half times what they were before the Industrial Revolution. Fossil fuels are partly to blame, but methane is also emitted by belching cattle, slash-and-burn agriculture, and natural ecosystems such as swamps, to name a few.

ගෝලීය උෂ්ණත්වය ඉහළ යෑමට එකම හේතුව කාබන් ඩයොක්සයිඩ් නොවේ. බලපෑමෙන් හතරෙන් එකක් පමණ වෙනස් වායුවක් වන මීතේන් වල ප්‍රති ence ලයකි.

ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම, විමෝචනයෙන් පසු වසර 20 ක් තුළ මීතේන් ටොන් එකක් CO2 ටොන් එකකට වඩා 86 ගුණයක් උනුසුම් වීමට හේතු වේ.

කාර්මික විප්ලවයට පෙර තිබූ දෙගුණයකටත් වඩා මීතේන් සාන්ද්‍රණය දැන් දෙගුණයකටත් වඩා වැඩිය. පොසිල ඉන්ධන අර්ධ වශයෙන් දොස් පැවරිය හැකි නමුත් මීතේන් විමෝචනය කරනු ලබන්නේ ගවයන් බෙල්ච් කිරීම, කප්පාදු කිරීම හා පුළුස්සා දැමීම කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය සහ වගුරුබිම් වැනි ස්වාභාවික පරිසර පද්ධති කිහිපයකි.

එක් තක්සේරුවකට අනුව, ඉදිරි වසර 30 තුළ මිනිස් ක්‍රියාකාරකම් හේතුවෙන් ඇති වන මීතේන් විමෝචනය අඩකින් අඩුවීම 2050 දී සාමාන්‍ය ගෝලීය උෂ්ණත්වයෙන් 0.18 සී රැවුල බෑමට ඉඩ ඇත.

දේශගුණික විපර්යාසයන්ට එරෙහිව දැන් action ලදායී පියවරක් අවශ්‍ය වේ. මීතේන් විමෝචනය අඩු කිරීම ගෝලීය උනුසුම් වීමට එරෙහි සටනට උපකාරී වන්නේ කෙසේදැයි කියවන්න.

<iframe src="https://www.linkedin.com/embed/feed/update/urn:li:share:6783991475244986368" height="1063" width="504" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" title="Embedded post"></iframe>

Greenhouse Management - ppt download

Greenhouse Management - ppt download: Chapter Objectives What is climate change? Global climate change Global climate change impacts Prepared by Seng Theara, MBA

Planetary Boundaries

http://www.anthropocene.info/planetary-boundaries.php

Identifying and quantifying planetary boundaries that must not be transgressed could help prevent human activities from causing unacceptable environmental change.

 

උල්ලංගනය නොකළ යුතු ග්‍රහලෝක මායිම් හඳුනා ගැනීම සහ මිනුම කිරීම පිළිගත නොහැකි පාරිසරික වෙනසක් ඇති කිරීමේ  මානව ක්‍රියාකාරකම් වැළැක්වීමට උපකාරී වේ.

 

සාරාංශය

New approach was proposed for defining preconditions for human development

මානව සංවර්ධනය සඳහා වන පූර්ව කොන්දේසි නිර්වචනය 

කිරීම සඳහා නව ප්‍රවේශයන් යෝජනා කර  තිබේ

 

Crossing certain biophysical thresholds could have disastrous consequences for humanity

 

සමහර ජෛව භෞතික සීමාවන් ඉක්මවා යාම විනාශකාරී විය හැකිය

 

Three of nine interlinked planetary boundaries have already been overstepped

 

අන්තර් සම්බන්ධිත ග්‍රහලෝක මායිම් නවයෙන් තුනක් 

දැනටමත් 

ඉක්මවා ගොස් ඇත

 

http://www.anthropocene.info/anthropocene-timeline.php

 

Reducing food waste could reduce GHG emissions

We need to answer the following questions to prove above statement

 Is wasting less food a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

About 11% of all the greenhouse gas emissions that come from the food system could be reduced if we stop wasting food. In the US alone, the production of lost or wasted food generates the equivalent of 37 million cars' worth of greenhouse gas emissions.

 

What is the relationship between food waste and heat trapping emissions?

Food waste also contributes directly to climate change. Most wasted food ends up in landfills, where the zero–oxygen environment turns organic matter — from bread to banana peels — into methane, a gas that traps about 30 times more heat than carbon dioxide over the course of a century.

How does cutting waste produce more food?

Saves money from buying less food. Reduces methane emissions from landfills and lowers your carbon footprint. Conserves energy and resources, preventing pollution involved in the growing, manufacturing, transporting, and selling food (not to mention hauling the food waste and then landfilling it).

For more information on this subject please click following link

https://www.greenbiz.com/article/reducing-food-waste-could-dramatically-cut-ghg-emissions 

What is Climate Resilience?

As the negative impacts of climate change are increasingly felt around the world, however, it has become clear that simultaneous efforts are necessary to increase adaptive capacity and build resilience.  
Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties.

       Definition: Capacity of a system, communities, households or individuals to prevent, mitigate or cope with the risk and recover from shocks.

Simply it’s the ability for communities to recover from the impacts of climate events. It’s the difference between weather being manageable…or a catastrophe. But for many parts of the world, where livelihoods depend so much on the climate, critical weather and climate information is unavailable or unusable (more vulnerable and less resilience).

Read more on this subject (click here) 

. 

