Global Warming Part 2

INSIGHTS
The ways global warming can be combated include promoting terrestrial carbon dioxide removal, photocatalysis of non-CO2 greenhouse gases, using renewable energy sources, adopting cleaner composting practices, and stopping NOx elimination.
The burning of fossil fuel is one of the biggest causes of global warming, and it can be combated by the use of renewable energy sources that don't release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Extensive terrestrial carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere through managed biomass growth and subsequent carbon sequestration and storage is another way of combating global warming.

The five ways of combating global warming include using renewable energy sources, adopting cleaner composting methods, extensive terrestrial carbon dioxide removal, stopping NOx elimination, and photocatalysis of non-CO2 greenhouse gases. Below, you will find more details.

1) USING RENEWABLE ENERGY
2) CLEANER COMPOSTING
One of the biggest contributors to global warming is the burning of fossil fuels and many of the other conventional energy generation and utilization processes that revolve around fossil fuel. These processes add greenhouse gasses (GHGs) to the atmosphere that depletes the ozone layer and cause global warming. Hence, introducing renewable energy sources that don't generate greenhouse gases is one of the best ways to fight global warming and many countries and industries are already doing this. This is also one of the key ways promoted and enforced by the Paris Agreement, a global pact by 125 countries to keep global temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Renewable energy sources are considered to be clean energy sources, and the optimal use of renewable energy decreases global warming, environmental impacts, produces minimal secondary waste, and is sustainable based on the current and future social and economic needs. The renewable sources that are being adopted by countries and industries include hydropower, bioenergy, solar energy, geothermal energy, wind energy, and ocean energy.

In the wake of rapid industrial development and population growth in the world, one of the key consequences has been the production of a huge amount of organic waste. About 90% of solid organic waste is used in refilling lands, and this practice leads to the generation of a significant amount of greenhouse gases, especially nitrous oxide and methane gases from anaerobic respiration. There are over two billion tons of organic waste and at least 700 metric tons of CO2 is generated from the waste management regions of the world. These gases help in increasing global warming. Hence, one of the ways to combat global warming is by employing a cleaner and more sustainable composting practice.

Conventional solid waste treatment methods are landfilling, incineration, and composting. Of these three methods, composting is best as it produces the least GHGs and allows the waste to be used as nutrients by plants which help to reduce greenhouse gases. The major clean composting strategies that should be employed include:

a) Reduction of the quantity of waste through the use of the least waste generating process.

3) TERRESTRIAL CARBON DIOXIDE REMOVAL (TCDR)

4) STOPPING NOX ELIMINATION
b) Properly separating organic waste so it can be effectively processed c) Management of organic waste to recover resources (compost–aerobic treatment) and energy (biomethanation).

A three-year study that was conducted in a cornfield to evaluate how composted manure application affects the net global warming potential showed that it can help significantly reduce the net global warming potential when combined with inorganic manure.

Another way of combating global warming is through extensive terrestrial carbon dioxide removal (tCDR). The goal here is to reduce the CO2 that is already in the atmosphere, not just stopping the production of new ones. This can be done "through managed biomass growth and subsequent carbon capture and storage." While this method alone is not enough to significantly reduce global warming if the world continues its "business-asusual" approach to GHGs production without harming food supply and eliminating a significant percentage of natural forest, it can help accelerate the fight against global warming if it's combined with other approaches already listed above.

Researchers were able to demonstrate that tCDR is a great way to mitigate global warming if sustainable energy processes and other sustainable schemes are employed globally. To help achieve the Paris Accord below two-celsius target, tCDR will require "a combination of high irrigation water input and development of highly effective carbon process chains."

Many governments in the world have strict policies aimed at eliminating NOx because the gas is considered poisonous and bad for the health. However, a recent research paper has argued that the elimination of NOx using electricity and ammonia as alternatives has accelerated global warming. The paper argues that this is because the elimination of NOx, phosphorous, and nutrient nitrogen reduced the available nitrogen in the rain and as such reduced the growth of plankton in the sea. The reduction of plankton and other plants in the seas and oceans has reduced the assimilation of CO2.

5) REMOVAL OF NON-CO2 GREENHOUSE GASES USING PHOTOCATALYSIS

CONCLUSION

This is important because 70% of CO2 assimilation occurs in the sea and the non-availability of nitrogen and phosphorus reduces the available sea plant biomass. The researchers also argue that stopping the elimination of NOx will also lead to the fixing of 9.25 × 10^8 tons of CO2, decrease fuel consumption by increasing fuel efficiency by 20%, increase forest growth as more nitrogen is good for plants, and reduce the generation of CO2 due to the decreased use of ammonia.

 Removal of non-CO2 greenhouse gases is another method of combating global warming that may even be more effective than removing CO2. Most of the methods currently focus on reducing CO2 concentration from burning fossil fuel, but even if all CO2 generating activity from man is stopped, global temperature will still continue to rise. One of the reasons CO2 elimination alone won't be very effective is because other non-CO2 greenhouse gases contribute at least 34% of the radiative forcing that causes global warming.

 Some researchers have shown that this can be achieved using large-scale atmospheric solar photocatalysis. For instance, the global warming potential of methane can be reduced by 90% using photocatalysis. Photocatalysis of other greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide and halocarbons will also help reduce global warming and researchers have shown that these can be combined with solar electricity generation, resulting in a hybrid solution that generates electricity while cleansing the atmosphere. In addition, photocatalysis will also eliminate the need for CO2 capture and sequestration which is currently costly and inefficient.

To wrap up, five ways of combating global warming include photocatalysis of non-CO2 greenhouse gases, stopping NOx elimination, terrestrial carbon dioxide removal, cleaner composting, and the use of renewable energy sources.

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