Global warming and renewable energy

Global warming is caused by several large-scale human activities. In addition to burning fossil fuels for energy, for example, deforestation for livestock production is a major problem. Renewable energy alone can’t stop global warming but renewable energy is one of the most important solutions to global warming and should be pursued as quickly as possible if we want to have any hope of slowing catastrophic climate change. Many of the world’s countries will be running totally on clean, renewable energy by the middle of this century. Experts have predicted that approximately 100% could do so by 2050.  If these nations would install the technology to make the transition happen, tens of millions of jobs would be created.

While the employment increase may be a major reason to celebrate such a transition, however, the core incentive for renewable energy’s development and growth today is to help stop global warming.

Climate change is real and worse than scientists initially believed

Climate change is happening now, despite the rhetoric of the deniers. Some of the key indicators it is occurring have been highlighted on the US EPA website: “Average temperatures have risen across the contiguous 48 states since 1901, with an increased rate of warming over the past 30 years. Eight of the top 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 1998. Average global temperatures show a similar trend, and all of the top 10 warmest years on record worldwide have occurred since 1998.”

Another important sign related to increasing the heat on the planet is in the water. “Ocean surface temperatures increased around the world during the 20th century. Even with some year-to-year variation, the overall increase is clear, and sea surface temperatures have been consistently higher during the past three decades than at any other time since reliable observations began in the late 1800s.”

These are just two of many indicators that our planet is warming.  Climate change deniers cite some arbitrary statistics as supposed proof that the overall warming isn’t occurring, like pointing out narrow areas where there is still sea ice, but they are only focused on the outliers, not the overall warming trend. The rate of sea ice melting is the fastest its been in 1500 years. In 2016, more coral perished in the Great Barrier Reef than in any previous year. There are numerous other signals that warming is not only occurring but is already significantly disturbing the climate and causing substantial damage to all life.

Fossil fuels are the prime killers but solar is the antidote

The overuse of fossil fuels is the primary cause of climate change, and this fact has been confirmed based on theory and empirical evidence many times over. Germany has been a global leader in the development of solar and wind power, and yet even with its commitment to them, climate change emissions have not dropped significantly in many areas. The reason for this situation is that the country requires far more renewable energy to replace its current over-reliance on coal. However, it’s not because the renewable energy installed isn’t working correctly. Rather, it’s that Germany chose to phase out nuclear energy quickly rather than phasing out fossil fuels more quickly. Renewable energy has largely been replacing low-emission nuclear energy.  Although Germany has increased its renewable energy production dramatically over the last decade, there still isn’t enough of it, so coal power plants there continue to burn huge amounts of coal that cause pollution. One encouraging fact is that parts of Germany have already achieved a rate of 100% renewable energy.

There has never been a better time to install a solar energy system! For more information see our solar blog.

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