In the summer of 2500, a spacecraft from the star Gliese 581 Libra, 20 light-years away, entered the solar system. After the spacecraft intercepted the Voyager 1 probe, it learned the existence of the earth and humans from the copper disk storage carried by the probe, and then passed through the comet zone and barren land at the edge of the solar system, and galloped excitedly towards the center of the solar system. , eager to reunite with mankind as soon as possible. However, the Gliese people on the spaceship saw that the earth in front of them was covered by a white sea of clouds, and it was not at all the blue appearance described in the copper plate. The Gliese decided to first release a probe robot to investigate the earth's environment. The robot landed on the earth through the sea of clouds and found that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere is very high, the ground is full of deserts, there are no human beings who speak 55 languages on the copper plate, and there are no cities, mines, fields, etc. that can express the traces of human civilization , and no creatures even exist.
The robot only found a time capsule buried deep in the ground. That was the last message left by humans 150 years ago, revealing their horrific encounters: carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide everywhere, they are like a thick quilt, covering the earth, the global temperature is rising, the Antarctic And the glaciers in the Arctic are melting, the sea level is rising, the coastal cities have been submerged, and the ancient virus sealed in the ice has re-ravaged the world...
The robot returned to the spaceship and reported to the Gliese people: The human beings on earth have been destroyed. A greenhouse effect caused by carbon dioxide went extinct.
Voyager 1 probe
① Greenhouse effect
Scientific name is atmospheric thermal insulation effect, which is a natural phenomenon - the heat radiated by the sun to the earth is absorbed by the earth's surface, but the heat released by the surface after being heated is absorbed by the atmosphere and not released to the outside of the atmosphere. Increases the temperature of the surface and lower atmosphere. This phenomenon is like building a huge greenhouse on the surface of the earth, so scientists have given it a common name that is easy to remember and understand, called the greenhouse effect.
Greenhouse effect
The terrifying future described above was invented by science fiction writers, but the greenhouse effect ① is causing extreme climates - in late June 2021, a high temperature of 48 ° C will appear in the United States and western Canada, and on June 29 in British Columbia, Canada, A record high temperature of 49.6°C. At this temperature, the human body will feel heat, dizziness, palpitation, irritability, fatigue and other discomfort symptoms, and even heatstroke. If the heat stroke is severe, it will cause multiple organ failure, which is life-threatening. From July 20th to July 21st, heavy rains occurred in the central and northern parts of Henan, my country. The rainfall in many places broke historical records. When the rain in Zhengzhou was the heaviest, the rain in one hour was equivalent to 106 West Lakes falling from the sky. ! More than 10 million people in Henan were affected and the economic losses were severe. Such extreme weather is frequent, and even my country's Taklimakan Desert, the tenth largest desert in the world, has experienced floods. The floods flooded in the desert, washed away the roads of Sinopec's Northwest Oilfield, washed down telephone poles, and submerged exploration vehicles and oilfield equipment. .
The greenhouse effect has advantages and disadvantages, but in recent years, the disadvantages have gradually emerged. Due to various human activities, the emission of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, has greatly increased, aggravated the greenhouse effect, and brought about a rise in global temperature. As the temperature rises, its humidity will also increase accordingly. Studies have shown that for every 1°C increase in air temperature, its water content will increase by 7%. This accelerates the evaporation of water from the surface and oceans, triggering strong rains and storms that bring extreme weather across the globe.
In August 2021, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released an assessment report "Climate Change 2021: Natural Science Basis", pointing out that human activities have indeed caused warming of the atmosphere, ocean and land. By 2025, the earth's temperature will increase by an average of 1.5°C, which will lead to climate changes in various regions and cause more disasters, especially the sea level rise caused by the melting of the polar glaciers, which will bring flooding of some coastal cities or countries. Serious consequences.
In the face of disaster, whether Chinese or foreigners, the fate is one, and we must face it together. Disasters will not only threaten future human beings, but also directly affect our present lives.
