Climate Change and global warming will (not eventually) affect our costs of living. Many comon expenses like drinking water bills and insurance fees will raise. Just how bad things will get is beeing looked at in this article.

Higher costs for city water, rising home-insurance rates as sea levels rise, and programs to encourage people to leave their fossil-fuel-burning cars at home were cited Tuesday as ways that climate change is, or soon will be, hitting home for B.C. residents.

That was the message from a panel at the opening session of BC Hydro’s 2011 Power Smart Forum speaking on how a changing climate is affecting the business environment. Business, government and residents need to begin adapting so that the province will be more resilient as climate-change effects become more obvious, panelists said.

Research and talk about climate change are no longer enough, said Deborah Harford, executive director of Adaptation to Climate Change (ACT) at Simon Fraser University. She said costs that business and service providers will face include increased effects on health, energy production, food services and population movements due to rising sea levels.

And as the effects increase, she said, insurance companies will probably start raising rates if infrastructure has not been planned and developed to adapt to climate change.

Bob Purdy of the Fraser Basin Council said issues such as climate change are complex but actions can be taken, such as reducing emissions on transportation fleets, which also saves costs.

Harford said most British Columbians probably do not understand adaptation to climate change.

“They would say, ‘Do we need this?’” she said of expenditures that would meet impending changes.

Local governments are already adapting by undertaking long-term measures, she said, citing some of the initiatives at the City of Vancouver.

Peter Judd, general manager of Vancouver’s engineering services, said the city has already implemented programs, like the downtown bicycle lanes, that are responses to climate change. Strategies are also underway to adapt to climateinduced changes to the city’s water supply, which will likely be affected by drier summers.

Judd said drinking water will be more expensive. In a later interview, he expanded on the water issue, saying the city is prepared to require new residential housing to have water meters installed beginning Jan. 1, 2012. All that’s needed is city council’s final approval.

There will also be a rate structure to encourage residents to reduce their water use, he said, but added that ultimately, the need to conserve will mean water rates are going to go up.

“The thing that we have an opportunity to do here is to actually reduce the long-term costs. If we can reduce the amount of water we are using, we can put off or eliminate major expenses like raising the dams in the region,” he said.

“One of the challenges that we have is that we expect to be facing hotter, drier summers and more intense storms in the winter. The response to some of those things, like water conservation and droughtresistant plants, are the kinds of responses that you need to address,” said Judd.

He said the prospect of rising sea levels is one of the biggest challenges the city is struggling with now.

And the city’s controversial downtown bike lanes, he said, are part of the city’s climatechange strategy. They are aimed not only at today’s bike commuters, but also at the next generation.

“We have to make sure there are alternatives for people who haven’t started driving yet.”

Judd said the city is adapting to more severe and more frequent storms by increasing the size of the storm-sewer pipes.

The primary need is to replace the old system where storm drains and sewage were combined in a single pipe, but at the same time the city is installing wider pipes dedicated solely to storm run-off, he said.

Already, the city has recorded an increase in rainfall along with more severe rainstorms.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Wallets+will+soon+feel+effect+climate+change/5572296/story.html#ixzz1bJEyl3Q9

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Florida is in trouble. The impact of the changing climate on the sea levels will flood large areas of the Florida coasts. When will this happen and just how much area will be flooded? Read on to know it all…

The system is simple: stormwater is collected in Palm Beach County’s 1,600 miles of canal.
The drainage keeps neighborhoods dry as the water flows through floodgates and into the Atlantic.
“This system has been very effective,” said Barry Heimlich, a researcher at FAU.
But scientists at FAU say the system is on its last legs.
A report released today says global warming will cause sea levels in South Florida to rise up to seven inches in twenty years.
The pressure you see in this locke would be neutralized from the other side, causing salwater to back into our drinking supply.
An even bigger problem?
“Serious flooding during heavy rain events like the kind of rainfall we’ve been having,” said Heimlich.
Even worse than that?
Fixing the problem won’t be free.
Scientists expect that the gates will have to be replaced with bigger ones that have pumps, a huge undertaking when you consider that there are dozens in South Florida.
The total cost is enough to increase utility bills by $100 a month for every taxpayer.
“A big challenge is where is this money going to come from? For just the drainage system, we are going to need a billion and a quarter dollars over the next forty years,” said Heimlich.
He says sea levels might not raise as much as expected if immediate and aggressive steps were taken to lessen climate change.
If not, Heimlich says, South Florida – in just twenty years – could be underwater everytime it rains, if the reengineering doesn’t start soon.
“We can all be ostriches and keep our head in the sand and not see what’s coming. But here in South Florida, if we do that, our heads are going to get wet,” said Heimlich.
Scientists at FAU started this study in 2009 at the request of a group in Washington, The Bipartisan Policy Center.
This is the same group behind the 9/11 Commission Report.

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Co2 or Carbon Dioxide

Carbon Dioxide is composed of one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms. The most common way to reference it is by the use of its chemical formula CO2. In the Earth’s atmosphere we can find a concentration of approximately 0.04%. CO2 is causing the greenhouse effect.

CO2 details: Chemical Formula: CO2 Molecular Weight: 44.01 Boiling Temperature at 1 atm (1 BAR): no boiling Solid state CO2 -78.2° C (195° Kelvin) CO2 is in general used for: Refrigeration (dry ice) Fire fighting, fire extinguishers carbonated beverages

Critical Point: 31° C (304° Kelvin) and 73 atm (BAR) of pressure. CO2 in the Atmosphere: about 360 ppm (parts per million) carbon dioxide gas. In 1960 this value was at 315 ppm. This equals to 14.28%. What produces CO2: 1 hour of television = 250g CO2; using 3.78 liters (1 gallon) of gasoline = 9.071 kg The CO2 atom has a linear shape. One pound of CO2 has a volume of 0,23 cubic meters (8.2 cubic feet) The image on the right shows just how much CO2 is already in our atmosphere. The colors range from blue through yellow to green. Blue means little CO2 and green means a lot of CO2 is present in the atmosphere.

