Precautionary Politics: Principle and Practice in Confronting Environmental Risk. By Kerry Whiteside. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006. 198p. $50.00 cloth, $21.00 paper.

2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-158
Author(s):  
Scott Barrett
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Hadron Collider ◽  
The Earth ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
The World ◽  
Desert Regions ◽  
Mitigate Climate Change ◽  
Theoretical Risk

Here are two challenges that the world has had to face in 2008: 1) Construction of the Large Hadron Collider was recently completed. Experiments using this machine will yield new knowledge of a fundamental kind. There is also a theoretical risk, believed to be vanishingly small but not zero, that the machine could create a black hole capable of destroying the Earth. Should the machine be turned on? 2) Fertilizing “desert” regions of the oceans with iron is expected to stimulate phytoplankton growth, sucking carbon dioxide into the oceans and thus helping to mitigate climate change. It might also alter vital ocean ecosystems. To know the full consequences of ocean fertilization, large-scale experiments are needed. Should they be allowed?

scholarly journals Past climates inform our future

Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 370 (6517) ◽  
pp. eaay3701
Author(s):  
Jessica E. Tierney ◽  
Christopher J. Poulsen ◽  
Isabel P. Montañez ◽  
Tripti Bhattacharya ◽  
Ran Feng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Model Evaluation ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Earth System ◽  
High Carbon ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
Earth System Models ◽  
High Carbon Dioxide

As the world warms, there is a profound need to improve projections of climate change. Although the latest Earth system models offer an unprecedented number of features, fundamental uncertainties continue to cloud our view of the future. Past climates provide the only opportunity to observe how the Earth system responds to high carbon dioxide, underlining a fundamental role for paleoclimatology in constraining future climate change. Here, we review the relevancy of paleoclimate information for climate prediction and discuss the prospects for emerging methodologies to further insights gained from past climates. Advances in proxy methods and interpretations pave the way for the use of past climates for model evaluation—a practice that we argue should be widely adopted.

scholarly journals Public Awareness: What Climate Change Scientists Should Consider

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
pp. 8369
Author(s):  
Mohammad Rahimi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Connected Network ◽  
Multi Scale ◽  
Valuable Addition ◽  
Scientific Approach ◽  
Design Solutions ◽  
Mitigate Climate Change

In this Opinion, the importance of public awareness to design solutions to mitigate climate change issues is highlighted. A large-scale acknowledgment of the climate change consequences has great potential to build social momentum. Momentum, in turn, builds motivation and demand, which can be leveraged to develop a multi-scale strategy to tackle the issue. The pursuit of public awareness is a valuable addition to the scientific approach to addressing climate change issues. The Opinion is concluded by providing strategies on how to effectively raise public awareness on climate change-related topics through an integrated, well-connected network of mavens (e.g., scientists) and connectors (e.g., social media influencers).

Dryland Degradation and Expansion: Implications for Mexican Policies from the Earth System Perspective

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Gabriel Lopez Porras
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Science Policy ◽  
Land Degradation ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Sustainable Land Management ◽  
System Perspective ◽  
The Earth

Despite international efforts to stop dryland degradation and expansion, current dryland pathways are predicted to result in large-scale migration, growing poverty and famine, and increasing climate change, land degradation, conflicts and water scarcity. Earth system science has played a key role in analysing dryland problems, and has been even incorporated in global assessments such as the ones made by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. However, policies addressing dryland degradation, like the ‘Mexican programme for the promotion of sustainable land management’, do not embrace an Earth system perspective, so they do not consider the complexity and non-linearity that underlie dryland problems. By exploring how this Mexican programme could integrate the Earth system perspective, this paper discusses how ’Earth system’ policies could better address dryland degradation and expansion in the Anthropocene.

Tending this Fragile Earth, Our Island Home: The Pope's Encyclical in Dialogue with Ecomimesis, a Design Model for Conservation Stewardship

2018 ◽  
Vol 100 (4) ◽  
pp. 745-766
Author(s):  
Lillian C. Woo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Pollution ◽  
Anthropogenic Impact ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Design Solution ◽  
World Population ◽  
Natural Ecosystem ◽  
Natural Ecosystems ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World

In the last fifty years, empirical evidence has shown that climate change and environmental degradation are largely the results of increased world population, economic development, and changes in cultural and social norms. Thus far we have been unable to slow or reverse the practices that continue to produce more air and water pollution, soil and ocean degradation, and ecosystem decline. This paper analyzes the negative anthropogenic impact on the ecosystem and proposes a new design solution: ecomimesis, which uses the natural ecosystem as its template to conserve, restore, and improve existing ecosystems. Through its nonintrusive strategies and designs, and its goal of preserving natural ecosystems and the earth, ecomimesis can become an integral part of stabilizing and rehabilitating our natural world at the same time that it addresses the needs of growing economies and populations around the world.

scholarly journals Colonizing the atmosphere: a common concern without climate justice law?

