17 results on '"CLIMATE change mitigation"'
Search Results
2. Neutralizing misinformation through inoculation: Exposing misleading argumentation techniques reduces their influence.
- Author
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Cook, John, Lewandowsky, Stephan, and Ecker, Ullrich K. H.
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CLIMATE change mitigation , *COMMON misconceptions , *ANTHROPOGENIC effects on nature , *PHYSIOLOGICAL effects of global warming , *CLIMATOLOGY , *GOVERNMENT policy - Abstract
Misinformation can undermine a well-functioning democracy. For example, public misconceptions about climate change can lead to lowered acceptance of the reality of climate change and lowered support for mitigation policies. This study experimentally explored the impact of misinformation about climate change and tested several pre-emptive interventions designed to reduce the influence of misinformation. We found that false-balance media coverage (giving contrarian views equal voice with climate scientists) lowered perceived consensus overall, although the effect was greater among free-market supporters. Likewise, misinformation that confuses people about the level of scientific agreement regarding anthropogenic global warming (AGW) had a polarizing effect, with free-market supporters reducing their acceptance of AGW and those with low free-market support increasing their acceptance of AGW. However, we found that inoculating messages that (1) explain the flawed argumentation technique used in the misinformation or that (2) highlight the scientific consensus on climate change were effective in neutralizing those adverse effects of misinformation. We recommend that climate communication messages should take into account ways in which scientific content can be distorted, and include pre-emptive inoculation messages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2017
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
3. Current surveys may underestimate climate change skepticism evidence from list experiments in Germany and the USA
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Thomas Bernauer and Liam F. Beiser-McGrath
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Atmospheric Science ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Social Sciences ,Surveys ,Public opinion ,01 natural sciences ,Geographical locations ,Governments ,Social desirability bias ,Psychological Attitudes ,Germany ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,050602 political science & public administration ,Psychology ,10. No inequality ,media_common ,Climatology ,education.field_of_study ,Multidisciplinary ,05 social sciences ,Politics ,1. No poverty ,0506 political science ,Europe ,Research Design ,Medicine ,GE Environmental Sciences ,Research Article ,Political Parties ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Science ,Climate Change ,Political Science ,Population ,J Political Science ,Climate change ,Public policy ,Public Policy ,Research and Analysis Methods ,Political science ,Development economics ,European Union ,education ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Skepticism ,Survey Research ,business.industry ,Global warming ,Biology and Life Sciences ,United States ,Climate change mitigation ,13. Climate action ,North America ,Earth Sciences ,Anthropogenic Climate Change ,People and places ,business - Abstract
Strong public support is a prerequisite for ambitious and thus costly climate change mitigation policy, and strong public concern over climate change is a prerequisite for policy support. Why, then, do most public opinion surveys indicate rather high levels of concern and rather strong policy support, while de facto mitigation efforts in most countries remain far from ambitious? One possibility is that survey measures for public concern fail to fully reveal the true attitudes of citizens due to social desirability bias. In this paper, we implemented list-experiments in representative surveys in Germany and the United States (N = 3620 and 3640 respectively) to assess such potential bias. We find evidence that people systematically misreport, that is, understate their disbelief in human caused climate change. This misreporting is particularly strong amongst politically relevant subgroups. Individuals in the top 20% of the income distribution in the United States and supporters of conservative parties in Germany exhibit significantly higher climate change skepticism according to the list experiment, relative to conventional measures. While this does not definitively mean that climate skepticism is a widespread phenomenon in these countries, it does suggest that future research should reconsider how climate change concern is measured, and what subgroups of the population are more susceptible to misreporting and why. Our findings imply that public support for ambitious climate policy may be weaker than existing survey research suggests.