This pie chart shows us from where all the CO2 is coming. The big piece, 46% are coming from the energy production. 24% are coming from CFCs Chloroflourocarbon, use as an aerosol propellant), 18% from the deforestation and 9% from agriculture. The last 3% are attributed to other factors.

Clover absorbs CO2 In Viamont, Portugal, a project called ExtEnSity has been started about 30 years ago which is of very high interest concerning the CO2 reduction in the air. About 400 Ha of Clover have been planted since the beginning of the project. Each Ha of Clover absorbs 5 tons of CO2 per year. Until 2012 a total of 3000 Ha of Glover will be planted. The Project ExtEnSity has been initiated in 2003 and will continue untill 2008. Clover traps nitrogen so there is no need for using fertilizers. A reduction of Portugal’s “European emissions debt” is expected. Every plant absorbs cO2, but Clover does absorb exceptionally large amounts of it.

CO2 and Temperature relation The “Vostok” investigation has proven the direct connection between CO2 concentration and temperature. To be able to analyze the temperature in the past the Deuterium isotope was analyzed. Abstract: Air trapped in bubbles in polar ice cores constitutes an archive for the reconstruction of the global carbon cycle and the relation between greenhouse gases and climate in the past. High-resolution records from Antarctic ice cores show that carbon dioxide concentrations increased by 80 to 100 parts per million by volume 600 +/- 400 years after the warming of the last three deglaciations. Despite strongly decreasing temperatures, high carbon dioxide concentrations can be sustained for thousands of years during glaciations; the size of this phase lag is probably connected to the duration of the preceding warm period, which controls the change in land ice coverage and the buildup of the terrestrial biosphere.

CO2 Contribution to Global warming by country The “Vostok” investigation has proven the direct connection between CO2 concentration and temperature. To be able to analyze the temperature in the past the Deuterium isotope was analyzed. During 1990 and 1999 a study of the emissions of CO2 has been done for the industrialized countries. The results of the studies have been integrated into a world map to easily visualize the data. What is of great interest is that the technologically most advanced country of the world is as well the largest carbon dioxide contributor.

CO2 Contribution to Global warming by country Chart on right: A comparison of fuel economy and emission standards around the world. This chart represents the world carbon dioxide emissions by country between 1990 and 2025. China and the United States are the “big winners”. The World Carbon Dioxide Emissions by Country 1990 – 2025: The following countries where analyzed: Australia and New Zealand – 1990 250 million tons to become 500 million tons in 2025 Brazil – 1990 220 million tons to rise to 500 million tons Canada – 1990 300 million tons of co2 to increase to 700 million tons in 2025 China – in 1990 at 2200 million tons per year and going to pass 8000 million tons per year in 2025 India – in 1990 at 480 million tons of CO2 and estimated to be at 2000 million tons of CO2 by end of 2025 Japan – more or less stable 1000 million tons of CO2 throughout the period 1990 – 2025 Mexico – in 1990 at 380 million tons of CO2 slowly up towards 480 million tons in 2025 Russia – in 1990 at 1800 million tons of CO2, down to 1500 tons in 2002 but expected to rise to 1900 tons of CO2 by 2025 South Korea – a slow upslope from 280 million tons of CO2 in 1990 to be 600 million tons in 2025 United States – in 1990 at a staggering 5000 million tons of CO2 and on a steep increase to reach 7700 million tons of Carbon Dioxide by 2025

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This analysis will make the relation between all time temperature and CO2 content in the atmosphere more understandable.

CO2 Temperature relation over 400.000 Years
The Graph below shows the temperature and CO2 curve from 400,000 years ago until our days. Co2 never had passed 300ppm (parts per million). It becomes evident that if there is more CO2 in the atmosphere, the temperature will continue to rise. In less than 50 years CO2 content in our atmosphere will double if we do not take immediate action.

The ten hottest years on record have occurred in the last 14 years and the year 2007 was the hottest year ever registered in history. Between 1998 and 2007 made measurements have show that all time record temperatures where reached all over the world. The average temerature on the earth surface is at 0.5 degrees celsius above the 1960 – 1990 year average.

0.5 degrees Celsius doesn’t sound a lot, but physicists have investigated that at just 1 degree above this average temperature ALL crocodiles will be extinguished…

Temperature anomalies
In the last few years we all have been able to notice “extreme” weather situations. Sometimes in the winter, the sun was shining and temperatures where extremeley above normal averages. This has caused certains trees and plants to “think” that it is spring, they started blooming. But within a week the freezing cold returned, irrevocabley destroying their flowers and thus their capacitie to reproduce.

Weather going crazy
In spain, 2008 and 2009 for the first time ever in history, tornadoes where reported, with severe destruction on their paths. This abnormal crazy weather is caused by the climatic change. Global temperature systems that where more or less stable during the last couple hundred thousand years are now loosing their stability and moving of to the extremes.

An Ice Age is coming
Some physicists warn that this instable weather is an indicator for a coming ice age. Ice drilling in the arctics and antarctic have shown that just before the last few ice ages arrived, just several years before, the same weather pattern as today was present.
They where able to identify this fact due to the presence of melted and re-frozen layers, with distinct quantities of pollution present within these layers.

The Polar Caps
Latest studies by german physicists show that the sea water levels will rice faster then first assumed. With improoved equipment the exact salt content in the frozen water could be mesured. This level was thought to be much lower than what it is in reality. Ice with higher salt content will melt at lower temperatures because salt lowers the freezing point of water.

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