Carbon Case Studies

Tropical Rainforests:

• One of the largest organic stores of carbon on Earth.
• Covers 5.3 million sq km.
• Sequesters 17% of all terrestrial carbon, more than any other land-based biome.
• 1% of Amazons 16,000 tree species store 50% of its carbon.

Wetlands and Peatlands

• Wetlands that contain peat, an organic sediment, are important carbon stores.
• Many peatlands formed during the Holocene have been a store for thousands of years; with climate change and overuse, however, they are becoming net carbon sources.

USA is 2nd with 318.9 million people whilst France is 10th with 64.6 million people.

The rankings reflect their populations but also that large areas of America are very hot, needing air conditioning, and cold, needing heating.

Carbon fuels produce 82% of the energy consumed in the USA.

Only 10% comes from renewables and 8% from nuclear energy

The French energy mix is different, with 50% coming from fossil fuels, 10% renewables and 41% from nuclear energy with 50 reactors in operation currently.

France imports 46% of supplies whereas the US only imports 15% making America much more energy secure.

• Russia is the world's second-largest producer of gas, though also imports large amounts.
• Most of its gas exports to Europe via a network of pipelines.
• 3/4 pipelines cross Ukraine, therefore, causing Russia anxiety as Ukraine can hike up prices or completely cut off the supply.
  
• Anxiety has increased as Ukraine possible joins the EU and NATO, therefore Russia has two options:
• 1. Substantially reduce or stop the delivery of gas across Ukraine by exporting most of the gas through the two northern pipelines, placing Finland and Poland in the same position as Ukraine.
• 2. Annexe Ukraine - as done with Crimea in 2014 and incursions to Eastern Ukraine.
• It would, therefore, be wise for the EU not to become more dependent on Russian gas, as political and economic blackmail could be used.
• The UK has agreed to double its imports of Russian gas to nearly 30 billion cubic metres a year by 2021 to offset the declining gas in the North Sea.
• Note the UK gets most of its gas from Qatar.

Canadian Tar Sands:

• Numerous deposits of tar sands, biggest in Canada and Venezuela.
• Exploiting Canadian deposits on a commercial scale started in 1967 and has focused on the province of Albert.
• Currently, tar sands produce around 40% of Canada's oil output.
• The 2015 fall in the global price of oil had a depressing impact on the tar sands industry because extracting bitumen is relatively expensive.
• The exploitation of tar sands is not without its environmental costs, such as the scale of the ***** mining, which requires clearance of large areas of taiga.

US Shale Gas:

• In 2000, shale gas provided 1% of the USA's gas supply.
• In 2015 it was nearly 15%.
• Most of that was due to the growing use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to release oil and gas from underground formations that are otherwise too difficult to drill.
• Most important shale gas fields in West Virginia, New York and Texas.
• Fracking has influenced global fuel prices and is the USA's main aim for energy security.
• Environmental concerns associated with fracking include contamination of groundwater, airborne pollutants such as methane, benzene and sulphur dioxide as well as 'fraccidents' such as mysterious animal deaths and industrial explosions.

Brazilian deepwater oil:

• Brazil is one of the leading emerging economies and badly needs oil and gas.
• Deepwater oil found in 2006, biggest find ever, in 2009 the once scenic coast between Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo had been disfigured by refineries and the bases that serve the oil and gas fields more than 200 km offshore.
• The state oil company aims to raise production to 500,000 barrels of oil a day.
• There is serious pollution of coastal waters and concerns about the risky nature of drilling so far offshore.
• Many are wondering whether a Deepwater Horizon (Gulf of Mexico) rig accident will occur again.

The UK government is very mindful of the need to become energy secure and to play its part on reducing carbon emissions.

The use of coal has decreased significantly, the reliance on oil and natural gas seems to have settled at a higher level, providing 80% of the UK's primary energy.

A significant amount of energy is still generated by coal-fired power stations, though the use of renewables is increasing.

Today we consume less energy than we did in 1970, despite a population increase of nearly 7 million people.

The UK is more efficient at producing and using energy with households using 12% less energy whilst industry uses 60% less.

There has been a large increase in the number of cars on the road and planes in the air.

It looks as though the UK will use the same amount of energy in 2030 as it does today.

Brazil took action in the 1970s to diversify its energy sources in order to combat concerns about its energy security.

Invested in alternative energy sources such as hydroelectricity and more recently biofuels.

Today, 4% comes from renewable sources and 90% of vehicles in Brazil contain flex-fuel engines that work using any combination of petrol and sugarcane ethanol.

This has led to a significant reduction in the country's carbon dioxide emissions.

Brazil is the world's largest producer of sugar cane. Also the leading exported of sugar and ethanol.

This can result in the displacement of agriculture, particularly cattle pasture meaning tropical rainforest has been cleared for said cattle pasture.

This deforestation is cancelling out the reduction in carbon from the switch to ethanol.

• The forest acts as a global and regional regulator, pumping 20 billion metric tonnes of water into the atmosphere daily.
• 3 billion more than the River Amazon discharges into the ocean.
• The forest's humidity lowers atmospheric pressure, allowing moisture from the Atlantic Ocean to reach further inland than areas without forest cover.
• Rain-bearing winds travel west until deflected by the Andes and normally transport moisture south to Buenos Aires and east to Sao Paulo.
• Since 1990, more extreme cycles of drought and flood has developed in Amazonia, with a water rainy season linked to shifts in the ITCZ.
• Rainfall has decreased downwind of deforested areas, with Saw Paulo suffering a water crisis.
• Droughts in 2005 and 2010 greatly degraded much of the rainforest, which has already been stressed by decades of deforestation.
• The regional water cycle has been altered.

Following centuries of exploitation, forest cover in the UK had dropped from 80% to less than 10% by the end of the 19th Century.

The Forestry Commission planted fast-growing exotic conifers on the moors of Wales, the Scottish Highlands and Lake Distric.

Forest cover increased by 25% between 1870 and 1995, by 2016, 13% of the UK was forested with increasing numbers of indenous species planted.

Heartwood Forest is one example, planting 600,000 trees in different stages

• Permafrost is melting, glaciers are receding and sea ice is disappearing.
• The average annual temperatures are projected to rise by 3 to 7 °C (5 to 13°F), with the greatest warming occurring in the winter months
• Precipitation is projected to increase by roughly 20%.
• Sea ice is expected to continue to decline significantly, reflecting less solar radiation and thereby increasing regional and global warming.
• The area of Arctic land covered by snow is expected to decrease by 10 to 20%.
• Ocean currents may be affected as more freshwater is added to the oceans.
• Thawing of permafrost may release more greenhouse gases such as methane.
•  By 2100, melting of Arctic glaciers alone will have contributed to a sea level rise of roughly 5 cm out of the projected 10-90cm total rise for this century.
• Vegetation and biomes are likely to shift, with tundra decreasing and forest cover spreading further north.
• Fish species will change, polar bears, the arctic fox and some seabirds face extinction.