This is a link to an April blog by Neil Kitching which explores the greenhouse effect. Neil blogs at carbonchoices.uk and can be contacted at carbonchoices@gmail.com His content is freely available for sharing with an acknowledgement of the source.
This is how Neil begins:
“My thoughts on why things might be even worse if there was no greenhouse effect.
I was taking our Carbon Literacy course at work and was reminded that without the natural greenhouse effect there would be no life. Planet Earth would be frozen with an average temperature of -15oC. This got me thinking, what else has the greenhouse effect done for us?
For this blog, imagine if you can, that our lifestyles did not add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Nothing else changes; we still burn fossil fuels and alter the landscape, but none of these heats up the planet. What are the implications?
Firstly, there would be no United Nations climate conferences and no Climate Change Act in the UK. And no pressure to work together to change so many things.
We would still be burning coal in power stations to generate electricity. Arguments would rage between importing cheap coal and maintaining deep mines in the UK. Miners would continue to work in dangerous conditions with accidents and ill health. There would be planning disputes over huge opencast coal mines in the countryside. Air pollution would be worse. No wind farms.
Oil consumption would soar as there would be less pressure to impose fuel efficiency standards and taxes on fuel would be lower so people would travel more. People would choose to live further from work, our suburbs would expand even further. There would be an expensive road building programme in an attempt to reduce congestion, but of course new roads, generate ever more traffic. There would be no electric cars. Air pollution in our cities would be worse.
Our built environment would be even more car dominant, with more car parks, fewer cycle lanes and less pedestrian friendly streets. We would be lazier with less cycling and walking. Our health would deteriorate. …”
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You can read the rest on Neil’s blog.