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- 2021
4. Approximate calculations of the net economic impact of global warming mitigation targets under heightened damage estimates
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Patrick T. Brown and Harry Saunders
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Atmospheric Science ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Natural resource economics ,Economics ,Climate Change ,Science ,Climate change ,Social Sciences ,01 natural sciences ,Global Warming ,Greenhouse Gases ,Development Economics ,Economic Growth ,0502 economics and business ,Environmental Chemistry ,Economic impact analysis ,050207 economics ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Climatology ,Multidisciplinary ,05 social sciences ,Global warming ,Ecology and Environmental Sciences ,Chemical Compounds ,Carbon Dioxide ,Models, Theoretical ,Investment (macroeconomics) ,Economic Analysis ,Product (business) ,Chemistry ,Climate change mitigation ,Economic Impact Analysis ,Greenhouse gas ,Atmospheric Chemistry ,Physical Sciences ,Damages ,Earth Sciences ,Environmental science ,Medicine ,Anthropogenic Climate Change ,Social Welfare ,Research Article - Abstract
Efforts to mitigate global warming are often justified through calculations of the economic damages that may occur absent mitigation. The earliest such damage estimates were speculative mathematical representations, but some more recent studies provide empirical estimates of damages on economic growth that accumulate over time and result in larger damages than those estimated previously. These heightened damage estimates have been used to suggest that limiting global warming this century to 1.5 °C avoids tens of trillions of 2010 US$ in damage to gross world product relative to limiting global warming to 2.0 °C. However, in order to estimate the net effect on gross world product, mitigation costs associated with decarbonizing the world's energy systems must be subtracted from the benefits of avoided damages. Here, we follow previous work to parameterize the aforementioned heightened damage estimates into a schematic global climate-economy model (DICE) so that they can be weighed against mainstream estimates of mitigation costs in a unified framework. We investigate the net effect of mitigation on gross world product through finite time horizons under a spectrum of exogenously defined levels of mitigation stringency. We find that even under heightened damage estimates, the additional mitigation costs of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C (relative to 2.0 °C) are higher than the additional avoided damages this century under most parameter combinations considered. Specifically, using our central parameter values, limiting global warming to 1.5 °C results in a net loss of gross world product of roughly forty trillion US$ relative to 2 °C and achieving either 1.5 °C or 2.0 °C require a net sacrifice of gross world product, relative to a no-mitigation case, though 2100 with a 3%/year discount rate. However, the benefits of more stringent mitigation accumulate over time and our calculations indicate that stabilizing warming at 1.5 °C or 2.0 °C by 2100 would eventually confer net benefits of thousands of trillions of US$ in gross world product by 2300. The results emphasize the temporal asymmetry between the costs of mitigation and benefits of avoided damages from climate change and thus the long timeframe for which climate change mitigation investment pays off.
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- 2020
5. Global climate forcing from albedo change caused by large-scale deforestation and reforestation: quantification and attribution of geographic variation
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Bardan Ghimire, Crystal B. Schaaf, Feng Gao, Tong Jiao, Jeffrey G. Masek, and Christopher B. Williams
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Atmospheric Science ,Global and Planetary Change ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Global warming ,0211 other engineering and technologies ,Climate change ,Reforestation ,02 engineering and technology ,Forcing (mathematics) ,Radiative forcing ,Albedo ,01 natural sciences ,Climate change mitigation ,Deforestation ,Climatology ,Environmental science ,021101 geological & geomatics engineering ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences - Abstract
Large-scale deforestation and reforestation have contributed substantially to historical and contemporary global climate change in part through albedo-induced radiative forcing, with meaningful implications for forest management aiming to mitigate climate change. Associated warming or cooling varies widely across the globe due to a range of factors including forest type, snow cover, and insolation, but resulting geographic variation remains poorly described and has been largely based on model assessments. This study provides an observation-based approach to quantify local and global radiative forcings from large-scale deforestation and reforestation and further examines mechanisms that result in the spatial heterogeneity of radiative forcing. We incorporate a new spatially and temporally explicit land cover-specific albedo product derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer with a historical land use data set (Land Use Harmonization product). Spatial variation in radiative forcing was attributed to four mechanisms, including the change in snow-covered albedo, change in snow-free albedo, snow cover fraction, and incoming solar radiation. We find an albedo-only radiative forcing (RF) of −0.819 W m−2 if year 2000 forests were completely deforested and converted to croplands. Albedo RF from global reforestation of present-day croplands to recover year 1700 forests is estimated to be 0.161 W m−2. Snow-cover fraction is identified as the primary factor in determining the spatial variation of radiative forcing in winter, while the magnitude of the change in snow-free albedo is the primary factor determining variations in summertime RF. Findings reinforce the notion that, for conifers at the snowier high latitudes, albedo RF diminishes the warming from forest loss and the cooling from forest gain more so than for other forest types, latitudes, and climate settings.
