CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION AND ADOPTION

Presentation by

Dr. N. Rajeshwara Rao

E-mail: raonandamuri@gmail.com

Department of Applied Geology University of Madras

What is Climate Change?

Climate change is any long-term significant change in the average weather that a given region experiences.

Average weather may include average temperature, precipitation and wind patterns. It involves changes in the variability or average state of the atmosphere over durations ranging from decades to millions of years.

Climate change Drivers

Climate changes can be caused by dynamic processes on the Earth, external forces including variations in sunlight intensity, and more recently by human activities. In recent usage, especially in the context of environmental policy, the term climate change often refers to changes in modern climate.

Climate forcings

Climate changes reflect variations within the Earth's atmosphere, processes in other parts of the Earth such as oceans and ice caps, and the effects of human activity. The external factors that can shape climate are often called climate forcings, and include such processes as variations in solar radiation, the Earth's orbit, and greenhouse gas concentrations.

Ocean variability

On the scale of decades, climate changes can also result from interaction of the atmosphere and oceans.

Many climate fluctuations including not only the El Nio Southern Oscillation (ENSO) but also the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the North Atlantic Oscillation, and the Arctic Oscillation owe their existence, at least in part, to different ways in which heat can be stored in the oceans and moved between different reservoirs.
On longer time scales, ocean processes such as thermohaline circulation play a key role in re-distributing heat, and can dramatically affect climate. Past climate records suggest that there is some chance that this circulation could be affected or even altered by the changes projected in many climate models.

Simplified illustration of oceanic conveyor belt circulation

El Nio-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)

El Nio-Southern Oscillation (ENSO; commonly referred to as simply El Nio) is a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon, first described in 1923 by Sir Gilbert Thomas Walker. As a Pacific Ocean signature, it is an important temperature fluctuation in the surface waters of the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean. The name El Nio, from the Spanish for the little boy, refers to the Christ child, because the phenomenon is usually noticed around Christmas time in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of South America. The atmospheric signature, the Southern Oscillation (SO) reflects the monthly or seasonal fluctuations in the air pressure difference between Tahiti and Darwin, Australia. ENSO is associated with floods, droughts, and other disturbances in a range of locations around the world.

Schematic illustration of ENSO

Under normal conditions, without the effect of ENSO, equatorial winds gather warm water pool toward west, and cold water upwells along the South American coast. Under El Nio conditions, when the warm water approaches the S. American coast, the absence of cold water upwelling increases warming.

What is Upwelling?
Upwelling is an oceanographic phenomenon that involves wind-driven motion of dense, cooler, and usually nutrient-rich water towards the ocean surface, replacing the warmer, usually nutrient-depleted surface water.

Pacific Decadal Oscillation PDO

The Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) is a long-lived El Niolike pattern of Pacific climate variability. The term was first coined by Fisheries scientist, Steven Hare, in 1996, while researching connections between Alaska salmon production cycles and Pacific climate. Two main characteristics distinguish PDO from El Nio/Southern Oscillation (ENSO): first, 20th century PDO events persisted for 20 to 30 years, while typical ENSO events persisted for 6 to 18 months; second, the climatic fingerprints of the PDO are most visible in the North Pacific/North American sector, while those of ENSO are seen in the tropics.

North Atlantic Oscillation NAO

The North Atlantic oscillation (NAO) is a climatic phenomenon in the North Atlantic Ocean controlling the strength and direction of westerly winds and storm tracks across the North Atlantic. The NAO was discovered in the 1920s by Sir Gilbert Walker.

Similar to the El Nio phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean, NAO is one of the most important drivers of climate fluctuations in the North Atlantic and surrounding humid climates. Westerly winds blowing across the Atlantic, bring moist air into Europe. In years when westerlies are strong, summers are cool, winters are mild and rain is frequent. If westerlies are suppressed, the temperature is more extreme in summer and winter leading to heat waves, deep freezes and reduced rainfall.

