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Mitigation Strategies

What and Why?

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What is mitigation?

To decrease force or intensity. To lower risk.

Earthquake mitigation
Flood mitigation
Climate change mitigation

Some official definitions of mitigation: To moderate in force or intensity, to alleviate. To lessen in force or intensity. Elimination or reduction in frequency, magnitude or severity of exposure. To minimize risk.

An informal definition that could be used to discuss the idea: Basically to make something that could be very bad less bad.

Ask for examples of things people do to “mitigate” for the following environmental effects:

Earthquake – build houses to building codes, try to get people to have emergency kits, meeting points.

Floods – build houses on stilts, make walls so the water can’t get in. Create dams.

Climate Change – mostly involve decreasing the amount of greenhouse gases of all kinds in the atmosphere. For the most part, mitigation cannot reverse warming that has already occurred, it can only slow or stop what would come without any changes.

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This is what we know about CO₂ concentrations over the past 50 years�Image created by Robert A. Rohde / Global Warming Art

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How? Why? What can we do?

We can’t just stop emitting CO₂immediately

We actually need to bring emissions significantly lower than current levels in order to stabilize concentrations of CO₂.

Towards Stabilizing CO₂

These diagrams are a first introduction to the mitigation wedge strategy used as a final assessment. It shows historical emissions and then the amount that we need to decrease emissions in order to avoid doubling or tripling CO2 concentrations over time. The flat path shows where we need to go to avoid doubling CO₂ values. However, we actually need to bring emissions to lower than current values in order to decrease actual CO₂ concentrations.

Bringing CO₂ values down this far will require a significant investment of money and resources. When we do the final assessment, students will be working in groups to make choices about how to decrease our total carbon emissions.

Ask students for ideas since they just finished the wedge activity and should have ideas about sources, sinks, what is happening. Notes at top to help remember questions: HOW CAN WE DECREASE CARBON EMISSIONS? WHY DO WE WANT TO? WHAT CAN WE DO?

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One way to decrease carbon emissions?

Replace fossil fuel burning power plants…

…with lower or carbon free alternatives, like solar, wind, or nuclear energy.

TRADE OFFS?

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About 99% of the total global warming potential for all new emissions comes from three main gases:

Carbon Dioxide

Methane

Nitrous Oxide

Image created by Robert A. Rohde /

Global Warming Art