The World Resources Institute has collected data from 186 countries and regions around the world. Statistics show that the content of carbon dioxide in greenhouse gases reaches 77%, which is the main greenhouse gas. Therefore, to prevent the spread of the greenhouse effect, carbon dioxide emissions must be reduced. This is what we often hear about carbon peaking and carbon neutrality today.
Carbon peaking and carbon neutrality
What is carbon peaking and carbon neutralization?
Carbon peaking: my country's total carbon dioxide emissions will begin to decline after reaching the maximum in 2030.
Carbon neutralization adopts carbon sink ② or artificial negative carbon emission technology to achieve net anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. .
At the 75th United Nations General Assembly, China stated that it will strive to achieve a peak in carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and strive to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.
This is my country's solemn commitment to actively respond to global climate change, maintain global climate security, and actively participate in global climate governance as a major country. This is also a responsible decision made for the happiness of the people's life by putting the people's interests first.
②Carbon
sink refers to the process, activity or mechanism of absorbing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and reducing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere through afforestation, vegetation restoration and other measures. In the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, forestry activities such as afforestation and reforestation are included in carbon sink projects.
difficulties faced
You must know that at the time of making this commitment, more than 50% of the energy and raw materials required by my country's manufacturing industry are still coal, and the carbon dioxide emission intensity per unit of GDP is about 30% higher than the world average. The national government has carried out an extraordinary top-level design for the sustainable development of society.
Currently, 97% of global carbon emissions are related to energy use. Among them, fossil energy such as oil, natural gas and coal account for as high as 86% of primary energy consumption. Power generation, industry, transportation and buildings are major sources of carbon emissions. To achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, from a technical perspective, various industries need to minimize carbon emissions through technological transformation, upgrading or innovation, or use carbon capture, application and storage technology (referred to as CCUS technology) for artificial carbon sinks.
In terms of carbon emission reduction, it is necessary to focus on solving the carbon emission problem of high carbon dioxide emission industries, including power, industry, transportation and construction. CCUS technology can participate in energy-saving and emission-reduction solutions in these high-emission industries, and can also capture carbon dioxide directly from the air as the ultimate guarantee of carbon neutrality.
Forestry carbon sequestration is the most cost-effective carbon sequestration method recognized by the world. Forests are veritable small carbon sequestration experts, and each cubic meter of growth can absorb an average of 1.83 tons of carbon dioxide.
In 2020, my country's carbon emissions have reached 10.251 billion tons. As the largest developing country in the world, China will complete the world's highest reduction in carbon emission intensity and achieve carbon peaking to carbon neutrality in the shortest time in global history. This will undoubtedly be a tough battle, but it will be another battle. A tough battle that has to be won.
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As of 2019, my country's carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP dropped by 48.1% compared with 2005, and the proportion of non-fossil energy in primary energy consumption in my country increased from 7.4% in 2005 to 15.3% in 2019; total renewable energy consumption accounted for The world's share rose from 2.3% in 2005 to 22.9% in 2019, surpassing the US's 20.1%.
Foshan Nanhai commercial low-carbon hospital 35MPa hydrogenation machine
The North American Center of Beijing Institute of Low Carbon and Clean Energy and SARTA Company of the United States conducted the first bus hydrogenation demonstration
increasingly urgent demands
In 2015, the Paris Agreement, a climate change agreement signed by 178 parties around the world, stipulates that the parties should strive to control the global average temperature increase by 1.5°C above the pre-industrial level by the end of the 21st century. Don't underestimate this 1.5°C change, which is likely to be the "tipping point" of the global or regional climate from one stable state to another.
In November 2020, a paper in the famous scientific journal Nature pointed out that the effects of global warming are pushing the earth to a tipping point, and nine global climate change tipping point events have been identified so far:
( 1) recurring droughts in the Amazon rainforest
(2) reduction in Arctic sea ice extent
(3) slowdown of Atlantic circulation since 1950
(4) boreal forest fires and insect infestations in North America
(5) mass mortality of coral reefs worldwide
(6) Greenland ice Cover acceleration, ice loss
(7) Permafrost thawing
(8) West Antarctic ice sheet acceleration, ice loss
(9) East Antarctica is accelerating.
