Explore Our Planet

I was quite excited while visiting this UN site: data.un.org. You’ll find a huge amount of figures provided by different UN agencies. The data is free to use, ready to download and presented by a slick WEB2.0 interface. Of cource data from the UNFCCC is there as well as from the american Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC).

The latter provides a data set with CO2 emissions from more than 200 countries ranging from 1980 to 2004. I’ve jumped at this chance and started to develop google maps overlayed with colored countries. SVG was a dead-end, so the next question was how to generate tiles without having any record in hand painting.

GMapCreator was developed by the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) at University College London under the GeoVUE (Geographic Virtual Urban Environments) project which is funded as one of the research nodes of the National Centre for eSocial Science (NCeSS).

In short it picks a shape file, let you colorize the polygons according to their attributes and renders all the tiles down to the level you specify. The world borders shape file from thematicmapping.org (credits to: Bjorn Sandvik, Schuyler Erle, Sean Gilles) was the best solution for this job. The simple version has enough points for a use with level 4. Btw: Quantum GIS is an excellent application for beginners.

Since human senses use logarithmic scales this is the way the map was designed. Also it is easier to distinguish different shades of green than blue. The values correspond to metric kilo tons of CO2.

Blue means no data, countries with an output over one billion tons are colored with dark red. Within these color groups GMapCreator shades the countries according to their past emissions. As a rule of thumb you may say the countries in the orange group emitted 10 times more C02 than the yellow countries.

At first sight the information provided by this interactive map is little: huge countries emit more C02 compared to smaller countries. But given the scale factor it indicates the countries with the most potential to fight Climate Change. Nevertheless the next map in this series will visualize emissions per capita and the United States will then - together with some litte arabian countries - lead this unreasonable competition.

However, this is not the end of this story. CO2 resides for approximatly 100 years in the atmosphere, so taken into account historical emissions will answer the question whose emissions are still heating the planet. Can responsibility-based politics really ignore past emissions?

Stay tuned on this channel.

G20 is officially referred to as “The 4th Ministerial Meeting of G8 Gleneagles Dialogue on Climate Change, Clean Energy and Sustainable Development”, and was set up as a result of an agreement at the Gleneagles G8 Summit held in the United Kingdom in 2005.

At G20, issues such as global warming and climate change will be discussed by environment and energy ministers of the world’s 20 major greenhouse gas emitting nations as well as representatives from relevant international organizations, industries, NGOs and NPOs.

Chart Credit: Ministry of the Environment based on the Handbook of Energy & Economic Statistics in Japan (partially supplemented by UNFCCC data)

Just for reference: not only carbon dioxyde has the capabilitiy to heat up our planet. E.g. a massive amount of Methane reside frozen in the oceans and the siberian permafrost soil.

via Australian Institute of Energy

1 liter gasoline/petrol - burnt in a car - emitts about 2.3 kilogramm carbon dioxyde. Diesel even more: 2.6 kg CO2. Only 10 per cent of the fuels energy are effectively used to transport you. The rest is wasted for moving iron , tires and oil.

Of course cars must be safe, but in no car you have a chance to survive a crash with 120kph. So why is it fun to drive with death speed? However if you really need your own car and car sharing is not an option, check out climate friendly cars.

ExploreOurPla.net mirrors from now the car fuel database of the Vehicle Certification Agency based in UK. 3,300 models from Alfa Romeo to Volvo all with CO2 emissions per kilometer.

The winner is the Prius build by Toyota with its hybrid engine and 104 g/km CO2. To compare: the 2001 Roadster L144 from Lamborghini emitts 520 g same distance.

Latest GEO Year Book 2007 reveals the imbalance of CO2 emissions per capita from different regions. An average person in North America produces nearly same amount of greenhouse gas as twenty people from Africa.

In comparison C02 emissions per capita have remained near the same level over the last years. The global average for 2003 was estimated at 4.1 tons up from 4.0 the year before.

The global environment outlook shows more geo indicators about energy, climate change, ozone depletion, forests, fisheries, biodiversity, water and sanitation.

Book: ISBN: 978-92-807-2786-9

Nearly a year after its launch, 28 April 2006, the French - U.S.A. mission CALIPSO collected numerous measurements of the structure of Earth’s atmosphere in unprecedented detail. Equiped with a sort of optical radar, Calipso is designed to identify the impact of clouds and aerosols on climate change.

In latest IPCC Climate Change report (SPM) the level of scientific understanding regarding anthropogenic aerosols is between low and medium low. The radiative forcing of the cloud albedo effect ranges from -1.8 to -0.3 Wm-2. A better understanding would lead to more accurate models and projections.

Calipso data are available via NASA’s Langley Research Center or via the French ICARE data centre dedicated to the study of interactions between clouds, aerosols, radiation and the water cycle.

Picture above shows data captured 11 February 2007 at around 2:00 UTC over Europe and Arctic Sea.

cnes.fr: Climate - Calipso science data now available to scientists worldwide

The International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) analyzes, documents and promotes market-based trading systems to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

‘ETA’s 2006 Greenhouse Gas Market Report - Moving to Action’ breaks down the flexible instruments implemented under the Kyoto protocol: the Clean Development Mechanism, Joint Implementation and emissions trading.

“…the reality of carbon markets is an increasingly potent factor as various regions try to devise their own approach and architecture to the management of carbon, off sets and emissions reduction.”

UK based World Development Movement (WDM) tackles the underlying causes of poverty and forces decision makers to change the policies that keep people poor.

WDM defines itself as a democratic membership organisation of individuals and local groups.

The Climate Calendar maps yearly carbon dioxide emissions of an average person in UK (9.62 tons) on every day and compares the amount to other countries. (more…)

Aviation contributes to global climate change, and its contribution is increasing. While the EU’s total greenhouse gas emissions fell by 3 % from 1990 to 2002, emissions from international aviation increased by almost 70 %.

In spite of significant improvement in aircraft technology and operational efficiency this has not been enough to neutralise the effect of increased traffic, and the growth in emissions is likely to continue in the next decades.

Overall, the total annual distance covered by the global civil aircraft fleet was forecast to grow by 149% from 2002 to 2030, with the seat-kilometres forecast to grow by 229%.

The case with the most technological advance (that with $100/tonne CO2 cost) was forecast to produce 22% less CO2 in 2030 than the case without the extra incentives to technology development.

However, even this case was forecast to produce nearly twice as much CO2 in 2030 as in 2002.

Forecasts of CO2 emissions from civil aircraft for IPCC, DTI, November 2006

Earlier this month german government announced, it will be assisted during its presidencies of the EU and G8 by two climate change experts, Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber and Lars Göran Josefsson the president of Swedish energy giant Vattenfall.

Schellnhuber is member of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU), co-editor of ‘Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change‘ and director of Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).

Currently german government negotiates reduction of CO2 emissions in the NAP2 the european commission changed, but accepted. The commission would accept an updated NAP2 until end of year 2006.