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Svante Arrhenius
Swedish scientist that argued that fossil fuel burning by adding CO2 to the atmosphere would raise the planet's average (he referred to this with a Swedish term that translated to hotbed/hothouse, which is equivalent to our greenhouse effect)
Montreal Protocol on Onzone 1987
the USA and more than three dozen nations sign a treaty to limit the use of chlorofluorocarbons
Biden administration
was on course to approve as much oil and gas drilling on public lands
what are the policies for our current fossil fuels extractions?
carbon budget
to have even a 50% chance of keeping heating to 1.5 C, we can afford to emit only about 300 gigatons (Gt, or billion tons) more of CO
carbon offsets = clean development mechanism
Kyoto Protocol
international treaty signed by 192 countries with the intention of creating a schedule of binding targets for reducing emissions and a process for reaching those targets
Rachel Carson
author of Silent Spring 1960, which created greater attention to the environment in Western societies
Charney Report 1979
carbon dioxide and climate: a scientific assessment first estimates how sensitive the Earth's climate is to increases of CO
Citizens United
ruling of Supreme Court allowed the use of "dark money," such as from fossil fuel interest, to influence elections
climate sensitivity
how sensitive the climate increase in CO
common but differenetiated responsibilities
acknowledges that individual countries have different capabilities for combating climate change and encompasses moral considerations regarding equity and historical responsibility
Copenhagen Accord 2009
voluntary national, non-binding, pledges become the new global norm
International Climate Justice Movement demands
land rights and forest rights for the communities who have always taken care of those resources
Lumumba Di'Aping
lead negotiator for participants from the Global South and specifically represented the group of 77 countries plus China
present throughout the atmosphere, and the supposed hole was merely a descriptive metaphor for how the amount of ozone in Antarctic had begun to decline dramatically for about two months per year. reductions in
ozone were real, allowing more ultraviolet radiation to reach Earth's surface and this reduction
of ozone was traceable to the human-made chloroflourocarbons used in refrigerators and aerosol cans, which, when released into the atmosphere, devoured ozone and also functioned as potent greenhouse gases (much more so than CO2).
Paris Accord 2015
non-binding agreement encourages countries to determine, plan, and report on their contributions to mitigating heating, but the sum of pledges would not meet its goal of limiting global temperature rise to below 2 degrees celsius from pre-industrial levels
Rio Earth Summit
1992, the concept of "common and differentiated
responsibilities"
what is the total CO2 emissions per year now?
projected to be 41.6 billion for 2024, but 2023 was 37.4 billion which was a 1.1% increase from 2022
UNFCCC
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, stated objective is to "stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system."
what has happened in the last 800,000 years?
carbon dioxide levels are higher than any point in the last 800,000 years
amplifier of climate change
water vapor can act as an amplifier of climate change initiated by other factors, such as increasing CO
BECCS/bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration
the vast cultivation of crops that would then be burned to generate electricity, with CO being captured and sequestered underground
carbon cycle
CO2 is absorbed into the oceans, taken up into plants through photosynthesis, and then released again through the respiration of animals and the decaying of dead plant and animal matter, in order to predict how conditions are likely to evolve across time
carbon sink
the absorption of atmospheric CO2 by land and oceans
year 2100 as measured by W/m^
SSPs/shared socioeconomic pathways
IPCC more recently shifted to
Eocene
an era where CO2 levels and temps were much higher than they are today, overlapping with the dino era when much life flourished
global heating 1-2-
1: fact: CO 2 makes planaets hotter than they would otherwise be, 2: fact: human activity, esp the burning of fossil fuels, releases CO2, and adds more of this heat-trapping gas to the atmosphere, 3: logical conclusion: we must therefore expect that rising CO2 levels will heat our planet
global warming potential
ability to absorb heat
Goldilocks zone
neither too hot nor too cold to support hyuman life as we know it
ice cores
drilling in Antarctica to depths of nearly 2 mile, resulting in columns of ice made up of snow that accumlated over 800,000 years
Bjorn Lomborg
urged others not to buy into scare stories but believes that climate change is a real problem
Mauna Loa
mountain in Hawaii, where measurements have been taken since the 1950s
methane
natural gas, but is labeled as clean but is most likely just as bad as coal; leaks from wellheads and pipelines
Milankovitch cycles
will cause global heating like impact of greenhouse gases
solar radiation/irradiance
amount of energy the sun emits
what would we expect if heating was caused by changes in the sun?
