Climate Change Science Versus Climate Sceptics: Is the World Really Flat?

This article provides a brief introduction to the physical science of climate change, aimed towards economists. We begin by describing the physics that controls global climate, how scientists measure and model the climate system, and the magnitude of human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide. We then summarize many of the climatic changes of interest to economists that have been documented and that are projected in the future. We conclude by highlighting some key areas in which economists are in a unique position to help climate science advance. An important message from this final section, which we believe is deeply underappreciated among economists, is that all climate change forecasts rely heavily and directly on economic forecasts for the world. On timescales of a half-century or longer, the largest source of uncertainty in climate science is not physics, but economics.

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Human Exceptionalism: A Cognitive Barrier to Understanding and Engaging with Global Climate Change

10.31219/osf.io/36ymb ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Nicole Betz ◽

John Coley

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Global Climate Change ◽

Global Climate ◽

Natural World ◽

Attitudes And Behaviors ◽

Human Exceptionalism ◽

The World ◽

Climate Change Science ◽

And Behaviors

Although global climate change poses a real and looming threat to both societies and the natural world, the general American public is paradoxically disengaged with the issue. Across two studies, we explore the role of an intuitive pattern of thinking—that humans are exceptional to the rest of the world (i.e., human exceptionalist thinking)—on understanding and engagement of global climate change. In both studies, undergraduates thought about global climate change in exceptionalist ways—they correctly think that humans uniquely contribute to climate change, and incorrectly think that humans will uniquely be protected from the effects of global climate change. Such exceptionalist thinking predicted reduced eco-friendly attitudes. Further, people who thought about climate change in exceptionalist ways were less likely to attribute damage from recent hurricanes (i.e., hurricanes Michael and Florence) to global climate change, an attribution that is closely linked to both mitigating attitudes and behaviors. We discuss implications of exceptionalist thinking and potential interventions thereof on climate change science understanding and engagement.

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The World Economic Forum Principles on "Climate Governance on Corporate Boards": can soft law help to face climate change around the world?

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT STUDIES ◽

10.3280/cgrds1-2019oa8509 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 37-55

Author(s):

Sabrina Bruno

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

South Africa ◽

Comparative Analysis ◽

Boards Of Directors ◽

Soft Law ◽

Corporate Boards ◽

World Economic Forum ◽

Financial Factor ◽

The World ◽

World Economic

Climate change is a financial factor that carries with it risks and opportunities for companies. To support boards of directors of companies belonging to all jurisdictions, the World Economic Forum issued in January 2019 eight Principlescontaining both theoretical and practical provisions on: climate accountability, competence, governance, management, disclosure and dialogue. The paper analyses each Principle to understand scope and managerial consequences for boards and to evaluate whether the legal distinctions, among the various jurisdictions, may undermine the application of the Principles or, by contrast, despite the differences the Principles may be a useful and effective guidance to drive boards' of directors' conduct around the world in handling climate change challenges. Five jurisdictions are taken into consideration for this comparative analysis: Europe (and UK), US, Australia, South Africa and Canada. The conclusion is that the WEF Principles, as soft law, is the best possible instrument to address boards of directors of worldwide companies, harmonise their conduct and effectively help facing such global emergency.

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Our Once and Future Planet: Restoring the World in the Climate Change Century Paddy Woodworth. 2013. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. $25.00 paperback. ISBN: 978-0226333403. 536 pages.

Ecological Restoration ◽

10.3368/er.34.1.77 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 34 (1) ◽

pp. 77-78

Author(s):

S. Webb

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

University Of Chicago ◽

The World ◽

University Of Chicago Press

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How Can Latin America Help the World to Cope with Climate Change?

