Abstract

The controversy between the IPCC and Non-governmental IPCC (NIPCC) on the attribution of global warming are reviewed. IPCC holds that today’s global warming is mainly due to anthropogenic activities rather than natural variability, which is emphasized by NIPCC. The surface temperature observations since the mid-20th century support the hypothesis of anthropogenic impact, but for the last one hundred years or so, natural forcings such as solar activity, volcanic eruptions and thermohaline circulation variations also have had great influences on the Earth’s climate, especially on inter-decadal timescales. In addition, evidence suggests that the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) and Little Ice Age (LIA) are closely associated with the solar activity over the past 1 thousand years. Over the past 10 thousand years, the North Atlantic cold events and solar activity are closely correlated. Nevertheless, the physical mechanisms of the solar-climate variability and interrelation are not well understood, yet. Notably, a prevailing view recently indicates that galactic cosmic rays may result in climatic cooling through modulating global low cloud cover. However, its process and mechanism need to be further investigated. Huang, J.-B., S.-W. Wang, Y. Luo, et al., 2012: Debates on the causes of global warming. Adv. Clim. Change Res., 3(1), doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1248.2012.00038.

Abstract

In the 1980s the carbon-mitigation strategy of Taiwan focused on the recycling of community waste (Chang and Chang, 1993). In the 1990s and 2000s the strategy shifted to reducing the Green House Effect and introducing low-carbon energy technologies such as wind power, solar power, gas, biomass energy, and other reusable energies. Many policies tried to encourage businesses to development reusable energies such as tax deductions or subsidies. Many researches attempted to evaluate the policy effectiveness of the reduction of the various types of pollution, and most of results found that the reduction effects were not as good as the policy claimed or expected (Lee, 1996, Lee, 2003,Wang, 1999). In recent years, the government has tried to embed green construction, green life and green transportation into people's lives. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book