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 105
Author(s):  
Susana Borràs
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
World Population ◽  
Environmental Costs ◽  
Common Concern ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
Development Processes ◽  
The Stability

<p>In the new 'Age of the Anthropocene', the Earth's atmosphere, like other elements of Nature, is rapidly being colonized by a minority of the world's population, at no cost, threatening the security of all humanity and the stability of the planet. The development processes of the great emitters of greenhouse gases have transferred social and environmental costs to all the world population, especially the most impoverished ones. This article is a critical analysis of how the legal climate change regime continues to legitimize the onslaught on the atmosphere. It reflects on the need to move to a new "climate justice law", characterized by responsibilities and obligations centered on the prevention, repair, restoration and treatment of damage and related risks linked to climate change, while protecting human rights and the atmosphere, as a common interest of humanity and the Earth.</p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong>Atmosphere, climate change, common concern of humankind, climate justice law<strong></strong></p>

scholarly journals ANALYSIS OF THE METHODS FOR REGISTRATION OF IMAGES RECEIVED FROM THE INFORMATION SYSTEMS OF NON-MOTORIZED AIRCRAFTS

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (15) ◽  
pp. 1448-1455
Author(s):  
Venelin Terziev ◽  
Teodora Petrova
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Air Monitoring ◽  
Monitoring Systems ◽  
Earth Surface ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
Monitoring And Control ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
And Control

The non-motorized air systems for intelligence, monitoring and control of the earth surface have gained currency and are used for various tactic flight’s tasks and missions. The non-motorized aircrafts (NMA) and the air-monitoring systems that include board and land part are key elements of these systems. The world experience in using NMA for these uses shows that they are most suitable where the exploitation conditions are very extreme and there is an unacceptable risk for operations of piloted aviation. Such are intelligence and observation of strictly guarded sites, zones, where military operations are conducted as well as regions with large scale fires and floods. The use of people in these conditions is connected with actual threat for their lives and practically, NMA as a tool for collecting and processing of information is irreplaceable. Keywords: registration of images, methods, information systems, non-motorized aircrafts.

Can we improve soil properties and plant biomass using rock powder as soil amendment?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena Reifschneider ◽  
Vinzenz Franz Eichinger ◽  
Evelin Pihlap ◽  
Noelia Garcia-Franco ◽  
Anna Kühnel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Plant Growth ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Plant Biomass ◽  
New Mineral ◽  
Severe Drought ◽  
Rock Powder ◽  
Overburden Material ◽  
Neutral Soil ◽  
Mitigate Climate Change

&lt;p&gt;The application of rock powder is an option to improve soil fertility while valorising the overburden material produced by industries. The &amp;#8220;enhanced weathering&amp;#8221; of silicate rock has also gained recent interest in the scientific community for its potential to mitigate climate change. However, the effect of rock powder on the soil physical properties remains unclear, especially under climate change (e.g., increasing drought events). Prior to any large scale application of rock powder, it is crucial to disentangle the potential effects of rock powder application on its environment. In a mesocosm experiment, we explored the effect of three rock powders on plant biomass, soil aggregation and organic carbon (OC) allocation within aggregates, in two soils with clayey and sandy textures, under regular watering or severe drought conditions. We demonstrate that the rock powder was the third factor after drought and soil texture significantly affecting the plant growth, resulting in a significant plant biomass decrease ranging from - 13 % to - 42 % compared with the control. We mainly attribute this effect to the increase of the already neutral soil pH, along with the release of excessive heavy metal amounts at a toxic range for the plant. Yet, we found that adding rock powder to the soil resulted in an increase of the relative amount of microaggregates in the soil by up to + 70 %, along with a re-distribution of OC within the fine fractions of the soil (up to + 32 % of OC in &lt; 250 &amp;#181;m fractions). The new mineral-mineral and organo-mineral interactions promoted by the rock powder addition could potentially favour OC persistence in soil on the long term. With our results, we insist on the potential risks for plant growth associated to the application of rock powder when not handled properly. In addition to the current enthusiasm around the capacity of rock powder to enhance carbon sequestration in the inorganic form, we also encourage scientists to focus their research on its effect on soil structure properties and OC storage.&lt;/p&gt;