In the latest "State of the Global Climate 2020" report released by the World Meteorological Organization, words such as "continuously rising", "record breaking" and "unprecedented" keep appearing, as if it were a "critically ill notice" for the earth that is routinely sent every year. , witnessing the gradual deterioration of the earth's "ecological disease". Despite the impact of the new crown epidemic, 2020 is still one of the three warmest years on record, and the global average temperature has warmed by about 1.2 degrees Celsius compared with the pre-industrial period (1850-1900). This means that the temperature control goal of the Paris Agreement is getting closer and closer.
A person's low-carbon life
What is low-carbon life? That is, people should try their best to reduce the energy consumption, especially the emission of carbon dioxide, so as to reduce the pollution to the atmosphere and slow down the ecological deterioration. Low-carbon life is a way of life with low energy, low consumption and low expenditure.
Although the efforts of each of us are weak, collectively, it will be a strong force, which will promote the atmosphere of low-carbon life in the whole society and promote the reduction of carbon emissions.
We must pay attention everywhere, starting from the four aspects of clothing, food, housing and transportation.
Clothes The clothes
we wear are labeled with the ingredients of the clothes. Some are natural materials such as cotton, silk, and linen, and some are synthetic fibers such as polyester, nylon, acrylic, polyvinyl, vinylon, and spandex, which are often referred to as "chemical fibers" by the elderly. No matter what kind of synthetic fiber, it comes from the deep processing of petroleum, and in this conversion, carbon dioxide emissions are produced.
Therefore, wearing one less piece of "chemical fiber" clothing is a way to reduce carbon.
To reduce the carbon footprint of clothing, you can choose clothing produced in a relatively low-carbon way, such as hand-sewn clothing; support the wearing of clothing made of recycled materials; and it is very important that Minimize the consumption of clothing as much as possible. Wear as much clothes as you can, and don't change for new ones just because you don't like the color or style.
You must know that each of us buys one less unnecessary piece of clothing every year, which can save about 2.5 kilograms of standard coal and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 6.4 kilograms. If 25 million people in the country do this every year, they can save about 62,500 tons of standard coal and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 160,000 tons.
In the future, we will choose more clothing made of bamboo fiber and linen. Because these two raw materials save more water and pesticides in the production process than cotton, and have less carbon emissions. If you try to wash your clothes by hand and dry them in the sun, you can reduce the frequency of washing machines and dryers, save energy, and indirectly reduce carbon emissions.
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is a pair of polyester trousers weighing approximately 400 grams with a predetermined lifespan of two years.
After washing 92 times in a washing machine with 50°C warm water, drying in a dryer after washing, and ironing for an average of two minutes, the energy consumed by it in these two years is about 200 kWh, equivalent to It emits 47 kg of carbon dioxide, which is 118 times its own weight.
A 250-gram cotton T-shirt emits about 7 kilograms of carbon dioxide over its lifetime, 28 times its own weight.
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Food The process of producing food does generate a lot of carbon emissions. The Fourth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007) pointed out that agriculture is the second largest source of greenhouse gases, accounting for 13.5% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. In particular, the emissions from animal husbandry are staggering. This reminds me of a saying about the extinction of dinosaurs: when dinosaurs farted, they emitted too much greenhouse gas methane, which caused global warming at that time and brought their own disaster. Fortunately, the methane emitted by cow farts is far less than those of the giant dinosaurs of ancient times.
