scholarly journals Inter-disciplinary, multi-scale science to support society to adapt under global change

2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Karlie S. McDonald ◽  
Alistair J. Hobday ◽  
Juan Diego Gaitán-Espitia
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
System Structure ◽  
Research Front ◽  
Climate Change Research ◽  
Multi Scale ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Marine System ◽  
The Media

Factualised storytelling narratives may assist scientists to communicate inter-disciplinary, multi-scale climate change research with stakeholders and non-expert members of the community. Scientists are increasingly required to balance scientific rigour with storytelling narratives that can facilitate climate change mitigation and adaptation as new communication technologies evolve. In this editorial to the research front, ‘Climate impacts on marine system structure and function: molecules to ecosystems’, a review of climate change coverage in the media since 1980 showed that climate change science had a substantial voice globally and, in particular, in countries with carbon-dependent economies. However, the effective communication of multi-scale climate change research in the media can be complicated by the complex messages, the lack of training scientists receive in communication, and the traditionally distant relationship that the scientific community has with the media and, more so, with the broader community. Considerable scientific effort is being made to overcome these challenges as additional responsibility is placed on the scientific community to produce newsworthy scientific outputs. However, the integration of inter-disciplinary, multi-scale information, such as outlined in this research front, can result in more holistic climate change stories that scientists can effectively communicate with stakeholders and the broader community.

scholarly journals Extending the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways at the City Scale to Inform Future Vulnerability Assessments — The Case of Boston, Massachusetts

2019 ◽  
Vol 06 (03n04) ◽  
pp. 2050009
Author(s):  
Jayne Lino ◽  
Guillaume Rohat ◽  
Paul Kirshen ◽  
Hy Dao
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Climate Change Research ◽  
Multi Scale ◽  
Vulnerability Assessments ◽  
Neighborhood Scale ◽  
The City ◽  
Neighborhood Level

Climate change will impact cities’ infrastructure and urban dwellers, who often show differentiated capacity to cope with climate-related hazards. The Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) are part of an emerging research field which uses global socioeconomic and climate scenarios, developed by the climate change research community, to explore how different socioeconomic pathways will influence future society’s ability to cope with climate change. While the SSPs have been extensively used at the global scale, their use at the local and urban scale has remained rare, as they first need to be contextualized and extended for the particular place of interest. In this study, we present and apply a method to develop multi-scale extended SSPs at the city and neighborhood scale. Using Boston, Massachusetts, as a case study, we combined scenario matching, experts’ elicitation, and participatory processes to contextualize and make the global SSPs relevant at the urban scale. We subsequently employed the extended SSPs to explore future neighborhood-level vulnerability to extreme heat under multiple plausible socioeconomic trajectories, highlighting the usefulness of extended SSPs in informing future vulnerability assessments. The large differences in outcomes hint at the enormous potential of risk reduction that social and urban planning policies could trigger in the next decades.

Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) for Climate Change

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zili Yang ◽  
Yi-Ming Wei ◽  
Zhifu Mi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Integrated Assessment ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Integrated Model ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Climate Change Research ◽  
Integrated Assessment Models

Integrated assessment models (IAMs) for climate change refers to a broad category of research approaches in climate change. Climate change is the most complicated global environmental problem. By the very nature of climate change, research has to be interdisciplinary and multifaceted. IAM is the mainstream methodological approach in climate change research. Most researchers in climate change utilize IAMs directly or indirectly. IAMs draw knowledge and strengths from various disciplines related to climate change; contributions from each discipline rely on the mathematical representations of certain relationships connected to climate change; disciplinary components are linked through a unified modeling platform(s). In particular, IAMs for climate change usually involve social-economic components as well as natural sciences components. The key linkages in IAM platforms are anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in climate systems and climate change impacts on social-economic systems. The outputs of IAMs are numerical simulation results based on assumptions, historical data, and scenario designs. IAMs are widely used in assessing various GHG mitigation policies and climate impacts. In fact, conclusions in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Reports are drawn substantially from numerous IAMs. IAMs for climate change started in the late 1980s. Since then, IAMs for climate change have developed into a full-fledged interdisciplinary research field that involves hundreds of models, thriving online resources, and thousands of academic publications and policy reports around the world. IAM for climate change, as an interdisciplinary research approach, has received recognition by mainstream disciplines. The Dynamic Integrated model of Climate and the Economy (DICE) and the Regional Integrated model of Climate and the Economy (RICE)—two IAMs for climate change—are part of the core contributions in William Nordhaus’s Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2018.