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- 2017
6. Charting pathways to climate change mitigation in a coupled socio-climate model
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Madhur Anand, Thomas M. Bury, and Chris T. Bauch
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0301 basic medicine ,Atmospheric Science ,Social Sciences ,Conservation of Energy Resources ,Global Warming ,0302 clinical medicine ,Learning and Memory ,11. Sustainability ,Economics ,Psychology ,Social Change ,Biology (General) ,Climatology ,Ecology ,Geography ,Simulation and Modeling ,Physics ,Social dynamics ,Chemistry ,Geophysics ,Computational Theory and Mathematics ,Modeling and Simulation ,Physical Sciences ,Research Article ,QH301-705.5 ,Climate Change ,Climate change ,Research and Analysis Methods ,03 medical and health sciences ,Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience ,Greenhouse Gases ,Genetics ,Learning ,Environmental Chemistry ,Humans ,Molecular Biology ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,Behavior ,Global warming ,Social change ,Ecology and Environmental Sciences ,Cognitive Psychology ,Chemical Compounds ,Biology and Life Sciences ,Computational Biology ,Environmental economics ,Carbon Dioxide ,Models, Theoretical ,Social learning ,Earth system science ,030104 developmental biology ,Climate change mitigation ,Physical Geography ,13. Climate action ,Atmospheric Chemistry ,Earth Sciences ,Cognitive Science ,Climate model ,Anthropogenic Climate Change ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Neuroscience ,Earth Systems ,Climate Modeling - Abstract
Geophysical models of climate change are becoming increasingly sophisticated, yet less effort is devoted to modelling the human systems causing climate change and how the two systems are coupled. Here, we develop a simple socio-climate model by coupling an Earth system model to a social dynamics model. We treat social processes endogenously—emerging from rules governing how individuals learn socially and how social norms develop—as well as being influenced by climate change and mitigation costs. Our goal is to gain qualitative insights into scenarios of potential socio-climate dynamics and to illustrate how such models can generate new research questions. We find that the social learning rate is strongly influential, to the point that variation of its value within empirically plausible ranges changes the peak global temperature anomaly by more than 1°C. Conversely, social norms reinforce majority behaviour and therefore may not provide help when we most need it because they suppress the early spread of mitigative behaviour. Finally, exploring the model’s parameter space for mitigation cost and social learning suggests optimal intervention pathways for climate change mitigation. We find that prioritising an increase in social learning as a first step, followed by a reduction in mitigation costs provides the most efficient route to a reduced peak temperature anomaly. We conclude that socio-climate models should be included in the ensemble of models used to project climate change., Author summary The importance of anthropogenic CO2 emissions on climate change trajectories is widely acknowledged. However, geophysical climate models rarely account for dynamic human behaviour, which determines the emissions trajectory, and is itself affected by the climate system. Here, using a coupled socio-climate model, we show how social processes can strongly alter climate trajectories and we suggest optimal intervention pathways based on the model projections. Steps to increase social learning surrounding climate change should initially be prioritised for maximum impact, making a subsequent reduction in mitigation costs more effective. Policymakers will benefit from a better understanding of how social and climate processes interact, which can be provided by socio-climate models.
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- 2019
7. Developed and developing world contributions to climate system change based on carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide emissions
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Ting Wei, Qing Yan, Jieming Chou, Zhiyong Yang, Wenjie Dong, and Di Tian
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Atmospheric Science ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Global warming ,Climate commitment ,Developing country ,Climate change ,Low-carbon economy ,010502 geochemistry & geophysics ,01 natural sciences ,Climate change mitigation ,Environmental protection ,Climatology ,Greenhouse gas ,Environmental science ,Climate model ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences - Abstract
One of the key issues in international climate negotiations is the formulation of targets for emissions reduction for all countries based on the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities”. This formulation depends primarily on the quantitative attribution of the responsibilities of developed and developing countries for historical climate change. Using the Commuity Earth System Model (CESM), we estimate the responsibilities of developed countries and developing countries for climatic change from 1850 to 2005 using their carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide emissions. The results indicate that developed countries contribute approximately 53%–61%, and developing countries approximately 39%–47%, to the increase in global air temperature, upper oceanic warming, sea-ice reduction in the NH, and permafrost degradation. In addition, the spatial heterogeneity of these changes from 1850 to 2005 is primarily attributed to the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in developed countries. Although uncertainties remain in the climate model and the external forcings used, GHG emissions in developed countries are the major contributor to the observed climate system changes in the 20th century.