Thermohaline Circulation THC

THC refers to the part of the large-scale ocean circulation that is thought to be driven by global density gradients created by surface heat and fresh water fluxes. Wind-driven surface currents (e.g. Gulf Stream) head poleward from the equatorial Atlantic Ocean, cooling all the while and eventually sinking at high latitudes (forming NADW). This dense water then flows into the ocean basins. While the bulk of it upwells in the Southern Ocean, the oldest waters (with a transit time of around 1,600 years) upwell in the North Pacific. Extensive mixing, therefore, takes place between the ocean basins, reducing differences between them and making the Earth's ocean a global system. On their journey, the water masses transport heat, solids, dissolved substances and gases around the globe. This collection of currents is responsible for the large-scale exchange of water masses in the ocean, including providing oxygen to the deep ocean. The entire circulation pattern takes ~2,000 years.

Role of Thermohaline Circulation

THC plays an important role in supplying heat to the Polar Regions, and thus in regulating the amount of sea ice in these regions. Changes in the thermohaline circulation are thought to have significant impacts on the earth's radiation budget. THC not only governs the rate at which deep waters are exposed to the surface, but may also play an important role in determining the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Effects of CO2 on Climate Change

Current studies indicate that radiative forcing by greenhouse gases is the primary cause of global warming. Greenhouse gases are also important in understanding Earth's climate history. The greenhouse effect, which is the warming produced as greenhouse gases trap heat, plays a key role in regulating Earth's temperature. Over the last 600 my, carbon dioxide concentrations have varied from perhaps >5,000 ppm to less than 200 ppm, primarily due to the effect of geological processes and biological innovations. Studies on ice cores from Vostok, Antarctica, have estimated variations in CO2 level, temperature and dust concentration over the last 400,000 years (Petit et al., 1999). Higher dust levels are attributed to cold, dry periods in the Earths history.

Radiative Forcing

In climate science, radiative forcing is defined as the change in net irradiance at the tropopause.

Net irradiance is the difference between the incoming

radiation energy and the outgoing radiation energy in a given climate system and is thus measured in watts/m2.

The change is computed-based on unperturbed values, as defined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as the measured difference relative to the year 1750, the defined starting point of the industrial era.
A positive forcing (more incoming energy) tends to warm the system, while a negative forcing (more outgoing energy) tends to cool it.

Greenhouse gases

Greenhouse gases are components of the atmosphere that contribute to the greenhouse effect. Without this effect, the Earth would be uninhabitable; in its absence, the mean temperature of the earth would be ~19C rather than the present mean temperature of about 15C. Greenhouse gases include in the order of relative abundance water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. The majority of greenhouse gases come mostly from natural sources, but they are also contributed to by human activity.

Contributors to Greenhouse Effect

Water vapor about 36 to 70% (not including clouds). Carbon dioxide 9 to 26%.

Methane 4 to 9%.
Ozone 3 to 7%. Other greenhouse gases include nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, HFCs, perfluorocarbons and CFCs.

ANTHROPOGENIC GH GASES

TOP PANEL: All man-made greenhouse gases, weighted by their global warming potential over the next 100 years. LOWER PANEL: Comparable information for each of three primary GH gases, with same coloring of sectors as used in the top chart.

SOURCES OF CO2
The seven sources of CO2 from fossil fuel combustion are:

Solid fuels (e.g. coal): 35% Liquid fuels (e.g. gasoline): 36% Gaseous fuels (e.g. natural gas): 20% Flaring gas industrially and at wells: <1% Cement production: 3% Non-fuel hydrocarbons: <1% The "international bunkers" of shipping and air transport not included in national inventories: 4%

ROLE OF WATER VAPOR

Increase in atmospheric temperature caused by the GH effect due to anthropogenic gases leads to increase in water vapor content of troposphere, with approximately constant relative humidity. Increased water vapor in turn leads to an increase in the greenhouse effect and thus a further increase in temperature. Increase in temperature leads to still further increase in atmospheric water vapor; and the feedback cycle continues until equilibrium is reached.

ANCIENT CO2 LEVELS

Measurements from Antarctic ice cores Before industrial emissions started, atmospheric CO2 levels were ~280 ppm. Ice cores data show that CO2 concentrations stayed between 260 and 280 ppm during preceding 10,000 years. Studies using evidence from stomata of fossilized leaves suggest greater variability, with CO2 levels above 300 ppm during the period 7,000-10,000 years ago.

