Dry season precipitation over the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor is more sensitive to deforestation than to greenhouse gas driven climate change

Human-induced climate change poses potential impacts on the availability of water resources. Previous assessments of warming-induced changes in dryness, however, are influenced by short observational records and show conflicting results due to uncertainties in the response of evapotranspiration. In this study we use novel observation-based water availability reconstructions from data-driven and land surface models from 1902 to 2014; a period during which the Earth has warmed approximately 1&#176;C relative to pre-industrial conditions. These reconstructions reveal consistent changes in average water availability of the driest month of the year during the last 30 years compared to the first half of the 20th&#160;century. We conduct a simple attribution approach based on a spatial correlation analysis between the reconstructions and different climate model simulations. Results indicate that the spatial pattern of changes is extremely likely influenced by human-induced greenhouse gas emissions as it is consistent with climate model estimates that include historical radiative forcing, whereas the pattern is not expected from natural climate variability given by climate simulations with greenhouse gas levels set to pre-industrial conditions. Changes in water availability are characterized by drier dry seasons predominantly in extratropical latitudes and including Europe, Western North America, Northern Asia, Southern South America, Australia, and Eastern Africa. Finally, we find that the intensification of the dry season is generally a consequence of increasing evapotranspiration rather than decreasing precipitation.

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Central American Environmental Defense Program in the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor

10.21236/ada424041 ◽

2002 ◽

Author(s):

Bernie Griffard ◽

Art Bradshaw ◽

Kent H. Butts

Keyword(s):

Central American ◽

Biological Corridor ◽

Mesoamerican Biological Corridor

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Understanding variability in greenhouse gas emission estimates of smallholder dairy farms in Indonesia

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment ◽

10.1007/s11367-021-01923-z ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Titis Apdini ◽

Windi Al Zahra ◽

Simon J. Oosting ◽

Imke J. M. de Boer ◽

Marion de Vries ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Rainy Season ◽

Greenhouse Gas Emission ◽

Dairy Farms ◽

Dry Season ◽

Enteric Fermentation ◽

Tropical Regions ◽

Population Mean ◽

Smallholder Dairy ◽

Smallholder Dairy Farms

Abstract Purpose Life cycle assessment studies on smallholder farms in tropical regions generally use data that is collected at one moment in time, which could hamper assessment of the exact situation. We assessed seasonal differences in greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs) from Indonesian dairy farms by means of longitudinal observations and evaluated the implications of number of farm visits on the variance of the estimated GHGE per kg milk (GHGEI) for a single farm, and the population mean. Methods An LCA study was done on 32 smallholder dairy farms in the Lembang district area, West Java, Indonesia. Farm visits (FVs) were performed every 2 months throughout 1 year: FV1–FV3 (rainy season) and FV4–FV6 (dry season). GHGEs were assessed for all processes up to the farm-gate, including upstream processes (production and transportation of feed, fertiliser, fuel and electricity) and on-farm processes (keeping animals, manure management and forage cultivation). We compared means of GHGE per unit of fat-and-protein-corrected milk (FPCM) produced in the rainy and the dry season. We evaluated the implication of number of farm visits on the variance of the estimated GHGEI, and on the variance of GHGE from different processes. Results and discussion GHGEI was higher in the rainy (1.32 kg CO2-eq kg−1 FPCM) than in the dry (0.91 kg CO2-eq kg−1 FPCM) season (P < 0.05). The between farm variance was 0.025 kg CO2-eq kg−1 FPCM in both seasons. The within farm variance in the estimate for the single farm mean decreased from 0.69 (1 visit) to 0.027 (26 visits) kg CO2-eq kg−1 FPCM (rainy season), and from 0.32 to 0.012 kg CO2-eq kg−1 FPCM (dry season). The within farm variance in the estimate for the population mean was 0.02 (rainy) and 0.01 (dry) kg CO2-eq kg−1 FPCM (1 visit), and decreased with an increase in farm visits. Forage cultivation was the main source of between farm variance, enteric fermentation the main source of within farm variance. Conclusions The estimated GHGEI was significantly higher in the rainy than in the dry season. The main contribution to variability in GHGEI is due to variation between observations from visits to the same farm. This source of variability can be reduced by increasing the number of visits per farm. Estimates for variation within and between farms enable a more informed decision about the data collection procedure.

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Promoting Renewable Energy to Cope with Climate Change—Policy Discourse in Israel

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13063170 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (6) ◽

pp. 3170

Author(s):

Avri Eitan

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Renewable Energy ◽

Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Climate Change Mitigation ◽

Renewable Energies ◽

Mitigation Strategies ◽

Policy Discourse ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Change Mitigation

Evidence shows that global climate change is increasing over time, and requires the adoption of a variety of coping methods. As an alternative for conventional electricity systems, renewable energies are considered to be an important policy tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and therefore, they play an important role in climate change mitigation strategies. Renewable energies, however, may also play a crucial role in climate change adaptation strategies because they can reduce the vulnerability of energy systems to extreme events. The paper examines whether policy-makers in Israel tend to focus on mitigation strategies or on adaptation strategies in renewable energy policy discourse. The results indicate that despite Israel’s minor impact on global greenhouse gas emissions, policy-makers focus more on promoting renewable energies as a climate change mitigation strategy rather than an adaptation strategy. These findings shed light on the important role of international influence—which tends to emphasize mitigation over adaptation—in motivating the domestic policy discourse on renewable energy as a coping method with climate change.

