First Posted: 1/30/2015
BLUFFTON — Bluffton University chemistry professor Daniel Berger thinks some of the damage is already done, but there is plenty we can do to prevent climate change from getting even worse.
Berger discussed climate change and green chemistry in a colloquium presented at the university Friday in front of about 60 people.
“We are at a point where if we completely quit emitting carbon dioxide right now, we still have two degrees of warming by 2100,” Berger said.
Berger presented many charts and graphs that depicted global climate change over periods of time. As changing temperatures were compared over 10,000 years, 1,000 years, and the last 200 years, global warming became more stark. He attributed the recent hike to the industrial revolution, which began 1750-1850. As industry increased, human output of carbon dioxide emissions increased along with it.
Human contribution to global warming is due to fossil fuels, he said.
“When you burn fossil fuels, the ground does not soak back up the carbon dioxide,” Berger said.
Berger went on to explain away what he said are myths that global warming is not happening and that humans do not play a factor. He presented statistics that said fossil fuel emissions are 30 times that of all other non-biological emissions.
He further explained that the greenhouse effect comes into play. While water and methane are lived out in relatively short time, carbon dioxide does not differentiate as well.
“It takes carbon dioxide 250 years to a millennium to weather out,” he said.
At current rates, Berger said sea levels are expected to rise on an average globally by about one meter. He said a two-meter loss would cause New Orleans to be lost. At the current rate, we would lose Miami, Florida, in 200 to 300 years and the southern end of Florida and most of Southern Louisiana in 500 years. He said the biggest factor perhaps was the change in pH levels in the ocean. Higher pH levels would cause carbonates in the water that invertebrates depend on to change, making it impossible for them to make shells.
Berger said that the U.S. is currently responsible for about eight percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. He encouraged others to change habits.
“While doing things at home will have little impact,” it will cause mindsets to change, Berger said. “People don’t like to change.”
He said changes in opinion, as well as government regulations, would eventually lead to industrial changes.