INCREASE IN GH GASES

Increase in levels of GH gases since beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Increase in CO2 concentration by about 100 ppm (i.e., from 280 ppm to 380 ppm). First 50 ppm increase in about 200 years, from start of Industrial Revolution to around 1973. Next 50 ppm increase took place in about 33 years, from 1973 to 2006.

COMPARISON TABLE
GAS 2007 1750 Increase

CO2

383 ppm

260 ppm

31%

Methane Nitrous oxide

1,745 ppb

700 ppb

150%

314 ppb

270 ppb

16%

SCALES OF EFFECT

ATMOSPHERIC LIFETIME describes how long it takes to restore the system to equilibrium following a small increase in the concentration of the gas in the atmosphere.

Global Warming Potential (GWP) depends on both efficiency of the molecule as a GH gas and its atmospheric lifetime. GWP is measured relative to the same mass of CO2 and evaluated for a specific timescale. Thus, if a molecule has a high GWP on a short time scale (say 20 years) but has only a short lifetime, it will have a large GWP on a 20-year scale but a small one on a 100-year scale.

Role of CO and CH4

CO Indirect radiative effect by elevating concentrations of Methane and tropospheric Ozone through scavenging of atmospheric constituents (e.g., the hydroxyl radical, OH) that would otherwise destroy them. Methane In addition to direct radiative impact also contributes to Ozone formation. It is often argued that contribution to climate change from methane is at least double previous estimates as a result of this effect.

CO monitoring by TERRA

The MOPITT sensor aboard NASAs Terra satellite has assembled the first view of carbon monoxide in the Earth's atmosphere.

PermoTriassic (PT) extinction event

The PermoTriassic (PT) extinction event, informally known as the Great Dying or mother of all mass extinctions, was an extinction event that occurred 251.4 million years ago, forming the boundary between the Permian and Triassic geologic periods. Earth's most severe extinction event, with up to 96% of all marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species becoming extinct; it is the only known mass extinction of insects. Because so much biodiversity was lost, the recovery of life on earth took significantly longer than after other extinction events.

Extinction events in the past

Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM)

The Paleocene/Eocene boundary, 55.8 million years ago, was marked by the most rapid and significant climatic disturbance of the Cenozoic Era, a sudden global warming event, leading to the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). Associated with changes in oceanic and atmospheric circulation, extinction of numerous deep-sea benthic foraminifera, and major turnover in mammalian life on land. Global temperatures rose by ~6C over 20,000 years, with a corresponding rise in sea level as the whole of the oceans warmed (Sluijs, 2000) and atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations rose. Regional deep water anoxia may have played a part in marine extinctions. The event is linked to a negative excursion in the 13C isotope record, which occurs in two short (~1,000 year) pulses. These probably represent degassing of clathrates (methane ice deposits), which accentuated a pre-existing warming trend. The release of these clathrates, and ultimately the event itself, may have been triggered by a range of causes. Evidence currently seems to favor an increase in volcanic activity as the main perpetrator.

Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum

The Little Ice Age

A period of cooling occurring after a warmer era known as the Medieval Warm Period (a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region) or Medieval Climate Optimum (Ladurie, 1971). Climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of this period, which varied according to local conditions. Some confine the Little Ice Age to approximately the 16th century to the mid-19th century. It is generally agreed that there were three minima, beginning about 1650, about 1770, and 1850, each separated by slight warming intervals.

What is Plate Tectonics?

It provides geology with a comprehensive theory that explains "how the Earth works. The theory was formulated in the 1960s and 1970s as new information was obtained about the nature of the ocean floor. It deals with the movement and velocity of major and minor plates.

Plates and Plate Boundaries

Role of Plate Tectonics in Climate Change

On the longest time scales, plate tectonics will re-position continents, shape oceans, build and tear down mountains and generally serve to define the stage upon which climate exists.

