To what extent can humans use technology to reduce the effects of climate change? (20 marks)
The extent to which humans are capable of using technology to reduce the effects of climate change is not possible. This is because scientists of the Paris accord in 2015 had stated that if temperature increases are greater than 1.5 degrees Celsius, then it becomes very difficult and above 2 degrees will be impossible. Currently, total temperatures are at 1.1 degrees Celsius since the 1800s and is currently rising.
One way technology can be used to reverse the effects of climate change is using carbon capture storage. This is a contraption which is added to existing power stations and trap carbon emissions released by power stations through the combustion of fossil fuels dash which makes up approximately 80% of all sources of pollution. The trapped carbon is then sent through cooling pipes where the gas is condensed into a liquid warm and pumped into underground stores like old oil wells. As a result, this reduces the magnitude of CO2 into the atmosphere, which reduces our contributions to climate change. In the UK, this would create a new industry creating approximately 100,000 jobs and has been declared beneficial because it traps 95% of released emissions.
However, the issues with carbon capture storage is that they are expensive to install and operate, which would increase the costs of production for power stations. Therefore, they may pass on these higher costs onto consumers in the form of higher prices. In addition, there needs to be strict criteria that the underground stores must meet before carbon can be stored because there is a risk of the carbon percolating into soils and groundwater stores.
Furthermore, climate change is a global problem hence any technology we do use like carbon capture storage would have to be widely adopted on a global scale by all countries. Very lies the problem. One disadvantage of common cup storage as outlined above is how expensive it is to install and operate. Therefore, developing countries who are industrialising like China and India, who are some of the largest contributors of carbon emissions, would have to adopt this technology in order for it to reverse the global effects of climate change. This would place more of a cost onto these countries, who place the environment further down their agenda
Overall, humans do have the technology to be able to reduce the effects of climate change, but not to be able to reverse it. This is because the natural changes in the carbon cycle like wildfires and volcanic activity are exacerbated by the human intervention by increasing the flows. Therefore, even if we were able to reverse the effects of climate change with technology like carbon capture storage, there would need to be a global agreement to do so, which will not likely happen as developing countries have their own agenda which does not value the environment as much as developed countries.