And bad roads can lower the fuel economy of even the most efficient vehicle. Electric grids are at capacity or overloaded, but power demands continue to rise. alone), even though investing in thicker insulation and other cost-effective, temperature-regulating steps can save money in the long run. Infrastructure Upgrade-Buildings worldwide contribute around one third of all greenhouse gas emissions (43 percent in the U.S. So try to employ alternatives when possible-plant-derived plastics, biodiesel, wind power-and to invest in the change, be it by divesting from oil stocks or investing in companies practicing carbon capture and storage. There are no perfect solutions for reducing dependence on fossil fuels (for example, carbon neutral biofuels can drive up the price of food and lead to forest destruction, and while nuclear power does not emit greenhouse gases, it does produce radioactive waste), but every bit counts. and nearly that much worldwide-a percentage that is likely to grow, according to the International Energy Agency. Coal is the substrate, supplying roughly half of the electricity used in the U.S. Oil is the lubricant of the global economy, hidden inside such ubiquitous items as plastic and corn, and fundamental to the transportation of both consumers and goods. And citizens of developing nations want and arguably deserve the same comforts, which are largely thanks to the energy stored in such fuels. This is perhaps the most daunting challenge as denizens of richer nations literally eat, wear, work, play and even sleep on the products made from such fossilized sunshine. Today's computer models do a very good job of predicting the weather for the next few days.Forego Fossil Fuels-The first challenge is eliminating the burning of coal, oil and, eventually, natural gas. The model starts with the present weather and tries to simulate how the weather will develop in the future. In a computer model, the important processes of the weather are built into the model. In addition, computer models are now being developed for weather forecasting. Special instruments measure weather in the atmosphere far above the ground, and satellites orbiting the Earth send back images of the weather over large areas. That improved the accuracy of forecasts.ĭuring the 1900s, meteorologists developed even better tools for observing and predicting the weather. That allowed meteorologists to plot weather maps and see weather systems moving from place to place. Given the weather on a particular day, what kind of weather usually follows during the next day or two? As you can imagine, the success of such forecasting was not a lot better than making a random guess.īeginning in the late 1800s, weather services began to be able to gather weather data from weather stations located all over the country. In those times, the only way of predicting the weather was to use your local experience. In earlier times, before the telegraph and the telephone were invented, weather observations from faraway places could not be collected in one place soon after they were made. Meteorologists also try to make long-term forecasts of the weather for a month, a season, or a whole year. Predictions of the weather for up to a week in the future are called short-term forecasts. Most people are interested in what the weather will be tomorrow or in the next few days.
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