During the Carboniferous, tectonics may have triggered the large-scale storage of carbon and increased glaciation.
More recently, plate motions have been implicated in the intensification of the present ice age when, approximately 3 million years ago, the North and South American plates collided to form the Isthmus of Panama and shut off direct mixing between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Solar variations

Sun is the ultimate source of essentially all heat in the climate system. Energy is also provided by the gravitational pull of the Moon (manifested as tidal power), in addition to geothermal energy provided by the hot inner core of the Earth. The energy output of the Sun, which is converted to heat at the Earth's surface, is an integral part of shaping the Earth's climate.

On the longest time scales, the sun itself is getting brighter with higher energy output; as it continues its main sequence, this slow change or evolution affects the Earth's atmosphere.

Types of solar variations

On more modern time scales, there are also a variety of forms of solar variation, including the 11-year solar cycle and longer-term modulations. Solar intensity variations are considered to have been influential in triggering the Little Ice Age, and for some of the warming observed from 1900 to 1950. Of the two proxies related to solar magnetic activity, the first is the Group Sunspot Number (Rg), as re-constructed from historical observations. The second, the 10Be isotopic concentration estimated in an annually layered ice core from Dye-3, Greenland, is measured as 104 atoms/gram of ice.

What are Sunspots?

Sunspots are darker, cooler regions of the sun's surface associated with high magnetic flux. Higher numbers of sunspots indicate a more active sun with stronger and more complicated magnetic fields. The dominant change in sunspots reflects the quasi11 year solar magnetic cycle. The quiet period observed from 1645 to 1710 is known as the Maunder Minimum and is associated with a near zero abundance of sunspots.

Sunspot monitoring
Sunspots have been monitored since the time of Galileo. One striking feature that emerges from the longterm data is that the number of sunspots observed in a given year varies in a dramatic and highly predictable way.

Maunder Minimum

The Maunder Minimum is the name given to the period roughly from 1645 to 1715, when sunspots became exceedingly rare, as noted by solar observers of the time. It is named after the solar astronomer Edward W. Maunder (18511928) who discovered the dearth of sunspots during that period by studying records from those years. During one 30-year period within the Maunder Minimum, for example, astronomers observed only about 50 sunspots, as opposed to a more typical 40,00050,000 spots. The Maunder Minimum coincided with the middle and coldest part of the Little Ice Age, during which Europe and North America, and perhaps much of the rest of the world, was subjected to bitterly cold winters. Whether there is a causal connection between low sunspot activity and cold winters is the subject of ongoing debate

Variations in sunspot number and the Maunder Minimum

Earths Orbital Variations

In their effect on climate, orbital variations are in some sense an extension of solar variability, because slight variations in the earth's orbit lead to changes in the distribution and abundance of sunlight reaching the Earth's surface. Such orbital variations, known as MILANKOVITCH CYCLES, are a highly predictable consequence of basic physics due to the mutual interactions of the Earth, the Moon, and other planets. These variations are considered the driving factors underlying the glacial and interglacial cycles of the present ice age. Subtler variations are also present, such as the repeated advance and retreat of the Sahara Desert in response to orbital precession.

Milankovitch cycles

Collective effect of changes in the Earth's movements upon its climate, named after Serbian civil engineer and mathematician Milutin Milankovi.

Eccentricity (orbital shape), axial tilt (obliquity), and precession (wobble) of the Earth's orbit vary in several patterns, resulting in 100,000-year ice age cycles of the Quaternary glaciation over the last few million years. The Earth's axis completes one full cycle of precession approximately every 26,000 years. At the same time, the elliptical orbit rotates, leading to a 21,000-year cycle between the seasons and the orbit.
In addition, the angle between Earth's rotational axis and the normal to the plane of its orbit moves from 22.1 to 24.5 and back again on a 41,000-year cycle. Currently, this angle is 23.44 and decreasing. The Milankovitch theory of climate change is not perfectly worked out as yet; in particular, the largest observed response is at the 100,000year timescale.

MILANKOVITCH CYCLES

Volcanism

A single eruption of the kind that occurs several times per century can affect climate, causing cooling for a period of a few years. For example, the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 affected climate substantially. Huge eruptions, known as large igneous provinces, occur only a few times every hundred million years, but can reshape climate for millions of years and cause mass extinctions. Initially, scientists thought that the dust emitted into the atmosphere from large volcanic eruptions was responsible for the cooling by partially blocking the transmission of solar radiation to the Earth's surface. However, measurements indicate that most of the dust thrown in the atmosphere returns to the Earth's surface within six months.