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- 2016
8. Past world economic production constrains current energy demands: Persistent scaling with implications for economic growth and climate change mitigation
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Matheus R. Grasselli, Stephen Keen, and Timothy J. Garrett
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Atmospheric Science ,Energy-Generating Resources ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Economics ,Natural resource economics ,Raw Materials ,0211 other engineering and technologies ,Social Sciences ,02 engineering and technology ,01 natural sciences ,Economic Growth ,Materials ,Climatology ,education.field_of_study ,Multidisciplinary ,Physics ,Energy consumption ,Nuclear power ,Renewable energy ,Chemistry ,Physical Sciences ,Medicine ,Thermodynamics ,Engineering and Technology ,Alternative Energy ,Economic Development ,Models, Econometric ,Research Article ,Science ,Climate Change ,Materials Science ,Population ,Climate change ,Development Economics ,021108 energy ,education ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,business.industry ,Global warming ,Chemical Compounds ,Carbon Dioxide ,Economic Analysis ,Energy and Power ,Climate change mitigation ,Earth Sciences ,Alternative energy ,Anthropogenic Climate Change ,business - Abstract
Climate change has become intertwined with the global economy. Here, we describe the contribution of inertia to future trends. Drawing from thermodynamic principles, and using 38 years of available statistics between 1980 to 2017, we find a constant scaling between current rates of world primary energy consumption [Formula: see text] and the historical time integral W of past world inflation-adjusted economic production Y, or [Formula: see text]. In each year, over a period during which both [Formula: see text] and W more than doubled, the ratio of the two remained nearly unchanged, that is [Formula: see text] Gigawatts per trillion 2010 US dollars. What this near constant implies is that current growth trends in energy consumption, population, and standard of living, perhaps counterintuitively, are determined by past innovations that have improved the economic production efficiency, or enabled use of less energy to transform raw materials into the makeup of civilization. Current observed growth rates agree well with predictions derived from available historical data. Future efforts to stabilize carbon dioxide emissions are likely also to be constrained by the contributions of past innovation to growth. Assuming no further efficiency gains, options look limited to rapid decarbonization of energy consumption through sustained implementation of at least one Gigawatt of renewable or nuclear power capacity per day. Alternatively, with continued reliance on fossil fuels, civilization could shift to a steady-state economy, one that devotes economic production exclusively to maintining ongoing metabolic needs rather than to material expansion. Even if such actions could be achieved immediately, energy consumption would continue at its current level, and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations would only begin to balance natural sinks at concentrations exceeding 500 ppmv.
- Published
- 2020
9. Resource heterogeneity leads to unjust effort distribution in climate change mitigation
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Yamir Moreno, Josep Perelló, Angel Sánchez, Nereida Bueno-Guerra, Julián Vicens, Mario Gutiérrez-Roig, Jesús Gómez-Gardeñes, Carlos Gracia-Lázaro, Jordi Duch, European Commission, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), and Universitat de Barcelona
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0301 basic medicine ,Male ,Climate justice ,Atmospheric Science ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Matemáticas ,lcsh:Medicine ,Social Sciences ,Collective action ,01 natural sciences ,Cognition ,Sociology ,Public goods game ,Psychology ,Cambio climático ,Canvi climàtic ,Cooperative Behavior ,lcsh:Science ,Child ,Game theory ,Climatology ,Multidisciplinary ,Public economics ,Applied Mathematics ,1. No poverty ,Presa de decisions ,Public good ,Awareness ,Middle Aged ,Teoria de jocs ,Physical Sciences ,Female ,Games ,Research Article ,Adult ,Risk ,Conservation of Natural Resources ,Physics - Physics and Society ,Adolescent ,Climate Change ,Decision Making ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Public Goods Game ,Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph) ,Education ,03 medical and health sciences ,Young Adult ,Game Theory ,Social Justice ,Humans ,Educational Attainment ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Aged ,Environmental justice ,Behavior ,Global warming ,lcsh:R ,Ecology and Environmental Sciences ,Cognitive Psychology ,Biology and Life Sciences ,Poder adquisitivo ,Environmental economics ,Climatic changes ,Climatic change ,Dilemma ,030104 developmental biology ,Climate change mitigation ,Games, Experimental ,13. Climate action ,Environmental Justice ,Earth Sciences ,Recreation ,Cognitive Science ,lcsh:Q ,Business ,Anthropogenic Climate Change ,Decision making ,Mathematics ,Neuroscience ,Unsupervised Machine Learning ,Canvis climàtics - Abstract
Fighting against climate change is a global challenge shared by nations with heterogeneous economical resources and individuals with diverse propensity for cooperation. However, we lack a clear understanding of the role of key factors such as inequality of means when diverse agents interact together towards a common goal. Here, we report the results of a collective-risk dilemma experiment in which groups of subjects were initially given either equal or unequal endowments. We found that although the collective goal was always achieved regardless of the initial capital distribution, the effort distribution was highly inequitable. Specifically, participants with fewer resources contributed significantly more to the public goods than the richer -sometimes twice as much. An unsupervised learning algorithm clustered the subjects according to their individual behavior. We found that the poorest participants congregated within the two "generous clusters" whereas the richest were mostly classified into a "greedy cluster". Our findings suggest that future policies would benefit both from reinforcing climate justice actions addressed to most vulnerable people and educating fairness instead of focusing on understanding of generic or global climate consequences, as the latter has not proven to drive equitable contributions., 20 pages and 19 figures, including the SI file