Paleoclimate science for the 21st century: a wishlist

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim M. Cobb
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Climate Trends ◽  
Multi Scale ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
Paleoclimate Records ◽  
Paleoclimate Data

<p>The study of past climate trends, variability, and extremes has yielded unique insights into Earth’s changing climate, yet paleoclimate science must overcome a number of key challenges to maximize its utility in a century defined by accelerating climate change. First, the paleoclimate archive itself is at grave risk, given that i) many records end in the late 20<sup>th</sup> century, and no concerted efforts exist to extend them to the present-day, and ii) many paleoclimate archives are disappearing under continued climate change and other forms of human disturbance. Second, many paleoclimate records are comprised of oxygen isotopes, yet the coordinated, multi-scale observational and modeling infrastructures required to unravel the mechanisms governing water isotope variability are as yet underdeveloped. Lastly, in part owing to the aforementioned deficiencies, paleoclimate data assimilation efforts remain fraught with large uncertainties, despite their promise in constraining many aspects of future climate impacts, including extreme events and hydrological trends and variability. Paleoclimate science for the 21<sup>st</sup> century requires deep investments in the full integration of paleoclimate data and approaches into frameworks for climate risk and hazard assessments. In that sense, paleoclimate scientists will continue to play a key role in the communication of climate change science to key stakeholders, including the general public. Their understanding of the Earth system also equips them to contribute valuable insights to teams comprised of researchers, practitioners, and  decision-makers charged with leveraging science to inform solutions, in service to society.</p>

scholarly journals More Inclusive, More Practical: Climate Change Communication Research to Serve the Future

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Eise ◽  
Natalie Lambert ◽  
Tiwaladeoluwa Adekunle ◽  
Laura Eise
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Communication Research ◽  
Climate Change Communication ◽  
Climate Change Research ◽  
Global Food Security ◽  
Change Communication ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Current Climate

Climate change impacts are being felt around the world, threatening human well-being and global food security. Social scientists in communication and other fields, in tandem with physical scientists, are critical for implementing mitigation and adaptation strategies effectively and equitably. In the face of rapidly evolving circumstances, it is time to take stock of our current climate change communication research and look toward where we need to go. Based on our systematic review of mid- to current climate change research trends in communication as well as climate change response recommendations by the American Meteorological Society, we suggest future directions for research. We urgently recommend communication research that (1) addresses immediate mitigation and adaptation concerns in local communities and (2) is more geographically diverse, particularly focusing on the African continent, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East and certain parts of Asia.

Book Reviews

2014 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 559-562
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
The State ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Damage Functions ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Climate Economics

Warwick McKibbin of the Australian National University and the Brookings Institution reviews “Climate Economics: The State of the Art”, by Frank Ackerman and Elizabeth A. Stanton. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Reviews the state of the art in climate economics and its background sciences. Discusses climate science for economists; damage functions and climate impacts; climate change impacts on natural systems; climate change impacts on human systems; climate economics before and after the Stern Review; uncertainty; public goods and public policy; economics and the climate policy debate; technologies for mitigation; the economics of mitigation; and adaptation. Ackerman and Stanton are Senior Economists at Synapse Energy Economics, Cambridge, Mass.”

scholarly journals Media Representation of Extreme Event Attribution: A Case Study of the 2011–17 California Drought

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 847-862 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon Osaka ◽  
James Painter ◽  
Peter Walton ◽  
Abby Halperin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Extreme Event ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Media Representation ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
Event Attribution ◽  
The Media

AbstractExtreme event attribution (EEA) is a relatively new branch of climate science combining weather observations and modeling to assess and quantify whether and to what extent anthropogenic climate change altered extreme weather events (such as heat waves, droughts, and floods). Such weather events are frequently depicted in the media, which enhances the potential of EEA coverage to serve as a tool to communicate on-the-ground climate impacts to the general public. However, few academic papers have systematically analyzed EEA’s media representation. This paper helps to fill this literature gap through a comprehensive analysis of media coverage of the 2011–17 California drought, with specific attention to the types of attribution and uncertainty represented. Results from an analysis of five U.S. media outlets between 2014 and 2015 indicate that the connection between the drought and climate change was covered widely in both local and national news. However, legitimate differences in the methods underpinning the attribution studies performed by different researchers often resulted in a frame of scientific uncertainty or disagreement in the media coverage. While this case study shows substantial media interest in attribution science, it also raises important challenges for scientists and others communicating the results of multiple attribution studies via the media.

scholarly journals Impact of Aviation on Climate: FAA’s Aviation Climate Change Research Initiative (ACCRI) Phase II