 

CO2 hits record high level

Atmospheric CO2 Levels Just Hit a Scary New Milestone

 

 What does CO2?

 It is significant that so much carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere because CO₂ is the most important gas for controlling Earth's temperature. Carbon dioxide, methane, and halocarbons are greenhouse gases that absorb a wide range of energy—including infrared energy (heat) emitted by the Earth—and then re-emit it.

  What is current CO2 Concentration?

Carbon dioxide concentrations have shown several cycles of variation from about 180 parts per million during the deep glaciations of the Holocene and Pleistocene to 280 parts per million during the interglacial periods. Following the start of the Industrial Revolution, atmospheric CO
2 concentration increased to over 400 parts per million and continues to increase, causing the phenomenon of global warming. As of April 2018, the average monthly level of CO
2 in Earth's atmosphere exceeded 410 parts per million. The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO
2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 although this concentration had already been reached in the Arctic in June 2012.^[15] It currently constitutes about 0.041% by volume of the atmosphere, (equal to 410 ppm) which corresponds to approximately 3200 billion metric tons of CO
2, containing approximately 870 billion metric tons of carbon. Each part per million by volume of CO
2 in the atmosphere thus represents approximately 2.13 billion metric tons of carbon. The global mean CO
2 concentration is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating.There is an annual fluctuation of about 3–9 ppm which is negatively correlated with the Northern Hemisphere's growing season. The Northern Hemisphere dominates the annual cycle of CO
2 concentration because it has much greater land area and plant biomass than the Southern Hemisphere. Concentrations reach a peak in May as the Northern Hemisphere spring greenup begins, and decline to a minimum in October, near the end of the growing season.
Since global warming is attributed to increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases such as CO
2, scientists closely monitor atmospheric CO
2 concentrations and their impact on the present-day biosphere. The National Geographic wrote that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is this high "for the first time in 55 years of measurement—and probably more than 3 million years of Earth history." The current concentration may be the highest in the last 20 million years.

Carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere was measured at a record high of 415 parts per millions (ppm) on Friday, scientists said.
The reading was made by the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, which has maintained a rolling measure of CO2 levels since 1958.

 Read More
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/443389-carbon-dioxide-levels-hit-new-landmark-at-415-ppm-highest-in-human?fbclid=IwAR3liC0D2dpFfol0WpRb07Zz9QaAN9o75C0sVS7vfF8KTx4dbJWi5q4morc

 

 

Sri Lanka ranked as one of the highly

climate change affected countries

Realizing the impending necessity to address the impact of climate change on the  Sri Lanka nation, the Sri Lankan Government has collaborated with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank to develop a national adaptation strategy to mitigate the negative effects of a changing climate.

“The world, unlike in the past, has become severely vulnerable to natural disasters,” President said. “Almost every day, we see millions of people becoming victims of severe floods, landslides, volcanoes, cyclones, earthquakes and the like. As a country we alternatively experienced both drought and floods. It has become increasingly difficult for affected countries to manage unassisted, the post disaster recovery programmes. The recent natural calamities in our region underline the crucial need for effective action, in which there is collective participation, to reduce human suffering. So without doubt, climate change and global warming are today issues which demand the urgent attention of all nations.”

According to a report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2013, approximately 70 percent of the coastlines worldwide are projected to experience sea level change. The IPCC’s fifth assessment report says if average global temperatures increase by approximately four degrees Celsius, sea levels could rise as much as 1 m by 2100, with catastrophic results.

Given this reality, world leaders who will meet in New York at the Climate Summit on the 23rd of September 2014 are expected to find measures to maintain the rate of global warming below two degrees Celsius.

Although, today, climate change has become a global issue, the countries that are most affected are those that have contributed least to the problem.

Sri Lanka, being an island nation, cannot escape the realities the threats of climate change pose. In its capacity, the Government formulated the “National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy” with the assistance from the ADB to increase Sri Lanka’s resilience to climate change impacts whilst pursuing sustainable economic development.

Sri Lanka has also repeatedly underscored the need to practice social equity at the international level, especially on matters related to climate change.

“The disproportionate pollution of the environment by industrialised countries, and the resultant impact on global warming and climate change, cannot be remedied with any semblance of justice by imposing harsh restraints on developing countries, which have contributed very little to aggravation of the problem'.

Building Sri Lanka’s Resilience 

to Climate Change

 

Click to the link below

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2018/09/21/building-sri-lankas-resilience-to-climate-change

  

Climate change and Sri Lanka. 

How big a threat?

As per the publication “In the next 55 years the greatest threat to Sri Lanka will be not from war, but from climate change. Sri Lanka is particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels and weather-related disasters have the potential to set back any gains made in agriculture, fisheries and even services such as tourism”

In addition the following article is extracted from the report titled ‘Intended Nationally Determined Contributions’ by the Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment, Sri Lanka, 

“As a small island in the Indian Ocean, the coastal region of Sri Lanka is susceptible to changes in sea level. The 2004 tsunami has indicated that low-lying plains in the coastal zone will be vulnerable to any future rise in sea level Emerging evidence from various sources suggest that climate change could alter natural systems connected to the water cycle, the ecosystems and the bio-diversity of the country. This could lead to decline of various ecosystem services that are indispensable for the welfare of human population.”

Therefore climate change does seem to be an issue of concern for Sri Lanka.
 

Click to the link below to read more

 How big the threat is?