Introduction

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Berner
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Carbon Cycle ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Quaternary Period ◽  
Geological Time Scale ◽  
The Earth

The cycle of carbon is essential to the maintenance of life, to climate, and to the composition of the atmosphere and oceans. What is normally thought of as the “carbon cycle” is the transfer of carbon between the atmosphere, the oceans, and life. This is not the subject of interest of this book. To understand this apparently confusing statement, it is necessary to separate the carbon cycle into two cycles: the short-term cycle and the long-term cycle. The “carbon cycle,” as most people understand it, is represented in figure 1.1. Carbon dioxide is taken up via photosynthesis by green plants on the continents or phytoplankton in the ocean. On land carbon is transferred to soils by the dropping of leaves, root growth, and respiration, the death of plants, and the development of soil biota. Land herbivores eat the plants, and carnivores eat the herbivores. In the oceans the phytoplankton are eaten by zooplankton that are in turn eaten by larger and larger organisms. The plants, plankton, and animals respire CO2. Upon death the plants and animals are decomposed by microorganisms with the ultimate production of CO2. Carbon dioxide is exchanged between the oceans and atmosphere, and dissolved organic matter is carried in solution by rivers from soils to the sea. This all constitutes the shortterm carbon cycle. The word “short-term” is used because the characteristic times for transferring carbon between reservoirs range from days to tens of thousands of years. Because the earth is more than four billion years old, this is short on a geological time scale. As the short-term cycle proceeds, concentrations of the two principal atmospheric gases, CO2 and CH4, can change as a result of perturbations of the cycle. Because these two are both greenhouse gases—in other words, they adsorb outgoing infrared radiation from the earth surface—changes in their concentrations can involve global warming and cooling over centuries and many millennia. Such changes have accompanied global climate change over the Quaternary period (past 2 million years), although other factors, such as variations in the receipt of solar radiation due to changes in characteristics of the earth’s orbit, have also contributed to climate change.

scholarly journals The future of carbon dioxide removal must be transdisciplinary

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 20200038
Author(s):  
Tamara Jane Zelikova
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Removal ◽  
Climate Mitigation ◽  
Emission Reductions ◽  
The Future ◽  
Mitigate Climate Change ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Holistic Research

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) represents a suite of pathways to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and mitigate climate change. The importance of CDR has expanded in recent years as emission reductions are not at pace to meet climate goals. This CDR-themed issue brings together diverse perspectives in order to identify opportunities to integrate across CDR disciplines, create a more holistic research agenda and inform how CDR is deployed. The individual papers within the issue discuss engineered and nature-based CDR approaches as well as the broader social and behavioural dimensions of CDR development and deployment. Here, I summarize the main take-aways from these individual papers and present a path for integrating key lessons across disciplines to ensure CDR is scaled equitably and sustainably to deliver on its climate mitigation promise.

scholarly journals The Silent Killer: Consequences of Climate Change and How to Survive Past the Year 2050

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 3757
Author(s):  
Anna Laura Huckelba ◽  
Paul A. M. Van Lange
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Behavioral Change ◽  
Social Dilemma ◽  
Psychological Perspective ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The World

There is strong scientific consensus that the climate is drastically changing due to increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and that these changes are largely due to human behavior. Scientific estimates posit that by 2050, we will begin to experience some of the most damaging consequences of climate change, which will only worsen as the world becomes more populated and resources become scarcer. Considerable progress has been made to explore technological solutions, yet useful insights from a psychological perspective are still lacking. Understanding whether and how individuals and groups cope with environmental dilemmas is the first step to combatting climate change. The key challenge is how can we reduce a tendency to inaction and to understand the psychological obstacles for behavioral change that reduce climate change. We provide a social dilemma analysis of climate change, emphasizing three important ingredients: people need to recognize their own impact on the climate, there is conflict between self-interest and collective interests, and there is a temporal dilemma involving a conflict between short-term and longer-term interest. Acknowledging these features, we provide a comprehensive overview of psychological mechanisms that support inaction, and close by discussing potential solutions. In particular, we offer recommendations at the level of individuals, communities, and governments.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document