Eruption of Mt.Pinatubo 1991

Mt. Pinatubo was the second largest eruption of last century, and produced ~10 km3 of rock and ash. The eruption also injected a twenty million ton sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas cloud into the stratosphere. This gas cloud was chemically converted into a sulfuric acid aerosol, which was predicted to cause a 0.5C global temperature decrease.

Although the temperature decrease is hard to identify due to natural climate variability, the aerosols caused a measurable stratospheric temperature rise and a drop in the direct solar beam at the Earth's surface.

Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS)

Human-induced changes

Various hypotheses for human-induced climate change have been debated for many years, though it is important to note that the scientific debate has moved on from scepticism. There is scientific consensus on climate change that human activity is, undoubtedly, the main explanation for the current rapid changes in the world's climate (IPCC, 2007). Consequently, the debate has largely shifted onto ways to reduce human impact and adapt to changes that have already occurred. The biggest factor of present concern is the increase in CO2 levels due to emissions from fossil fuel combustion, followed by aerosols (particulate matter in the atmosphere), which exert a cooling effect, and cement manufacture. Other factors, including land use, ozone depletion, animal agriculture and deforestation, also affect climate.

Why are Glaciers important?

Among the most sensitive indicators of climate change, advancing substantially during climate cooling (e.g. the Little Ice Age LIA), and retreating during climate warming on moderate time scales.

Grow and collapse, both contributing to natural variability and greatly amplifying externally forced changes. For the last century, however, glaciers have been unable to re-generate enough ice during the winters to make up for the ice lost during the summer months.

Decline in advancement of Alpine glaciers in Switzerland and Italy, particularly after 1982; note the rapid decline between 1982 and 1990.

Current status of Arctic Ice Cap

Research by British scientists at the Center for Polar Observation and Modeling, University College, London. Arctic ice cap shrinking at record rates in winter as well as summer. Thickness of ice has decreased by a record 19% in 2007 winter. Usually recedes in summer, but grows back in winter. Findings suggest that period in which ice renews itself has become much shorter. A matter of greater concern is that the sea ice is not only receding, but also getting thinner. Cause of thinning even more alarming!!! Winter temperatures in 2007 cold enough that they could not have been the cause, suggesting that some other, long-term change, such as a rise in water temperature, or a change in ocean circulation, has brought warmer water under the ice cap. If findings are confirmed, the Arctic ice cap is likely to melt much faster than had been thought, leading to sea-level rise (The Times of India, 2008).

Deep below Antarctica?

According to a team of scientists led by Dr. Leigh Stearns of the University of Maine, massive floods deep below Antarcticas surface accelerating flow of glaciers into the ocean, adding to the growing concern about the pace at which glaciers are melting into the seas. A hidden network of glacial lakes far below the Antarctic surface regulates the motion of the continents ice rivers. When the sub-glacial lakes overflow, the ice above accelerates towards the ocean. By tracking both the ocean-bound movement of East Antarcticas Byrd Glacier and the events in two lakes that lie beneath it, the scientists showed that the glacier sped up between late 2005 and mid-2007, precisely when ice-penetrating radar imagery from satellites showed that both lakes were overflowing. Conversely, movement of the glacier slowed when flood ceased, and the lakes began to re-fill. Has provided evidence that sub-surface floods can indeed act like a turbo-lubricant. (Nature Geoscience)

Snippets Current Scenario

Oceans acidifying faster

Research at Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, USA. Increasing acidity correlated with increasing atmospheric CO2 levels.

Could reduce oceans capacity to absorb CO2.

Results based on 24,519 measurements of ocean pH spanning 8 years. Increase in acidity 10 times more than predicted by climate change models.

Significance of Corals

Coral skeletons form the backbone of reef ecosystems, and provide habitat for a multitude of plant and animal species. Sharp decline in coral growth on the Great Barrier Reef by >14% since 1990 A sure warning sign.

Related to warmer seas and higher ocean acidity from increased levels of atmospheric CO2.
If current trends continue, corals may stop growing completely by 2050. Results from findings by Australian Institute of Marine Science researchers, published in Science.

