Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Introduction
u
.
The First Edition
Our planet
s atmosphere has been the dumping ground
for all sorts of gases for as long as human history. Its
capacity is large, and when those using it as a dump were
few there was no problem. There are now more than
seven billion of us, and we have now reached the point
where human activities have overloaded the atmospheric
dump and the climate has begun to change. The United
Nations population group projects that there will be
'
.
billion by
. Our collective decision is what to do
about it. Do we do nothing and leave the problem to
our grandchildren who will suffer the consequences of
our inaction, or do we begin to deal with it? It is much
easier to do things now rather than later, but it will cost us
something.
To me the answer is clear: we should start to deal with
it. This topic describes the problem and the alternatives
that exist to make a start on limiting the damage. This is
not an academic topic, even though I am a physics profes-
sor. It is written for the general public. True, it does
contain some scienti
c details for those interested in
them, but they are in technical notes at the ends of
chapters; you can skip them if you like.
The title of the topic, Beyond Smoke and Mirrors, can be
taken two ways. One is what future energy sources might
