218.—PATATAS FRITAS

In the article Global Warming, Climatic Changes and Disputed Arguments (Updated on 4 March 2007) (Lapin, 2007) it is stated that since the organizing of the World Climate Programme in 1979 arguments have been heard from opponents that all climate changes are only of a natural character and the mankind cannot significantly influence them through his activities. Discussions have been conducted on the potential slowdown of economic development, on legislation, technologies and emission quotas, but little about the physical causes of climate change. The Earth’s climate system is influenced by natural factors as well as human activities. Significant natural factors include things like a recurrent change in sea currents and temperature fluctuations in the surface waters during a Pacific El Niño and changes in solar activity and volcanic eruptions. The fall of an asteroid would also be a natural factor. Their impact on the Earth’s climate is mostly short-term. In contrast to this, the consequences of the negative impact of man on the environment have a long-term character and this impact is still increasing. One of the consequences is global warming, which is caused mainly by emissions of CO2 and the amount of methane and water vapour in the atmosphere. These are

the so-called negative externalities arising as a by-product of human activity. They do not pass through any market, and the one who causes them transfers the costs onto others. This then impedes effective allocation of scarce resources. More than equilibrium amounts are produced, since the side effects of production (additional costs) are not taken into account. A third party bears these costs. In the case of climate changes, we are speaking, for example, about the fossil fuel industry. The extraction of fossil fuels is associated with the release of methane into the atmosphere, and the burning of fossil fuels is a significant source of carbon dioxide. Figure 1 depicts the evolution of the average carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere as reported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The indicator parts per million (ppm) shows an alarmingly rising trend, and according to the latest update on 8 July 2019, it reached a level of 413.92 ppm in June 2019. This is the amount of particles per million, respectively, 0.0413 %. At the beginning of the industrial revolution, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere

was about 280 ppm. Another significant greenhouse gas is methane (CH4). It is released, for

example, in cattle breeding, rice cultivation, from wetlands, subsurface landfills and is also ventilated from coal mines. The problem is that it is much more potent than the greenhouse effect of CO2, and it is not regulated. The concentration of CH4 in the atmosphere is increasing

significantly. The reasons are not completely clear, but the impact of agriculture is primarily assumed. Figure no. 2 shows the trend of methane in the atmosphere, as presented by the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration. The indicator parts per billion (ppb) according to the last update from 5 July 2019 achieved a global monthly average 1866.4 ppb in March 2019. One ppb means that one molecule of each billion molecules in the test sample of air after the removal of water vapour is CH4.

Figure 1: Atmospheric CO2 at Manua Loa Observatory

(https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/)

Figure 2: Global Monthly Mean CH4 (https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends_ch4/)

Non-renewable energy sources – coal, oil and natural gas – originated over millions of years through photosynthesis and later by the decomposition of living organisms that were chemically modified under the surface of the Earth. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, i.e. over about the past 250 years, we have rapidly and intensively returned large amounts of CO2

of years. The releasing of CO2 and other greenhouse gases is at such a measure that the

biosphere is unable to handle them in a natural way. M. Lapin (2007) says that processes cannot develop in the oceans and on the continents that would take up the excessive carbon from the atmosphere in the relatively short period of several decades. And since the average duration of CO2 in the atmosphere is about 120 years, expanding forests will not solve the problem; a

method of returning biomass to underground storage is necessary. It’s a vicious circle. Global warming causes a rise in the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere. The water vapour then increases the greenhouse effect still further. Its share in the greenhouse effect is estimated to be as high as two-thirds. The growing greenhouse effect creates potential energy for physical processes in the atmosphere, the circulation of heat and water, the circulation of the atmosphere. Evidence of ongoing global climate change is clear in the long-term, ever more commonly occurring extreme fluctuations in the weather. As worldwide meteorological measurements have run continually since the mid-19th century, this phenomenon is easily demonstrated. And studying the development of weather deeper into the past, from sediments, stalactites, glaciers, archaeological finds, old wood and the like, confirms this. “After 1975 major deviations from climate development up to that point occurred and not only regionally but global average air temperatures also began to rise relatively rapidly. The growth trend in air temperature over the larger part of the Earth, especially on the continents of the northern hemisphere and in the Arctic, has surpassed all existing changes for the entire period of meteorological measurements.... Scientists are in agreement on the fact that such development is to a significant measure influenced by human activities, especially the rapid emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Therefore, the need for a reduction of man’s influence on the climatic system of Earth began to be spoken of more loudly, especially the lowering of the emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and the more economical use of the land” (Lapin, 2014). Lapin also states that climate change also took place in the past, too. This had only a local character, however; some places grew warmer while others got cooler. At present, however, global climate change is occurring, and it is running very rapidly. An increase in the climate by 1 °C is not a problem for ecosystems; they are able to adapt. Warming by 2 °C may then cause them great instability, however (Lapin, 2007). “According to the report of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which cites the current assessment of global climatological centres (particularly NASA and NOAA), year 2018 was the fourth warmest in the new age history of meteorological measurements, that is since at least 1880. The continuing long-term warming trend of the global climate system, linked with the record high (global) concentrations of greenhouse gases, has led to a very remarkable accumulation of the historically warmest years to the period of the last five years (2014-2018; order of the warmest years: 2016, 2017, 2015, 2018 and 2014). According to preliminary data published on the web page of the European monitoring programme Copernicus (Climate Change Service), the year 2018 ended in Europe as the third warmest, behind years 2014 and 2015, and did so despite the fact that the warm half-year (April to September 2018) was in Europe warmest of all in the last 40 years”. (Pecho, Markovič, 2019)

3. THE CONDUCT OF SOCIETY FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF ECONOMIC