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- 2018
10. From advocacy to action: Projecting the health impacts of climate change
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Nissan, Hannah and Conway, Declan
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Atmospheric Science ,Time Factors ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Health Status ,Social Sciences ,lcsh:Medicine ,010501 environmental sciences ,Global Health ,Global Warming ,01 natural sciences ,Cognition ,Risk Factors ,RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine ,11. Sustainability ,Medicine and Health Sciences ,Psychology ,Health Status Indicators ,Climatology ,Simulation and Modeling ,General Medicine ,3. Good health ,Chemistry ,Perspective ,Physical Sciences ,Seasons ,Environmental Monitoring ,GE Environmental Sciences ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Climate Change ,Decision Making ,Climate change ,Research and Analysis Methods ,Risk Assessment ,Greenhouse Gases ,Political science ,Parasitic Diseases ,medicine ,Environmental Chemistry ,Humans ,Environmental planning ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Public health ,Ecology and Environmental Sciences ,Global warming ,Perspective (graphical) ,lcsh:R ,Cognitive Psychology ,Biology and Life Sciences ,Tropical Diseases ,Malaria ,Climate change mitigation ,Action (philosophy) ,13. Climate action ,Atmospheric Chemistry ,Greenhouse gas ,Earth Sciences ,Cognitive Science ,Climate model ,Climate Modeling ,Neuroscience ,Forecasting - Abstract
Mitigating climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions has many measurable co-benefits for public health and remains a priority (Haines et al., 2009). However, recognition that climate change is already underway has led to an increasing focus on adaptation. Studies projecting the impacts of future climate change on health date back to the late 1980s and their number has grown substantially in recent years. Climate change impact assessments generally use the output of global climate models (GCMs). Here we profile, and suggest means for addressing, challenges associated with the use of GCM projections and impact studies to inform adaptation.
- Published
- 2018
11. A human-scale perspective on global warming: Zero emission year and personal quotas
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Alberto de la Fuente, Maisa Rojas, and Claudia Mac Lean
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Greenhouse Effect ,Atmospheric Science ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Natural resource economics ,Physiology ,Climate Change ,Climate change ,lcsh:Medicine ,Transportation ,010501 environmental sciences ,Research and Analysis Methods ,01 natural sciences ,Global Warming ,Greenhouse Gases ,Economics ,Per capita ,Medicine and Health Sciences ,Environmental Chemistry ,Humans ,Greenhouse effect ,lcsh:Science ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Climatology ,Behavior ,Multidisciplinary ,Equity (economics) ,business.industry ,Simulation and Modeling ,Global warming ,Environmental resource management ,Ecology and Environmental Sciences ,lcsh:R ,Tragedy of the commons ,Chemical Compounds ,Food Consumption ,Temperature ,Biology and Life Sciences ,Carbon Dioxide ,Chemistry ,Climate change mitigation ,Greenhouse gas ,Atmospheric Chemistry ,Physical Sciences ,Earth Sciences ,Engineering and Technology ,lcsh:Q ,business ,Physiological Processes ,Research Article - Abstract
This article builds on the premise that human consumption of goods, food and transport are the ultimate drivers of climate change. However, the nature of the climate change problem (well described as a tragedy of the commons) makes it difficult for individuals to recognise their personal duty to implement behavioural changes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Consequently, this article aims to analyse the climate change issue from a human-scale perspective, in which each of us has a clearly defined personal quota of CO2 emissions that limits our activity and there is a finite time during which CO2 emissions must be eliminated to achieve the "well below 2°C" warming limit set by the Paris Agreement of 2015 (COP21). Thus, this work's primary contribution is to connect an equal per capita fairness approach to a global carbon budget, linking personal levels with planetary levels. Here, we show that a personal quota of 5.0 tons of CO2 yr-1 p-1 is a representative value for both past and future emissions; for this level of a constant per-capita emissions and without considering any mitigation, the global accumulated emissions compatible with the "well below 2°C" and 2°C targets will be exhausted by 2030 and 2050, respectively. These are references years that provide an order of magnitude of the time that is left to reverse the global warming trend. More realistic scenarios that consider a smooth transition toward a zero-emission world show that the global accumulated emissions compatible with the "well below 2°C" and 2°C targets will be exhausted by 2040 and 2080, respectively. Implications of this paper include a return to personal responsibility following equity principles among individuals, and a definition of boundaries to the personal emissions of CO2.
