By Valerie Lapointe, Medill Reports, video by Chencheng Zhao
Global warming sounds too cozy, says Seth B. Darling, a scientist at Argonne National Laboratory and a fellow at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Molecular Engineering. He prefers the term “climate disruption” for the kinds of threats to coastlines, weather, food and water that the world faces. His recent talk, sponsored by the Chicago Council on Science and Technology, tackled looked at “Climate Disruption: What We Can Do Now.”
Darling and most other scientists link the cause of climate change to burning fossil fuels such as gasoline. They emit carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas linked to heating up the Earth’s atmosphere. Carbon dioxide levels have increased 40 percent in the atmosphere since the start of the Industrial Revolution.
Only next-generation solar technology can offset humanity’s use of fossil fuels, meet our energy needs, and do so with the urgency dictated by climate change, an Argonne National Laboratory scientist said in Chicago last night.
Argonne materials scientist Seth Darling told about 50 people that next generation technologies—like organic solar modules and perovskite solar voltaics—just need more research and development.
The Earth has warmed by almost two degrees Fahrenheit since 1880. This seemingly small increase in global warming explains why much of the land ice on the planet is starting to melt, the oceans are rising at an accelerating pace, and weather extremes are becoming common. Continue reading “Climate Disruption: What We Can Do Now”
