Confronting Global Climate Change

Experiments & Applications in the Tropics

Mark Harris

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781000008623
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sciences biologiques
• Subtopic: Science environnementale

This book offers a solutions-based approach to climate change problems which potentially impinge on human beings within the tropics. It largely comprises research articles with supplementary applications and illustrations. The effects of atmospheric phenomena, energy acquisition, wind power, CO 2 sequestration, are linked with soils, aquatic life, reducing deforestation, rainwater harvesting and clay pot farming, climate, plant disease and food security to show that no area of life is untouched by the phenomenon of climate change. It discusses specific problem areas and provides an overview of geotechnical and sustainable solutions to lessen the impact of climate.

1	Introduction: Countering Global Climate Change: Tropical Solutions

An Experimental Approach

1.1 General Remarks

One hundred years before the publication of “On the Origin of Species,” John Smeaton of England told a gathering that the power available from the wind is proportional to the cube of the wind speed (Kovarik et al. 1979). Kovarik et al. (1979) continue: “That is, when the speed doubles, the power available in the wind increases eight times.” Smeaton also investigated many types of Dutch and English windmills and determined their horsepower and efficiency. His work remains a classic study of wind power. But neither Smeaton’s work nor the work of others to improve windmills could forestall the downfall of the working windmill in England and Europe. For nearly three centuries the Dutch used approximately 10,000 windmills to grind grain, pump water, make paper and saw lumber. With the introduction of the steam engine and the beginning of the industrial revolution, the use of windmills began a sharp decline. By 1900 only 2500 windmills were in use by the Dutch, with a similar decline in windmill numbers in other industrialized nations.”

The above report dramatizes the power of ignorance and of knowledge, one decimating the windmill; the other resurrecting it.

The present work contains 26 research journal articles in chapter format. Twenty-two are original works. The remaining four are developed from previous journal articles by the author. Thus, Chapter 2 builds on “The Role of Water Vapour Condensation in Global Warming,” (Advances in Environmental Science: Nova Science Publishers Volume 2, 2008, pp. 368–372), Chapter 6 builds upon on “Fragility of a Dark Gray Shale in North-Eastern Jamaica: Effects and Implications of Landslip Exposure,” (Environ Earth Sci (2010) 61: 369. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-009-0348-2), while Chapter 12 supersedes “Quenching of Phosphorus-Fixation in a Disturbed Caribbean Bauxite Mine Overburden Using Root Exudates: Implications for Acidic Tropical Soils” (In: Geobiotechnological Solutions to Anthropogenic Disturbances. Environmental Earth Sciences. Springer, Cham DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319- 30465-6_14).

The Greenhouse Effect is essential for life (Figure 1.1; heat increases biomass). Without it, Earth’s radiation balance (solar input vs. IR output) produces an Earth temperature of –20°C, and almost all water on the planet would be ice. But life requires liquid water. To this end, CO₂ is needed in the atmosphere. This is vividly portrayed on the planet Venus.

FIGURE 1.1 Twelve global climates and vegetation zones maintained partly by CO₂ on Earth.

1.2 Warming Trends

On planet Earth, cities are at risk of gradual, slow-onset climate change impacts, such as sea-level rise and coastal erosion (Figure 1.2). Large urban populations, including those residing in some of the world’s largest megacities (The World Bank 2010), live in low elevation coastal zones (LECZs). Figure 1.2 indicates the proportion of national populations living in the LECZs. It shows that urban populations in the Caribbean, Southeast Asia and the Pacific are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of sea level rise.

FIGURE 1.2 Cities and populations at risk of rising sea levels.

Source: World Bank 2010.

As shown in Figures 1.3 through 1.6, evidence of excess warming is also found in extratropical zones.

FIGURE 1.3 Extratropical evidence of excess warming in recent decades.

Source: NOAA.

FIGURE 1.4 Arctic sea ice cover, 1979 and 2003: According to NASA measurements, between 1979 and 2003, Arctic perennial sea ice has been decreasing at a rate of 9% per decade. The image at left shows the minimum sea ice concentration for the year 1979, while the image at right shows the minimum sea ice concentration in 2003.

Source: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

FIGURE 1.5 Evidence from winter maxima.

Source: National Climate Data Center, NOAA.

FIGURE 1.6 Evidence from Antarctic Temperature Trends: Western Antarctica is warming, while the eastern part is cooling.

