Heat-trapping carbon dioxide emission from fossil-fuel power plants are a major contributor to climate change and warming of the planet. Solaren’s zero emission space solar power (SSP) plants can seamlessly replace coal, natural gas and nuclear power plants, and will become one of the key sources of baseload electricity throughout the world.
The National Climate Assessment (NCA) summarizes the impacts of climate change on the United States, now and in the future. The full version of the US DOE National Climate Assessment can be found at: http://www.energy.gov/science-innovation/climate-change. Below are selected excerpts from the NCA Overview.
NATIONAL CLIMATE ASSESSMENT OVERVIEW – EXCERPTS:
NCA Introduction – Over the last decade we know with increasing certainty that climate change is happening now. Observations unequivocally show that climate is changing and that the warming of the past 50 years is primarily due to human-induced emissions of heat-trapping gases. Global climate is projected to continue to change over this century, but there is still time to act to limit climate impacts.
Power Generation Greenhouse Gas Impacts – The burning of coal, oil, and gas, and clearing of forests have increased the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by more than 40% since the Industrial Revolution. Data show that natural factors like the sun and volcanoes cannot have caused the warming observed over the past 50 years. The pattern of temperature change through the layers of the atmosphere, with warming near the surface and cooling up in the stratosphere, further confirms that it is the buildup of heat-trapping gases (also known as “greenhouse gases”).
NCA Climate Trends – Global climate is changing and is projected to continue. The magnitude of climate change depends primarily on the amount of heat-trapping gases emitted globally, and how sensitive the Earth is to those emissions.
Conclusion – The NCA states that the amount of future climate change will largely be determined by choices society makes about emissions. Lower emissions of heat-trapping gases and particles mean less future warming and less-severe impacts; higher emissions mean more warming and more severe impacts. The NCA concludes that while response actions are under development, current implementation efforts are insufficient to avoid increasingly negative social, environmental, and economic consequences.
Fossil-fuel power plants emit heat-trapping
carbon dioxide to the atmosphere
Clean space solar power plants emit zero
carbon dioxide to the atmosphere