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Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting agricultural management for climate change in developing countries: providing the basis for action

Global Change Biology ◽

10.1111/gcb.12361 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 1-6 ◽

Cited By ~ 35

Author(s):

Stephen M. Ogle ◽

Lydia Olander ◽

Lini Wollenberg ◽

Todd Rosenstock ◽

Francesco Tubiello ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Developing Countries ◽

Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Agricultural Management ◽

Gas Emissions

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The influence of prescribed fire on the extent of wildfire in savanna landscapes of western Arnhem Land, Australia

International Journal of Wildland Fire ◽

10.1071/wf10079 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 21 (3) ◽

pp. 297 ◽

Cited By ~ 45

Author(s):

Owen F. Price ◽

Jeremy Russell-Smith ◽

Felicity Watt

Keyword(s):

Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Prescribed Fire ◽

Fire History ◽

Prescribed Burning ◽

Landsat Imagery ◽

Fire Regimes ◽

Dry Season ◽

Gas Emissions ◽

Arnhem Land

Fire regimes in many north Australian savanna regions are today characterised by frequent wildfires occurring in the latter part of the 7-month dry season. A fire management program instigated from 2005 over 24 000 km2 of biodiversity-rich Western Arnhem Land aims to reduce the area and severity of late dry-season fires, and associated greenhouse gas emissions, through targeted early dry-season prescribed burning. This study used fire history mapping derived mostly from Landsat imagery over the period 1990–2009 and statistical modelling to quantify the mitigation of late dry-season wildfire through prescribed burning. From 2005, there has been a reduction in mean annual total proportion burnt (from 38 to 30%), and particularly of late dry-season fires (from 29 to 12.5%). The slope of the relationship between the proportion of early-season prescribed fire and subsequent late dry-season wildfire was ~–1. This means that imposing prescribed early dry-season burning can substantially reduce late dry-season fire area, by direct one-to-one replacement. There is some evidence that the spatially strategic program has achieved even better mitigation than this. The observed reduction in late dry-season fire without concomitant increase in overall area burnt has important ecological and greenhouse gas emissions implications. This efficient mitigation of wildfire contrasts markedly with observations reported from temperate fire-prone forested systems.

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Structural safety and design under climate change

IABSE Congress, New York, New York 2019: The Evolving Metropolis ◽

10.2749/newyork.2019.1129 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Pietro Croce ◽

Paolo Formichi ◽

Filippo Landi

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Structural Reliability ◽

Greenhouse Gas Emission ◽

Extreme Value ◽

Structural Safety ◽

Climate Projections ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Impact Of Climate Change ◽

The Impact

The impact of climate change on climatic actions could significantly affect, in the mid-term future, the design of new structures as well as the reliability of existing ones designed in accordance to the provisions of present and past codes. Indeed, current climatic loads are defined under the assumption of stationary climate conditions but climate is not stationary and the current accelerated rate of changes imposes to consider its effects.Increase of greenhouse gas emissions generally induces a global increase of the average temperature, but at local scale, the consequences of this phenomenon could be much more complex and even apparently not coherent with the global trend of main climatic parameters, like for example, temperature, rainfalls, snowfalls and wind velocity.In the paper, a general methodology is presented, aiming to evaluate the impact of climate change on structural design, as the result of variations of characteristic values of the most relevant climatic actions over time. The proposed procedure is based on the analysis of an ensemble of climate projections provided according a medium and a high greenhouse gas emission scenario. Factor of change for extreme value distribution’s parameters and return values are thus estimated in subsequent time windows providing guidance for adaptation of the current definition of structural loads.The methodology is illustrated together with the outcomes obtained for snow, wind and thermal actions in Italy. Finally, starting from the estimated changes in extreme value parameters, the influence on the long-term structural reliability can be investigated comparing the resulting time dependent reliability with the reference reliability levels adopted in modern Structural codes.

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Staatsklimahaftung

10.5771/9783748922964 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Isabell Böhm

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

European Union ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

The European Union ◽

Eu Member States ◽

Basic Law ◽

State Liability ◽

Liability Claims ◽

The Eu ◽

Made In

Climate change litigation is becoming increasingly important. This thesis deals with the question whether state liability claims against Germany or the EU can be justified, if commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are not met. For this purpose, the claim under public liability according to § 839 German Civil Code in connection with Art. 34 German Basic Law, the liability of the EU-Member States and the liability of the European Union according to Art. 340 II TFEU are discussed. At the end of the thesis, considerations on the practical perspectives of state liability are made in order to improve their prospects of success.

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Cosmopolitan Luck egalitarianism and the greenhouse effect

Canadian Journal of Philosophy Supplementary Volume ◽

10.1080/00455091.2005.10716857 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 31 ◽

pp. 279-309 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Axel Gosseries

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Greenhouse Effect ◽

Human Activities ◽

Scientific Community ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Luck Egalitarianism ◽

Straightforward Manner ◽

Global Regime ◽

Principles Of Justice

Evidence provided by the scientific community strongly suggests that limits should be placed on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This means that states, firms, and individuals will have to face potentially serious burdens if they are to implement these limits. Which principles of justice should guide a global regime aimed at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions originating from human activities, and most notably from CO2 emissions? This is both a crucial and difficult question. Admittedly, perhaps this question is too ambitious, given the uncertainties and complexities characterizing the issue of climate change. Yet, rather than listing them all at this stage, let us address the question in a straightforward manner, introducing some of these complexities as the need arises.

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