In terms of eating, energy saving and emission reduction requires the cooperation of the entire food system chain from the field to the dining table, including all links from production, processing, packaging to purchasing. At present, my country is vigorously promoting low-carbon agriculture. In the process of agricultural production, reduce the input of fossil energy as much as possible, that is, reduce the input of various agrochemicals such as chemical fertilizers, pesticides, agricultural films, herbicides, plant growth regulators, soil conditioners, feed additives, etc., which can greatly save Agricultural production costs, improve agricultural production efficiency and promote farmers' income, and reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.
As buyers and final consumers of food, what we personally need to do is to reduce food waste on the one hand; on the other hand, eat less meat and more vegetables and fruits. Eating 1 kilogram of beef is equivalent to emitting 36.5 kilograms of carbon dioxide; while eating the same amount of fruits and vegetables, the carbon dioxide emission is only 1/9 of this value.
Of course, eating less is not the same as not eating. Nor can we reduce our quality of life in order to save energy and reduce emissions. The fundamental purpose of energy conservation and emission reduction is that we can have a more comfortable life and a better future.
In the future, our diet structure will be more scientific and reasonable. For meat, eggs, milk and other energy-intensive foods, we will no longer pursue as many as possible, but to formulate the type and quantity of food to meet our own nutritional needs. In the process of food preparation, steaming and cooking methods that consume less energy should be chosen, and food should be eaten at one time as much as possible to reduce kitchen waste, and vegetables, fruits and soy products will appear more on the table.
live
Few people realize that buildings are the biggest contributors to carbon emissions, even more so than industry and transportation. 60% of carbon emissions in cities come from buildings. Buildings need to maintain functions such as heating, air conditioning, ventilation, lighting, etc., and they will continue to consume energy. Buildings also include construction and demolition during construction, as well as various energy consumption in industries such as cement, steel, and transportation directly related to buildings. Statistics show that for every 1 square meter of house built in my country, about 0.8 tons of carbon is released.
The problem of carbon emissions in the construction sector has long been noticed by people of insight. In 2003, the concept of "low-carbon buildings" came into being. Five years later, the concept was elevated to "zero carbon buildings".
Now, my country has introduced a standard of 75% building energy saving, and the goal is to create an "ultra-low energy consumption building". With the advancement of building technology, building materials and the development of renewable energy, zero-energy-consumption buildings have become a reality, and have entered thousands of households from the laboratory.
There is no doubt that car exhaust is regarded by many as the main culprit of environmental pollution. With the improvement of my country's automobile exhaust emission standards and the technological innovation of vehicle fuel, the pollution of automobile exhaust to the environment has been controlled. But to cure automobile exhaust pollution, the best way is to treat it from the root and replace the current fuel vehicles with electric vehicles.
Electric vehicles do not use fuel, have no exhaust emissions, consume little energy, and have basically no carbon emissions. As the preferred means of transportation for low-carbon life, it is very suitable.
However, the first choice for low-carbon life is the two-legged vehicle; the second is the bicycle; the third is the public transport; and the last is the electric vehicle.
If you travel far, you should try to choose the high-speed rail. Because the carbon emission of high-speed rail is about 15% of that of airplanes, airplanes are a big carbon emitter. The International Civil Aviation Organization has proposed that by 2035, most countries will be required to make mandatory purchases of carbon emission reductions to offset emissions. Therefore, the development of new energy and zero-carbon emission aircraft is in full swing. Hydrogen and electric aircraft are expected to hit the market around 2035.
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Those "low-carbon buildings" in the
Shanghai World Expo Park with the unique bucket arch shape of the China National Pavilion is such an "ultra-low energy consumption building". In summer, the top floor of the national pavilion provides shade and cooling for the bottom layer, and the ecological agricultural landscape technology can effectively heat insulation, which reduces the energy consumption of the building by more than 25%. The new building of Beijing TV Station adopts a lead-free design, making full use of solar energy and sunlight. The windows use low-emissivity glass, which can store heat and dissipate heat. The amount of fresh air is controlled according to the concentration of carbon dioxide, and even the energy saving of elevators is also taken into account.