Source: NASA.

Being closer to the Sun, Venus intercepts twice the solar flux of Earth. However, this is almost compensated for by the albedo of Venus, it being approximately twice that of Earth. Hence the surface temperature on Venus, considering only radiation balance, is not very different from Earth’s, i.e., −29°C. Yet its surface temperature averages +435°C, where 90 atmospheres of CO₂ give an IR thickness of 68. Earth’s optical thickness is only 0.68. But CO₂ isn’t the only molecule trapping heat in Earth’s atmosphere. Had Venus been shrouded in 90 atmospheres of water vapor rather than CO₂, its surface temperature would have far exceeded its present value. The next section presents Chapter 2, which details the warming potency of water vapor on Earth.

1.3 The Power of “New” Water Vapor

Rationale: Burning of fossil fuels adds new water vapor to the atmosphere. What are the implications of new water vapor for climate change?

The two most effective greenhouse gases on earth, H₂O (g) and CO₂, as explained in Chapter 2: Water Vapor Condensation from Fossil Fuels and Tropical Volcanoes: Potential Effects on Global Warming, both water vapor condensation from fossil fuels and tropical volcanoes absorb outbound Infrared (IR) and reradiate it in all directions. Therefore Earth intercepts approximately half that absorbed (IR) and gains heat up to +15°C, thereby ensuring the presence of H₂O (liquid). The warm conditions of Earth are helped by water vapor as well as several other gases, some of which never existed in the atmosphere prior to human influence. Together, the other greenhouse gases account for roughly a third of the molecules trapping heat in the atmosphere—and more than a third of the overall warming of average temperatures globally.

Chapter 2 discusses the results of some human activities, such as condensing liquid water from “new” water vapor, a topic which had not been previously seen in the literature. During combustion of fossil fuels, large quantities, not only of CO₂, but of water vapor, are produced. A proportion of the water vapor thus created as a by-product condenses almost immediately, thereby releasing vast quantities of heat in the lower atmosphere. All are newly created, based on their prior inert existence (not having been activated in historic times). Even without any fossil fuel combustion, it has been scientifically established that global heat caused by water vapor condensation powers hurricanes. Pushing hundreds of millions of tons of air at speeds of up to 300 kph or more, a hurricane generates 300–400 billion KW hours of electrical energy per day, i.e., 200 times the total energy produced in the U.S.—all powered by the condensation of water, not CO₂.

1.4 Climate Change, Occupational Health and Safety

Rationale: Attention to outdoor safety under a warming climate can mitigate unpredicted disasters.

Chapter 3: Operation of Motor Vehicles below Recommended Engine Temperatures in the Tropics, Excess Greenhouse Gases and Health.

CO₂ currently emanates from the mouths of all humans and the power plants and cars in all countries—and is responsible for the bulk of global warming to date. But reducing emissions of some of the other greenhouse gases may prove quite a lot simpler than cutting back on CO₂—and may forestall catastrophic climate change. In fact, some of the measures—such as capturing the methane released during oil production—actually save money in addition to the climate. The United Nations Environment Program estimates that cutting back on methane and soot emissions alone could prevent 0.7° Celsius of additional warming by 2040—and those cooling benefits could come faster than comparable cuts in CO₂.

However, a lack of sufficient understanding of the internal combustion engine processes in some tropical areas underlies the prevalent, yet erroneous, belief that engine temperature control devices (thermostats) are necessary only in “cold countries.” This belief has led to a large proportion of automobile operators in some tropical areas routinely removing and discarding the motor-engine thermostats. This causes the release of un-burned hydrocarbons into the atmosphere (Chapter 3), with attendant climate-change and health issues.

Chapter 4: Potential Climate Changes and Air Pollution by Cassava Cyanide: Role of Moisture-Pressure Combination Treatments.

Drought-tolerant, low-nutrient-requiring agricultural crops such as cassava are potentially useful industrial raw materials and food sources in extreme soil and climate conditions. This became more applicable after Harris and Koomson (2010), using moisture-pressure combination treatments, decreased toxic cyanide in bitter cassava to the unprecedented low levels level of 12.5%. However, the increasing industrialization of cassava products and the discovery that the cassava skin contains more starch than the interior of the tuber has led to the incorporation of cassava skin in the manufacture of starch-rich products such as beer. Unfortunately, increased starch in cassava correlates positively with higher levels of cyanid...