Earth’s temperatures today are rising rapidly due to the greenhouse effect.
Our atmosphere contains gases that act like a blanket. These gases trap heat from the sun, and prevents it from going out into space. Without this greenhouse effect, earth would be too cold to support life with all of the heat escaping our atmosphere. But right now, our problem is that too many gases are getting trapped in our atmosphere and that is increasing earth’s temperatures. Since the early 70s, scientists have been studying this phenomenon and believe that humans are most at fault for the occurrence of climate change.
Scientists from NASA and NOAA have determined that 2016 was the warmest year on record globally, and that this is the third year in a row to set a new record high for global temperatures. Since the ice age (10,000 years ago), the average global temperatures had risen about 9°F, but in the last century the increase in temperatures has sped up to about 1.3°F which will increase by about 0.5°F every decade. Human activities during the last century are most at fault for the rising temperatures. To combat this, countries around the world are taking huge steps to look for innovative ways to fight climate change with new sustainable energy.
Sweden is currently leading the world in the battle against climate change. Half of Sweden’s national power comes from renewable energy types, and their legislation aims to reduce emission of greenhouse gases.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Sweden was the first country to establish an environmental protection agency and they hosted the first U.N. conference focusing on the environment in 1972. This helped lead to the creation of the United Nations Environment Program the same year. Among many other international commitments to the environment, a global treaty was made to end the use of “persistent organic pollutants.” This was The Stockholm Convention in the year 2001.
Thankfully, the country is looking for more sustainable solutions. When talking about environment related technologies, they are one of the most innovative countries in the world. Because of their investments, in 2014 they ranked 4th in the Global Cleantech Innovation Index which evaluates countries around the world to see which are the most innovative when it comes to innovative technologies that are clean for the environment.
According to the U.N., in the year 2050 about two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities. This has led Sweden to start planning out more sustainable cities. Stockholm in the 90s was first introduced to the sustainable city planning. They focused on electric grids, transportation and bike friendliness, along with waste management. In fact, 99% of household waste in Sweden is being recycled in some way. Some waste is used to power the homes themselves.
Waste is cheap, so they import 700,000 tons of it from other countries for fuel. They burn their waste at incineration plants to produce energy. The smoke from their incineration plants consists of 99.9% water and non-toxic carbon dioxide. Any metals found in the ashes are recycled, along with porcelains which are then used as gravel in construction. Unlike in America, the topic of burning waste is uncontroversial in Sweden.
Malmö (the third-largest city in Sweden) started to regenerate an area called Western Harbor (Västra hamnen) in 2001. It is now a carbon-neutral neighborhood and one of the most sustainable cities in the country. In the summer, they use an aquifer thermal energy storage system. This stores water collected in the summer and pumps it up along with wind energy to help heat homes in the winter. This process repeats itself with the cold water being reused to cool buildings during the summer.
Today, Sweden is the world’s most sustainable country and they are known as the best environmental pioneers.
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