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- 2017
12. Potential impacts of afforestation on climate change and extreme events in Nigeria
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Ayobami T. Salami, Babatunde J. Abiodun, Olaniran J. Matthew, and Sola Odedokun
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Atmospheric Science ,Climate change mitigation ,Climatology ,Flooding (psychology) ,Global warming ,Environmental science ,Afforestation ,Climate change ,Climate model ,Monsoon ,Spatial distribution - Abstract
Afforestation is usually thought as a good approach to mitigate impacts of warming over a region. This study presents an argument that afforestation may have bigger impacts than originally thought by previous studies. The study investigates the impacts of afforestation on future climate and extreme events in Nigeria, using a regional climate model (RegCM3), forced with global climate model simulations. The impacts of seven afforestation options on the near future (2031–2050, under A1B scenario) climate and the extreme events are investigated. RegCM3 replicates essential features in the present-day (1981–2000) climate and the associated extreme events, and adequately simulates the seasonal variations over the ecological zones in the country. However, the model simulates the seasonal climate better over the northern ecological zones than over the southern ecological zones. The simulated spatial distribution of the extreme events agrees well with the observation, though the magnitude of the simulated events is smaller than the observed. The study shows that afforestation in Nigeria could have both positive and negative future impacts on the climate change and extreme events in the country. While afforestation reduces the projected global warming and enhances rainfall over the afforested area (and over coastal zones), it enhances the warming and reduces the rainfall over the north-eastern part of the country. In addition, the afforestation induces more frequent occurrence of extreme rainfall events (flooding) over the coastal region and more frequent occurrence of heat waves and droughts over the semi-arid region. The positive and negative impacts of the afforestation are not limited to Nigeria; they extend to the neighboring countries. While afforestation lowers the warming and enhances rainfall over Benin Republic, it increases the warming and lowers the rainfall over Niger, Chad and Cameroon. The result of the study has important implication for the ongoing climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts in Nigeria.
- Published
- 2012
13. Arctic shipping emissions inventories and future scenarios
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S. Harder, James J. Winebrake, Jordan A. Silberman, Daniel A. Lack, M. Gold, and James J. Corbett
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Atmospheric Science ,Global warming ,Carbon offset ,Climate change ,Low-carbon economy ,lcsh:QC1-999 ,lcsh:Chemistry ,Climate change mitigation ,lcsh:QD1-999 ,Arctic ,Environmental protection ,Greenhouse gas ,Climatology ,Environmental science ,Fugitive emissions ,lcsh:Physics - Abstract
The Arctic is a sensitive region in terms of climate change and a rich natural resource for global economic activity. Arctic shipping is an important contributor to the region's anthropogenic air emissions, including black carbon – a short-lived climate forcing pollutant especially effective in accelerating the melting of ice and snow. These emissions are projected to increase as declining sea ice coverage due to climate change allows for increased shipping activity in the Arctic. To understand the impacts of these increased emissions, scientists and modelers require high-resolution, geospatial emissions inventories that can be used for regional assessment modeling. This paper presents 5 km×5 km Arctic emissions inventories of important greenhouse gases, black carbon and other pollutants under existing and future (2050) scenarios that account for growth of shipping in the region, potential diversion traffic through emerging routes, and possible emissions control measures. Short-lived forcing of ~4.5 gigagrams of black carbon from Arctic shipping may increase climate forcing; a first-order calculation of global warming potential due to 2030 emissions in the high-growth scenario suggests that short-lived forcing of ~4.5 gigagrams of black carbon from Arctic shipping may increase climate forcing due to Arctic ships by at least 17% compared to warming from these vessels' CO2 emissions (~42 000 gigagrams). The paper also presents maximum feasible reduction scenarios for black carbon in particular. These emissions reduction scenarios will enable scientists and policymakers to evaluate the efficacy and benefits of technological controls for black carbon, and other pollutants from ships.
