{"title":"Rethinking Climate Change on the Role of Human Power Generation, Alternative Perspectives, Potential Solutions, and a Plea for Action","authors":"Martin Bertau, Gerald Steiner, Tom Harwood","doi":"10.1002/cite.70100","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Climate change is typically attributed solely to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. We propose a broader conceptualization of this complex challenge by considering the growing role of anthropogenic power generation and the Earth's delicate energy balance. In addition, we consider the impact of continued population growth and the growing need for energy. This integrated perspective may contribute to explaining the currently unexplained discrepancies in existing climate change models. In addition, we propose a forward looking strategy to move from pessimism to proactivity in mitigating climate change. For industrial production, there is a lever to change things by replacing existing processes with more efficient ones and by recovering low caloric heat. This can be paired with traditional carbon mitigation approaches. In this way, humanity is the cause of climate change, and humanity also has the tools to defeat climate change.</p>","PeriodicalId":9912,"journal":{"name":"Chemie Ingenieur Technik","volume":"98 8","pages":"514-524"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2026-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cite.70100","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Chemie Ingenieur Technik","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cite.70100","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2026/4/4 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ENGINEERING, CHEMICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Climate change is typically attributed solely to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. We propose a broader conceptualization of this complex challenge by considering the growing role of anthropogenic power generation and the Earth's delicate energy balance. In addition, we consider the impact of continued population growth and the growing need for energy. This integrated perspective may contribute to explaining the currently unexplained discrepancies in existing climate change models. In addition, we propose a forward looking strategy to move from pessimism to proactivity in mitigating climate change. For industrial production, there is a lever to change things by replacing existing processes with more efficient ones and by recovering low caloric heat. This can be paired with traditional carbon mitigation approaches. In this way, humanity is the cause of climate change, and humanity also has the tools to defeat climate change.
期刊介绍:
Die Chemie Ingenieur Technik ist die wohl angesehenste deutschsprachige Zeitschrift für Verfahrensingenieure, technische Chemiker, Apparatebauer und Biotechnologen. Als Fachorgan von DECHEMA, GDCh und VDI-GVC gilt sie als das unverzichtbare Forum für den Erfahrungsaustausch zwischen Forschern und Anwendern aus Industrie, Forschung und Entwicklung. Wissenschaftlicher Fortschritt und Praxisnähe: Eine Kombination, die es nur in der CIT gibt!