Mushroom coral Fungia sp.

Preparing for a Solar Storm

Storms of moderate intensity occur every ~50 years.

Last occurrence on November 13, 1960.

Impending storm in 2009-2010.

Could disable life support systems on a global scale.

A intense storm as that which occurred on August 28, 1859 could threaten civilization. Could lead to drastic climate changes in the immediate future.

Arctic Tundra emits CH4 in winter!

Research at Lund University, Sweden.

Till now, wetlands considered to produce large amounts of CH4.

Methane measurements made at Zackenberg Valley, Greenland. Results indicate emission of CH4 as high in winter as during summer. Study likely to yield better understanding on the impact of climate change on Arctic ecosystems.

Sci-fi Solutions for Global Warming

Sucking CO2 out of the air by sowing the oceans with Fe-dust that would spur the growth of phytoplankton. Paul Crutzens solution: Scattering of SO2 particles in the stratosphere, to reflect sunlight and lower global temperature by ~1C.

Roger Angels solution: Setting up an array of deflecting lenses between Earth and Sun, to reduce solar heat striking the planet.

Worst possible scenario?

Arid regions becoming drier. Rising sea levels 40 cm to 1.4 m. Flooding of coastal areas.

Flooding of downstream villages.

Drying up of water supply sources. Facing water shortage by 0.4 to 1.7 billion people. ~30% of plant and animal species becoming extinct.

The LOHAFEX Experiment

Indo-German experiment involving 29 scientists from India, 11 from Germany and 10 others.

Atlantic Ocean bottom near Antarctica to be seeded by 20 tons of dissolved Fe-sulfate over 300 km2.
Phytoplankton blooms thus stimulated consume CO2 and sink to ocean bottom once short life cycle is completed. If they sink below 500 m, CO2 would not surface for 100 years; if they sink below 1,000 m, CO2 would be trapped for centuries. If successful, 1 x 106 tons of CO2 could be buried in the ocean every year.

Glacial melts Flip side

Theory proposed by Prof. Rob Raiswell, Geologist, University of Leeds, UK. Melting ice sheets create huge icebergs. Icebergs gouge out minerals from bedrock on their way to the sea. Accumulation of frozen mud could breathe life into icy Antarctic waters. This would trigger a large, natural removal of CO2 from atmosphere. With rising temperatures, increased ice sheet melting leading to increased removal of CO2.

Biochar cuts Greenhouse gases

Ploughing charred plants into the ground to revive soil fertility an ancient technique. Heating plants such as farm waste or wood in airtight conditions produces a high-C substance called Biochar. Biochar can store GH gases such as CO2.

According to Johannes Lehmann, Cornell University, biochar could store 1 x 109 tons of carbon, annually equivalent to >10% of global carbon emissions.

GH gases may trigger Ice Age

Research at University of Birmingham, UK. 630 my ago, Earths atmosphere was warm and full of CO2, but was completely covered with ice.

Evidence from limestone suggest large amounts of GH gases coincided with prolonged period of freezing temperatures.
Particles of sulfate emitted by industrial pollution and volcanism could reflect Suns rays, and create Ice Age conditions.

What to adopt as an individual

Run the dishwasher only with a full load. Run the washing machine with a full load. If using an automatic dishwasher, let the dishes air dry. Hang dry some-or all-of the laundry. Buy energy-efficient appliances. Avoid the use of air conditioners altogether.

Turn out the lights in empty rooms and when away from home. Consider installing compact fluorescent bulbs instead of highwattage incandescent bulbs. Turn off the hot water tank when going away for extended periods of time. Install additional insulation on the hot water tank and pipes.

What to adopt as an individual

Look for products bearing the EcoLogo. They minimize the use of environmentally hazardous substances and maximize energy efficiency and the use of recycled materials. Buy locally produced or grown items from local stores and businesses. They don't require the transportation energy of imported products.

Walk, ride your bike or take a bus to work. Share a ride with a friend or co-worker. Have your engine tuned at least once every six months. Check your car tire pressure regularly. Use alternative fuels, such as ethanol, propane or natural gas. Avoid unnecessary idling.