2016 ◽  
Vol 97 (4) ◽  
pp. 561-583 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guy P. Brasseur ◽  
Mohan Gupta ◽  
Bruce E. Anderson ◽  
Sathya Balasubramanian ◽  
Steven Barrett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Atmospheric Chemistry ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Alternative Fuels ◽  
Fuel Efficiency ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Aircraft Emissions ◽  
Commercial Aviation ◽  
Climate Change Research ◽  
Research Initiative

Abstract Under the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Aviation Climate Change Research Initiative (ACCRI), non-CO2 climatic impacts of commercial aviation are assessed for current (2006) and for future (2050) baseline and mitigation scenarios. The effects of the non-CO2 aircraft emissions are examined using a number of advanced climate and atmospheric chemistry transport models. Radiative forcing (RF) estimates for individual forcing effects are provided as a range for comparison against those published in the literature. Preliminary results for selected RF components for 2050 scenarios indicate that a 2% increase in fuel efficiency and a decrease in NOx emissions due to advanced aircraft technologies and operational procedures, as well as the introduction of renewable alternative fuels, will significantly decrease future aviation climate impacts. In particular, the use of renewable fuels will further decrease RF associated with sulfate aerosol and black carbon. While this focused ACCRI program effort has yielded significant new knowledge, fundamental uncertainties remain in our understanding of aviation climate impacts. These include several chemical and physical processes associated with NOx–O3–CH4 interactions and the formation of aviation-produced contrails and the effects of aviation soot aerosols on cirrus clouds as well as on deriving a measure of change in temperature from RF for aviation non-CO2 climate impacts—an important metric that informs decision-making.

Building Climate Change into Weather and Climate Teaching

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia Knight
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
National Curriculum ◽  
Hard Copy ◽  
Teaching Resources ◽  
Teacher Understanding ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Weather And Climate ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Uk

<p>The Royal Meteorological Society believes that every student should leave school with the basic climate literacy that would enable them to engage with the messages put forward by the media or politicians, or to make informed decisions about their own opportunities and responsibilities.</p><p>Through 2019/ 2020, students, the media and academics became increasingly vocal in demanding that more climate change be taught in UK schools. With a rigid National Curriculum and exam specifications, part of the problem lies in students (and teachers) not realising the relevance of concepts and processes they have actually been taught in school to understanding climate change and the broad spectrum of impacts, mitigation and adaptation issues associated with it. In addition, weather and climate are commonly perceived as being amongst the harder topics in geography and so, even when they are taught at all, geography teachers are used to teaching weather, climate and climate change separately, not highlighting the close ties and links between the topics.</p><p>With this in mind, the Royal Meteorological Society has developed a full scheme of work for 11-14 year old students which integrates climate change thinking into weather and climate lessons. Hard copy teacher’s guides have been distributed to schools throughout the UK, free of charge, with associated teaching resources being made available online. Recognising the importance of teacher understanding, the resources are accompanied by CPD materials for teachers.</p><p>In 2021, we hope to build on this work by developing resources and teacher training materials for science teachers and students.</p>

scholarly journals Climate Change, Human Rights and Justice

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Environmental Costs ◽  
Climate Change Negotiations ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Equity And Efficiency ◽  
The Face ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Climate Crisis

The global climate crisis is not just a matter of fixing industry so that it can produce profitably and contaminate less. There is a far more pressing issue facing us: how to address the negative climate impacts of development that is irresponsible in terms of its human and environmental costs. Mitigation and adaptation are two fundamental pillars of the climate debate. Technological equity and efficiency (mitigation) and the capacity of communities to brace themselves in the face of climate change (adaptation), are both fundamental to advance international climate change negotiations.

scholarly journals THIS IS NOT A WASTE PLANET; THE PARTICIPATION OF HUMAN GENDER IN THE FACE OF ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION

2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 49-66
Author(s):  
Oscar Samario Hernandez ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
At Risk ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Community Organizations ◽  
Blue Color ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Media

This year the international community recalled under a common celebration about the achievement of humanity that managed to put man on Earth's satellite; Moon. On July 20, 1969 the media reported this event, this year is still remembered, but it is also news that from the photographs sent by the Apollo missions taken from the space in which the splendor of the Earth with its characteristic blue color, we call it the Great Blue Marble, the home of humanity today at risk of threat from pollution, the scientific community, organizations and international organizations have warned of the consequences and risks if this deterioration continues. This work is a recognition of this concern, but it is also a call to the responsibility of mankind to act in the face of the imminent danger of climate change.

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