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.2367682 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

Sebastian Galiani ◽

Manuel Puente ◽

Federico Weinschelbaum

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Latin America ◽

The World

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North Atlantic Oscillation; a Climatic Indicator to Predict Hydropower Availability in Scandinavia

Hydrology Research ◽

10.2166/nh.2002.0016 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 33 (5) ◽

pp. 415-424 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Cintia B. Uvo ◽

Ronny Berndtsson

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Spatial Distribution ◽

Climate Variability ◽

North Atlantic Oscillation ◽

North Atlantic ◽

Winter Precipitation ◽

Model Driven ◽

The World ◽

Hydropower Production ◽

Precipitation And Temperature

Climate variability and climate change are of great concern to economists and energy producers as well as environmentalists as both affect the precipitation and temperature in many regions of the world. Among those affected by climate variability is the Scandinavian Peninsula. Particularly, its winter precipitation and temperature are affected by the variations of the so-called North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). The objective of this paper is to analyze the spatial distribution of the influence of NAO over Scandinavia. This analysis is a first step to establishing a predictive model, driven by a climatic indicator such as NAO, for the available water resources of different regions in Scandinavia. Such a tool would be valuable for predicting potential of hydropower production one or more seasons in advance.

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Global Governance

10.1093/oso/9780190905651.003.0005 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Simon Caney

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

World Bank ◽

Security Council ◽

Fair Trade ◽

Political Institutions ◽

World Trade ◽

International Institutions ◽

United Nations Security Council ◽

The World ◽

Dangerous Climate Change

In recent years, a number of powerful arguments have been given for thinking that there should be suprastate institutions, and that the current ones, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and United Nations Security Council, need to be radically reformed and new ones created. Two distinct kinds of argument have been advanced. One is instrumental and emphasizes the need for effective suprastate political institutions to realize some important substantive ideals (such as preventing dangerous climate change, eradicating poverty, promoting fair trade, and securing peace). The second is procedural and emphasizes the importance of political institutions that include all those subject to their power in as democratic a process as possible, and builds on this to call for democratically accountable international institutions. In this chapter, the author argues that the two approaches need not conflict, and that they can in fact lend support to each other.

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The Historiography of Environmental History

10.1093/oso/9780199225996.003.0009 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

J. R. McNeill

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Environmental History ◽

Industrial Pollution ◽

Full Scale ◽

Environmental Concerns ◽

The Us ◽

The World ◽

History Of ◽

The 1960S ◽

The Relationship

This chapter discusses the emergence of environmental history, which developed in the context of the environmental concerns that began in the 1960s with worries about local industrial pollution, but which has since evolved into a full-scale global crisis of climate change. Environmental history is ‘the history of the relationship between human societies and the rest of nature’. It includes three chief areas of inquiry: the study of material environmental history, political and policy-related environmental history, and a form of environmental history which concerns what humans have thought, believed, written, and more rarely, painted, sculpted, sung, or danced that deals with the relationship between society and nature. Since 1980, environmental history has come to flourish in many corners of the world, and scholars everywhere have found models, approaches, and perspectives rather different from those developed for the US context.

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Evolutionary Writings

10.1093/owc/9780199580149.001.0001 ◽

2010 ◽

Author(s):

Charles Darwin

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Intelligent Design ◽

Charles Darwin ◽

Global Impact ◽

The World ◽

Correspondence Project ◽

Darwin Correspondence Project ◽

Descent Of Man ◽

Controversial Nature ◽

Beagle Voyage

‘Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.’ On topics ranging from intelligent design and climate change to the politics of gender and race, the evolutionary writings of Charles Darwin occupy a pivotal position in contemporary public debate. This volume brings together the key chapters of his most important and accessible books, including the Journal of Researches on the Beagle voyage (1845), the Origin of Species (1871), and the Descent of Man, along with the full text of his delightful autobiography. They are accompanied by generous selections of responses from Darwin’s nineteenth-century readers from across the world. More than anything, they give a keen sense of the controversial nature of Darwin’s ideas, and his position within Victorian debates about man’s place in nature. The wide-ranging introduction by James A. Secord, Director of the Darwin Correspondence Project, explores the global impact and origins of Darwin’s work and the reasons for its unparalleled significance today.

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