Government Policy to Curb Climate Change by Reducing the Emissions of Greenhouse Gases

Government policy to curb climate change by reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases
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Government policy to curb climate change by reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases
Climate change exists and is largely caused by human activities. Since the year 1900, the globe’s average temperature has gone up by 0.7 °C, and it is very much warmer in the northern hemisphere today than it has ever been over the last 1,000 years (Tibbetts, 2015). Climate change takes place when lasting weather patterns are changed, for instance as a result of human activity. One measure of climate change is global warming, which is basically an increase in the normal global temperature. This paper identifies and describes the real governmental policy aimed at addressing the issue of climate change. A summary of how the government, which is the producer of the government policy, propose to address climate change is described in an in-depth manner. Furthermore, the scientific issues which this particular governmental policy wishes to address are explained, and the policy is critiqued exhaustively.
The Clean Air Act of 1970
The identified real governmental policy designed to address the issue of climate change particularly in America is The Clean Air Act of 1970. In April 1970 following the upshot of the very first Earth Day, the Congress of the United States enacted the Clean Air Act (CAA) and established the Environmental Protection Agency to put the new regulation into effect (Siegel, Snape & Vespa, 2010).
Scientific issue the governmental policy is addressing
The Clean Air Act seeks to regulate the emission of greenhouse gases which are hazardous to the environment. The six main hazardous gases which comprises Green House Gases include methane, carbon dioxide, sulphur hexafluoride, nitrous oxide, and hydrofluorocarbons (Ahlers, 2015). Of these harmful GHGs, 3 of them are of great concern given that they are directly linked to human activities. The main contributor to climate change is certainly carbon dioxide, particularly by burning fossil fuels. Nitrous oxide is emitted by burning fossil fuels. It is also emitted by chemical fertilizers and its global warming potential is 310 times that of CO2. Methane is naturally emitted whenever vegetation is rotted, digested or burned without oxygen’s presence. Substantial quantities of methane are produced through production of gas and oil, rice farming, waste dumps and cattle farming (Tibbetts, 2015).
The consequences of the increase in the emission of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are dramatic. The average yearly temperature has warmed by 1.6°C in some parts of the globe such as Canada (Ahlers, 2015). Increased spring and winter temperatures have played a role in this warming trend. Future warming would be accompanied by a number of changes which include the distribution and quantity of ice, snow and rain as well as the risk of extreme weather events like heat waves, forest fires, drought and/or dry spells, and intense rainfalls and associated floods. Other consequences of climate change include altering ocean environments for instance alterations in extreme and average sea level, ice conditions and wave regimes. Substan...