- Published
- 2010
14. Public perceptions about climate change mitigation in British Columbia's forest sector
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Shannon Hagerman, Robert Kozak, Guillaume Peterson St-Laurent, and George Hoberg
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Atmospheric Science ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Sustainable forest management ,lcsh:Medicine ,Plant Science ,Forests ,Surveys ,010501 environmental sciences ,01 natural sciences ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,lcsh:Science ,Conservation Science ,Climatology ,education.field_of_study ,Multidisciplinary ,geography.geographical_feature_category ,Ecology ,Fossils ,Plant Anatomy ,Reforestation ,Old-growth forest ,Terrestrial Environments ,Wood ,Paleoxylology ,Research Design ,Engineering and Technology ,Fossil Wood ,Research Article ,Conservation of Natural Resources ,Carbon Sequestration ,Environmental Engineering ,Forest Ecology ,Climate Change ,Population ,Forest management ,Research and Analysis Methods ,Ecosystems ,Forest ecology ,education ,Environmental planning ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Internet ,geography ,Survey Research ,British Columbia ,lcsh:R ,Ecology and Environmental Sciences ,Global warming ,Biology and Life Sciences ,Paleontology ,15. Life on land ,Carbon ,Climate change mitigation ,13. Climate action ,Public Opinion ,Earth Sciences ,lcsh:Q ,Perception - Abstract
The role of forest management in mitigating climate change is a central concern for the Canadian province of British Columbia. The successful implementation of forest management activities to achieve climate change mitigation in British Columbia will be strongly influenced by public support or opposition. While we now have increasingly clear ideas of the management opportunities associated with forest mitigation and some insight into public support for climate change mitigation in the context of sustainable forest management, very little is known with respect to the levels and basis of public support for potential forest management strategies to mitigate climate change. This paper, by describing the results of a web-based survey, documents levels of public support for the implementation of eight forest carbon mitigation strategies in British Columbia's forest sector, and examines and quantifies the influence of the factors that shape this support. Overall, respondents ascribed a high level of importance to forest carbon mitigation and supported all of the eight proposed strategies, indicating that the British Columbia public is inclined to consider alternative practices in managing forests and wood products to mitigate climate change. That said, we found differences in levels of support for the mitigation strategies. In general, we found greater levels of support for a rehabilitation strategy (e.g. reforestation of unproductive forest land), and to a lesser extent for conservation strategies (e.g. old growth conservation, reduced harvest) over enhanced forest management strategies (e.g. improved harvesting and silvicultural techniques). We also highlighted multiple variables within the British Columbia population that appear to play a role in predicting levels of support for conservation and/or enhanced forest management strategies, including environmental values, risk perception, trust in groups of actors, prioritized objectives of forest management and socio-demographic factors.
- Published
- 2018
15. The climatic impacts of land surface change and carbon management, and the implications for climate-change mitigation policy
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Roni Avissar, Kenneth J. Davis, Pekka E. Kauppi, Naomi Pena, Roger A. Pielke, Neil Sampson, Stephen T. Jackson, Michael J. Apps, John O. Niles, Kenneth G. MacDicken, Yongkang Xue, Gregg Marland, Richard J. Norby, Dev Niyogi, Peter C. Frumhoff, John Katzenberger, Richard Betts, Linda A. Joyce, and Ronald P. Neilson
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Runaway climate change ,Atmospheric Science ,Global and Planetary Change ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Global warming ,Climate change ,15. Life on land ,010501 environmental sciences ,Environmental Science (miscellaneous) ,Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law ,01 natural sciences ,Biosequestration ,Climate change mitigation ,Effects of global warming ,Environmental protection ,13. Climate action ,Climatology ,11. Sustainability ,Environmental science ,Climate model ,Land use, land-use change and forestry ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences - Abstract
Strategies to mitigate anthropogenic climate change recognize that carbon sequestration in the terrestrial biosphere can reduce the build-up of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere. However, climate mitigation policies do not generally incorporate the effects of these changes in the land surface on the surface albedo, the fluxes of sensible and latent heat to the atmosphere, and the distribution of energy within the climate system. Changes in these components of the surface energy budget can affect the local, regional, and global climate. Given the goal of mitigating climate change, it is important to consider all of the effects of changes in terrestrial vegetation and to work toward a better understanding of the full climate system. Acknowledging the importance of land surface change as a component of climate change makes it more challenging to create a system of credits and debits wherein emission or sequestration of carbon in the biosphere is equated with emission of carbon from fossil fue...