expect irradiance to increase along with temperature
sunspot cycle
variation in the amount of energy emitted from the sun
water vapor
greenhouse gas that our atmosphere contains about 10x more of than CO2; cycles quickly into atmosphere through evaporation and out of it through rain and snow; can act as an amplifier of climate change
weather
typically refers to short-term and local variability
climate
long term trends, usually over decades, in atmospheric conditions
tipping poiints
a threshold beyond which is a small change in temp would cause a feedback loop to become reinforcing, creating an irreversible change in that part of the earth's system and a state that would persist even if emissions subsequently go down
Atlantic Meriodonal Overturning
Current could slow
down even more dramatically, triggering massive temperature shifts and accelerating heating
Atlantic Meriodonal
Overturning Current (AMOC)
a vast ocean current, equivalent to thirty times all the world's rivers combined, that supplies huge quantities of heat to northern hemisphere regions such as Scandinavia
extreme event attribution
how much more likely and how much more intense a particular event is made by climate change
how does global heating affect flooding?
greater flooding due to warmer air and warmer oceans producing more evaporation from the oceans, and warmer air can hold more water vapor
how much global heating will we have by 2100?
By 2100, global heating could reach 3°C on RCP4.5 (medium emissions and heavy reliance on negative emissions), and 5°C if we carry on with high emissions. This figure shows the range of warming from pre-industrial levels (1880-1900) to 2090-2100, using multiple runs of CMIP6 climate models under different emissions pathways. The SSP1-2.6 scenario --which is analogous to the "well-below 2C" RCP2.6 -- shows mean warming of 2.0°C.
ice-albedo effect
how ice and snow reflect solar radiation
what is predicted by 2070 oh high emissions pathway?
expansion of extremely hot areas by 2070 could have significant implications for human migration
what happened to Syria from global heating?
a severe drought 2007-2010, which was a key factor in the outbreak of the civil war in 2011 because too little water forced rural populations to flee to the cities, where food led to political turmoil
tipping points
when sea-level rise becomes 10x more than what we are seeing now; West Antarctic Ice Sheet, Amazon rainforest, Atlantic circulation, Greenland ice sheet, Permafrost
weather on steroids
climate changing quicker and stronger
wet-bulb temperature
air temp measured by a thermometer covered in water-soaked cloth -- of greater than 35C; one degree higher and people start dying even in the shade
neoliberal era
1984 and onwards
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)
A conservative lobbying group that drafts model legislation for state governments. Example of a front group that promotes corporate interests.
Astroturfing
the practice of creating the illusion of grassroots support for a cause, often funded by corporations or interest groups
Attitude Roots
deep seated psychological and ideological beliefs that influence people's acceptance or rejection of information, including climate change
Citizens United Ruling
a ruling made by the Supreme Court in 2010 that allowed unlimited political spending by corporations and unions, leading to an increase in "dark money"
Climategate
a controversy involving hacked emails from climate scientists, used to cast doubt on climate science despite no evidence of misconduct
cognitive bias
Systematic patterns of deviation from rationality in judgment.
confirmation bias
The tendency to interpret new information in a way that confirms one's existing beliefs.
conservative ideology and climate belief (fig 5.5)
A political ideology often associated with skepticism toward climate science and regulatory solutions.
dark money
Political funding from undisclosed sources, often linked to fossil fuel interests (related to Citizens United Ruling).
frackademia
Academic research funded by the fossil fuel industry to support hydraulic fracturing (fracking).
free market beliefs as an attitude root (fig 5.4)
The belief that market forces should dictate policy decisions, often leading to climate change skepticism.
front groups
Organizations that appear independent but are funded by corporations to promote specific agendas.
hierarchical beliefs as an attitude root (fig 5.4)
The belief in social hierarchies, often correlated with resistance to climate action.
hyperbolic discounting
The tendency to prioritize short-term benefits over long-term consequences, relevant to climate inaction
individualistic beliefs as an attitude root (fig 5.4/table 5.2)
The belief in personal responsibility over collective solutions, influencing climate skepticism.
investor owned electric utilities and misinformation
Utilities' role in spreading misinformation to resist renewable energy policies.
motivated cognition
Processing information in a way that aligns with pre-existing beliefs.
new ecological paradigm
A framework measuring how people perceive their relationship with nature.
partisan asymmetry in stability of climate beliefs (Figs from slides).
The tendency for climate beliefs to be more stable among liberals than conservatives, due to ideological factors