The Electric Valley Jinjiang Hotel in Baoding has installed a unique solar photovoltaic glass curtain wall, with an annual power generation of 200,000 kWh. In addition to meeting the hotel's own lighting needs, the generated power is also integrated into the local power grid, which saves energy consumption. , reducing carbon emissions and generating revenue for the hotel. The heating, cooling and domestic hot water supply of this hotel adopts a sewage source heat pump system, which improves the utilization efficiency of renewable energy. It can use 7.37 million tons of recycled water after wastewater and rainwater treatment every year, saving 1.88 million kilowatt hours of electricity. , saving 752 tons of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 546 tons, the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems of commercial buildings are usually controlled by preset timers and run for 12 hours or more per day, whether or not people are present. Engineers have designed a solution that uses computer vision and artificial intelligence: computer vision can detect whether there are people in commercial spaces, and if so, how many and for how long. Based on this, artificial intelligence sets schedules to precisely heat, cool and ventilate the room, reducing energy consumption.
Low-carbon travel in some domestic cities is in the Daqikong Scenic Spot in Libo, Guizhou. Motor vehicles are prohibited from entering the scenic spot. Tourists have to take a battery car to enter the scenic spot, which greatly reduces carbon dioxide emissions and protects the beautiful scenery of Daqikong with clear water and blue sky.
In Huzhou, Zhejiang, all vehicles on the operating bus lines are pure electric vehicles, which can reduce carbon emissions by 67,000 tons per year, equivalent to an additional forest area of 1,016 square kilometers.
At the Climate Ambition Summit on December 12, 2020, my country further proposed several total targets for China to address climate change: by 2030, carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP will be reduced by more than 65% compared with 2005. , the proportion of non-fossil energy in primary energy consumption will reach about 25%; at the carbon sink level, the forest stock volume will increase by 6 billion square meters compared with 2005; at the new energy level, the total installed capacity of wind power and solar power generation will reach more than 1.2 billion kilowatts.
Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality, we mean it.
my country has a vast territory and is rich in hydropower, wind power, solar energy, biomass and other non-fossil energy power generation, and has the resource advantage of developing green and clean energy. The Gobi desert in the northwest region has high solar radiation intensity and long time, which is suitable for the development of solar energy. Only Qinghai has about 100,000 square kilometers of unused desert land that can be used for new energy development, and the developable photovoltaic power generation capacity reaches 560 million kWh. At present, Qinghai has achieved 100% renewable energy power supply at the provincial and municipal levels. Yunnan has many rivers and is extremely rich in hydropower resources. In 2019, the utilization rate of hydropower exceeded 99%, setting a world record. There are countless examples of active development of clean energy everywhere.
At present, my country has occupied an important position in the world in clean energy development, equipment manufacturing and other industries, and there have been many achievements in the research and development of related low-carbon and zero-carbon technologies. It is estimated that by 2025, my country's non-fossil energy will account for 20% of primary energy; electricity will account for more than 30% of final energy. Renewable energy will increasingly replace non-renewable energy such as coal and oil, which will greatly reduce carbon emissions. Even some cities will be the first to achieve carbon peaks by 2030.
I hope that there is a city where you live in these cities, and I hope that the realization of such ambitious goals as carbon peaking and carbon neutrality will have your efforts!
Take the Test: Are My Carbon Emissions Less Today?
Use the formula below to see how much I'm doing to reduce my carbon emissions every day.
Save gasoline: _____ liters × conversion factor 2.7 = _____kgCO 2
Save electricity: _____ degrees × conversion factor 0.785 = _____kgCO 2
Eat less meat: _____kg × conversion factor 1.24 = _____kgCO 2
The carbon emissions that can be reduced by taking fewer planes are as follows:
Short distance (less than 200km): _____km×conversion factor 0.275=_____KgCO 2
Midway (200～1000km): (_____km-200km)×conversion factor 0.105+55=_____KgCO 2
Long distance (over 1000km): _____km×conversion factor 0.139=_____kgCO 2
