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4.5 – Greenhouse Gas Emissions Draft Environmental Impact Report February 2021 14800 W. Schulte Road Logistics Center 4.5-1 4.5 Greenhouse Gas Emissions This section describes the existing greenhouse gas (GHG) conditions of the 14800 W. Schulte Road Logistics Center (Project) site and vicinity, identifies associated regulatory requirements, evaluates potential impacts, and identifies mitigation measures related to implementation of the Project. In addition to the documents incorporated by reference (see Section 2.7 , Documents Incorporated by Reference, of Chapter 2, Introduction, of this Environmental Impact Report), the following analysis is based, in part, on the following sources: • Air Quality and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Analysis Technical Report prepared by Dudek in January 2021 (Appendix B) • Traffic Impact Analysis prepared by Advanced Mobility Group in Month 2020 (Appendix F) 4.5.1 Existing Conditions Climate Change Overview Climate change refers to any significant change in measures of climate, such as temperature, precipitation, or wind patterns, lasting for an extended period of time (i.e., decades or longer). The Earth’s temperature depends on the balance between energy entering and leaving the planet’s system. Many factors, both natural and human, can cause changes in Earth’s energy balance, including variations in the sun’s energy reaching Earth, changes in the reflectivity of Earth’s atmosphere and surface, and changes in the greenhouse effect, which affects the amount of heat retained by Earth’s atmosphere (EPA 2017a). The greenhouse effect is the trapping and build-up of heat in the atmosphere (troposphere) near the Earth’s surface. The greenhouse effect traps heat in the troposphere through a threefold process as follows: Short-wave radiation emitted by the Sun is absorbed by the Earth, the Earth emits a portion of this energy in the form of long - wave radiation, and GHGs in the upper atmosphere absorb this long-wave radiation and emit it into space and toward the Earth. The greenhouse effect is a natural process that contributes to regulating the Earth’s temperature and creates a pleasant, livable environment on the Earth. Human activities that emit additional GHGs to th e atmosphere increase the amount of infrared radiation that gets absorbed before escaping into space, thus enhancing the greenhouse effect and causing the Earth’s surface temperature to rise (EPA 2017a). The scientific record of the Earth’s climate shows that the climate system varies naturally over a wide range of time scales and that, in general, climate changes prior to the Industrial Revolution in the 1700s can be explained by natural causes, such as changes in solar energy, volcanic eruptions, and natu ral changes in GHG concentrations. Recent climate changes, in particular the warming observed over the past century, however, cannot be explained by natural causes alone. Rather, it is extremely likely that human activities have been the dominant cause of that warming since the mid-twentieth century and is the most significant driver of observed climate change (IPCC 2013; EPA 2017a). Human influence on the climate system is evident from the increasing GHG concentrations in the atmosphere, positive radiative forcing, observed warming, and improved understanding of the climate system (IPCC 2013). The atmospheric concentrations of GHGs have increased to levels unprecedented in the last 800,000 years, primarily from fossil fuel emissions and secondarily from emissions associated with land use changes (IPCC 2013).