mitigation and adaptation CC

Question 1

what is mitigation?

Answer 1

Aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and tackle the causes of global warming and climate change
-Long-term approach

Question 2

what are five examples of mitigation

Answer 2

-Energy efficiency and conservation
-fuel shifts and low carbon energy sources
-Carbon capturing and storage
-Geo engineering
-reforestation and forest conservation

Question 3

What is the first step to cutting greenhouse gas emissions and moving to a low carbon economy

Answer 3

Energy efficiency and conservation

Question 4

What makes a house energy efficient

Answer 4

-generates own electricity from solar power and heat exchange
-Conserves energy with effective insulation
-House orientated to achieve maximum solar gain with large south facing windows
-Equipped with a smart energy meter

Question 5

What is three changes in the U.K.’s energy economy

Answer 5

-overall energy consumption has fallen steady since 2010, from 214 million tons oil equivalent to 190 million by 2020
-coal consumption decreased most dramatically to less than 1.5 mil in 2020
-Contribution of renewable sources to electricity generation has grown rapidly from 29% in 2017 to 43% in 2020

Question 6

What are the changes in the U.K.’s energy economy due to?

Answer 6

-expanding renewables
-Closing several large coal fired power stations
-Converting some coal fired power stations to bio fuels

Question 7

how has went power been promoted?

Answer 7

With the use of green subsidies

Question 8

what is carbon capture and storage?

Answer 8

New technology that extract CO2 admitted by coal fired power stations and transfers it to long-term storage underground

Question 9

what is carbon capture and storage limited by?

Answer 9

Costs and shortages of storage sites, such as old oil and gas fields

Question 10

what is Geo engineering?

Answer 10

The use of technology to modify the environment on a large scale

Question 11

What two strategies does Geo engineering focus on?

Answer 11

1. reducing amount of insolation absorbed by the Earth and its atmosphere.
   -reducing CO2 from atmosphere

Question 12

What can increase reflection of incoming solar radiation do?

Answer 12

reduce energy absorbed and converted to heat

Question 13

how can increasing reflection be done?

Answer 13

-By placing huge reflective plates in orbit or on earth
-Seed the stratosphere with aerosols that were scatter insolation back to space

Question 14

how can we reduce CO2? (oceans)

Answer 14

-By fertilising the ocean with nutrients such as iron
-This stimulates the growth of phytoplankton and extract CO2 via photosynthesis

Question 15

what is enhanced weathering?

Answer 15

-some abundant silicate minerals such as olivine react on exposure to air and absorbs CO2 from carbonates
-Find its way into long-term storage on the ocean floor
-Done by crashing, huge amounts of rock to increase the surface area and speed up weathering

Question 16

how can CO2 be extracted via artificial trees?

Answer 16

Plastic resin captures CO2 and it’s compressed and stored
-A single sheet of resin, the size of a door extracts up to 700 kg per day

Question 17

what is reforestation and forest conservation?

Answer 17

-replanting trees when they’re chopped down to store carbon
-Cheapest and most effective
-UN has taken a lead in promoting its reducing emissions from deforestation and forest decoration program (REDD)
-This scheme gives financial value to carbon stored in forest by providing incentives to developing countries to conserve forests and reduce CO2

Question 18

what are the three adaptions strategies for climate change?

Answer 18

Retreat
Accommodation
Protection

Question 19

What do adaption strategies involve?

Answer 19

Predicting the adverse effect on climate change and taking appropriate action to prevent or minimise potential damage

Question 20

What is retreat?

Answer 20

coastal zones and River valleys are at risk of natural hazards, caused by extreme weather events, flood and erosion
-Vulnerable, coastlines with a few settlements are set back in land where there’s less risk of flooding and erosion

Question 21

where is retreat action not possible?

Answer 21

Poor countries

Question 22

what are three methods of accommodation

Answer 22

Agriculture
zero tillage
water supply

Question 23

what is the agriculture accommodation approach?

Answer 23

New crop strains are developed and adapted to shorter or longer growing seasons
-Irrigation will be extended and regions of water shortages
-More efficient irrigation systems

Question 24

What is the zero tillage accommodation approach?

Answer 24

conserves soil moisture by rotating crops, growing water resistant crops, mulching, planting hedge rows and wind breaks

Question 25

What is the water supply approach to accommodation?

Answer 25

reduces loss to leaking recycling waste water, using grey water for gardens and flushing toilets
-Improve education and awareness on hazards

Question 26

what are protection methods?

Answer 26

-Hard engineering - sea walls
-Storm surge barriers- low lying coasts
-Hard defences- storage reservoirs
-Soft engineering- beach conservation
-Natural barriers- Salts marshes
-Natural water storage- increase wetland areas, so run-off is controlled by afforestation
-In cities, increase reflection from urban surfaces and plant trees
-Human health-vaccines and pesticides

Question 27

what are adaptive strategies for buildings in high temperatures?

Answer 27

-Heat adaptive strategies such as Aircon and fans
-Reduce window area and increase south facing windows
-Increase albedo with reflective, roofing and white walls
-Sunshades over windows
-Airtight building stop air entering

Question 28

What are adaptive strategies for buildings for floods?

Answer 28

-relocating, important and valuable services from basements and ground floors
-Build houses on stilts
-Floating houses to counter sea level rise

Question 29

What do adaptive strategies for buildings in drought?

Answer 29

-Rainwater harvesting(collecting run-off from roofs and guttering)
-Use grey water systems(e.g. flushing, toilets, and watering gardens)

Question 30

What are transport adaptions to sea level change?

Answer 30

-storm surges destroy seawalls and disrupt rail links-future strengthening of Dykes and walls
-Rail routes are diverted inland and tracks are elevated

Question 31

How are transport systems adapted to river flooding?

Answer 31

-flood barriers and elevating track
-2014, severe storms and depressants, but flood and disruption

Question 32

How are transport systems adapted to increase temperatures?

Answer 32

-rails buckling- sleepers, and rail fastening
-melted tarmac creates potholes- resurface roads in heat resistant materials
-Less aircraft taking off

Question 33

how are transport systems adapted to drought?

Answer 33

-Disrupt traffic on major European waterways like the Rhine
-low flow conditions, where water depth is below 1.6 m. Traffic comes to a standstill
-River Engineering makes river deeper
-Buoyancy aids on barges, so they sit higher and can sail