- Published
- 2003
16. Awareness of Climate Change and the Dietary Choices of Young Adults in Finland: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study
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Jouni J. K. Jaakkola, Essi A. E. Korkala, and Timo T. Hugg
- Subjects
Male ,Atmospheric Science ,Cross-sectional study ,Epidemiology ,Social Sciences ,010501 environmental sciences ,Global Health ,01 natural sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Sociology ,Environmental protection ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,Food choice ,Medicine and Health Sciences ,Psychology ,Public and Occupational Health ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Finland ,2. Zero hunger ,Climatology ,education.field_of_study ,Multidisciplinary ,Socioeconomic Aspects of Health ,3. Good health ,Research Design ,Population study ,Medicine ,Female ,Research Article ,Clinical Research Design ,Science ,Climate Change ,Population ,Climate change ,Biology ,Research and Analysis Methods ,Diet Surveys ,03 medical and health sciences ,Food Preferences ,Young Adult ,Environmental health ,Humans ,education ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Nutrition ,Demography ,Behavior ,Survey Research ,Global warming ,Ecology and Environmental Sciences ,Biology and Life Sciences ,Confidence interval ,Health Care ,Climate change mitigation ,Survey Methods ,Cross-Sectional Studies ,Attitude ,Socioeconomic Factors ,13. Climate action ,Public Opinion ,People and Places ,Earth Sciences ,Linear Models - Abstract
Climate change is a major public health threat that is exacerbated by food production. Food items differ substantially in the amount of greenhouse gases their production generates and therefore individuals, if willing, can mitigate climate change through dietary choices. We conducted a population-based cross-sectional study to assess if the understanding of climate change, concern over climate change or socio-economic characteristics are reflected in the frequencies of climate-friendly food choices. The study population comprised 1623 young adults in Finland who returned a self-administered questionnaire (response rate 64.0%). We constructed a Climate-Friendly Diet Score (CFDS) ranging theoretically from −14 to 14 based on the consumption of 14 food items. A higher CFDS indicated a climate-friendlier diet. Multivariate linear regression analyses on the determinants of CFDS revealed that medium concern raised CFDS on average by 0.51 points (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.03, 0.98) and high concern by 1.30 points (95% CI 0.80, 1.80) compared to low concern. Understanding had no effect on CFDS on its own. Female gender raised CFDS by 1.92 (95% CI 1.59, 2.25). Unemployment decreased CFDS by 0.92 (95% CI −1.68, −0.15). Separate analyses of genders revealed that high concern over climate change brought about a greater increase in CFDS in females than in males. Good understanding of climate change was weakly connected to climate-friendly diet among females only. Our results indicate that increasing awareness of climate change could lead to increased consumption of climate-friendly food, reduction in GHG emissions, and thus climate change mitigation.
- Published
- 2014
17. Why do some people do 'more' to mitigate climate change than others? Exploring heterogeneity in psycho-social associations
- Author
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José Manuel Ortega-Egea, Nieves García-de-Frutos, and Raquel Antolin-Lopez
- Subjects
Male ,Atmospheric Science ,Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ,Social Sciences ,lcsh:Medicine ,Behavioral engagement ,Behavioral Ecology ,Sociology ,Risk Factors ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,Morphogenesis ,Psychology ,Medicine ,lcsh:Science ,Psychographic ,media_common ,Climatology ,Aged, 80 and over ,Social Research ,Multidisciplinary ,Ecology ,Public economics ,Environmental resource management ,Middle Aged ,Research Design ,Female ,Psychosocial ,Research Article ,Adult ,Conservation of Natural Resources ,Social Psychology ,Adolescent ,Climate Change ,Climate change ,Research and Analysis Methods ,Young Adult ,Humans ,media_common.cataloged_instance ,European union ,Social Behavior ,Aged ,Behavior ,Motivation ,Survey Research ,business.industry ,Ecology and Environmental Sciences ,Global warming ,lcsh:R ,Biology and Life Sciences ,Morphogenic Segmentation ,Individual level ,Cross-Sectional Studies ,Climate change mitigation ,Earth Sciences ,lcsh:Q ,business ,Environmental Protection ,Developmental Biology - Abstract
The urgency of climate change mitigation calls for a profound shift in personal behavior. This paper investigates psycho-social correlates of extra mitigation behavior in response to climate change, while also testing for potential (unobserved) heterogeneity in European citizens' decision-making. A person's extra mitigation behavior in response to climate change is conceptualized--and differentiated from common mitigation behavior--as some people's broader and greater levels of behavioral engagement (compared to others) across specific self-reported mitigation actions and behavioral domains. Regression analyses highlight the importance of environmental psychographics (i.e., attitudes, motivations, and knowledge about climate change) and socio-demographics (especially country-level variables) in understanding extra mitigation behavior. By looking at the data through the lens of segmentation, significant heterogeneity is uncovered in the associations of attitudes and knowledge about climate change--but not in motivational or socio-demographic links--with extra mitigation behavior in response to climate change, across two groups of environmentally active respondents. The study has implications for promoting more ambitious behavioral responses to climate change, both at the individual level and across countries.
- Published
- 2014
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