Climate change in the tropics: The end of the world as we know it?

2012 ◽  
Vol 151 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard T. Corlett
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
The World ◽  
End Of The World ◽  
The Tropics

scholarly journals Impact of Rising Temperatures on the Biomass of Humid Old-Growth Forests of the World

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markku Larjavaara ◽  
Xiancheng Lu ◽  
Xia Chen ◽  
Mikko Vastaranta
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Primary Productivity ◽  
Temperature Response ◽  
Maintenance Cost ◽  
Above Ground Biomass ◽  
Empirical Methods ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
C Stocks ◽  
The World ◽  
The Tropics

Abstract Background: Understanding how warming temperatures are influencing biomasses in the world’s forests is necessary for quantifying future global C (carbon) budgets. A temperature-driven decrease in future C stocks could dangerously strengthen climate change. Empirical methods for studying the temperature response of forests have important limitations, and modelling is needed to provide another perspective. We modelled current and future AGB (old-growth above-ground biomass) in humid lowland areas of the world by dividing GPP (gross primary productivity) and a measure of energy needed to support a given about of biomass called here MCB (maintenance cost per unit biomass). Results: Based on the modelling, we predict a temperature-driven increase in both GPP and MCB, except in the tropics, where GPP will decrease. Their ratio, and therefore also ABG, is expected to decrease in all other regions except the boreal. The AGB is expected to decrease 41% in the tropics and 29% globally.Conclusions: The estimated drops in AGB are dramatic. However, we did not include the fertilisation effects of increasing CO2 (carbon dioxide) and N (nitrogen) that potentially mitigate the temperature-caused drop in AGB.

scholarly journals Climate in the Boardroom: Struggling to Reconcile Business as Usual & the End of the World as We Know It

Daedalus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 149 (4) ◽  
pp. 118-124
Author(s):  
Rebecca Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Moral Response ◽  
The World ◽  
Change Climate ◽  
End Of The World ◽  
Moral Necessity ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Purpose Of Business ◽  
Business As Usual

How does one witness to businesspeople about climate change? Climate change is a problem for the collective and the long term, whereas business often requires a ruthless focus on the individual and the quarter. Climate change is an ethical catastrophe whose solution almost certainly requires a profoundly moral response, but talk of morality in the boardroom is often regarded with profound suspicion. Reconciling these tensions has forced me to navigate between worlds in an ongoing attempt to persuade businesspeople that solving climate change is both an economic and a moral necessity, and that the purpose of business is not only to make money but also to support the institutions that will enable us to build a sustainable world. This has not always been easy.

The Lure of the Apocalypse: Ecology, Ethics, and the End of the World

2021 ◽  
pp. 095394682110313
Author(s):  
Kyle B. T. Lambelet
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Practical Orientation ◽  
The World ◽  
Governance Challenges ◽  
End Of The World

What should we make of the apocalyptic tone taken up by politicians, journalists, scientists, and activists? Some environmental thinkers such as Michael Shellenberger contend that alarming rhetoric distracts us from the technological and governance challenges presented by climate change. In the article, it is argued that retrieving a practical apocalyptic political theology from the Christian tradition can both clarify conceptual contradictions within this discourse as well as offer a practical orientation toward living within ecological endings. Amid the cascade of environmental crises we are living through, apocalyptic practices of renunciation of the world offer a guide and discipline for living in the end.

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