scholarly journals 21RST CENTURY: “The Game against Nature”

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Jan-Erik Lane

When a decision-maker faces a choice between alternatives of action in a situation of uncertainty, one speaks of a “game against Nature” when he/she faces no interaction with another player or group. In the process of global warming, mankind is the one player facing two alternatives: resilience or precaution. Not knowing fully the consequences of the increase in the emission of greenhouse gases on climate change or the implications of climate change for biological and social system, what action to take? If there were a global benevolent rule, he/she may decide to avoid the worst outcome. But global ecological policy-making requires the coordination among a large number of players, which open up the possibility of reneging as well as carries heavy transaction costs.

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Romdhane Ben Slama

The global warming which preoccupies humanity, is still considered to be linked to a single cause which is the emission of greenhouse gases, CO2 in particular. In this article, we try to show that, on the one hand, the greenhouse effect (the radiative imprisonment to use the scientific term) took place in conjunction with the infrared radiation emitted by the earth. The surplus of CO2 due to the combustion of fossil fuels, but also the surplus of infrared emissions from artificialized soils contribute together or each separately,  to the imbalance of the natural greenhouse effect and the trend of global warming. In addition, another actor acting directly and instantaneously on the warming of the ambient air is the heat released by fossil fuels estimated at 17415.1010 kWh / year inducing a rise in temperature of 0.122 ° C, or 12.2 ° C / century.


2011 ◽  
Vol 243-249 ◽  
pp. 5289-5292
Author(s):  
Jun Hua Yu

As known to all, the emission of greenhouse gases is mainly caused by human activities. If we could cut down the emission, we could gradually prevent the influence of climate change. Relevant research shows that in the field of energy consumption, the control of CO2 emission is the most effective way to save energy. Thus, reducing the architectural energy consumption is one of the most crucial factors to realize global climate goals. Although more and more scholars prefer to use the word ‘dilemma’ to describe the urgent contradiction between architectural construction and environment, and energy as well, I still want to discuss the influence of global warming on the architecture industry, and explain why it is an opportunity as well.


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Jan-Erik Lane

<p><em>The UNFCCC does not deliver policy implementation against climate change. This common pool regime has too many members, resulting in transaction costs skyrocketing. It confounds sustainable development with anti-global warming policy-making and implementation. He focus should be on the G20 countries plus Iran that are responsible for more than 2/3ds of CO2s. They must go first in global de-carbonisation, closing all coal plants, replacing them with solar and atomic power, and start using electrical vehicles instead of SUVs.</em><em></em></p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Jan-Erik Lane

Economic outcomes tend to be best when there is no market failure, the standard textbook teaches us. Yet, the global economy in a broad sense, covering all consumers, firms and households is today plagued by externalities and free riding, as benefits from and costs for greenhouses gases are not tied together (Stern, 2007, 2015). Neither the UNFCCC nor the IPCC delivers real policy implementation against climate change (Conka, 2015; Vogler, 2016). This common pool regime (CPR) has too many members, resulting in transaction costs skyrocketing. It confounds sustainable development in general with specific anti-global warming policy-making and implementation of real results. The focus should be on the G20 countries plus Iran, as they are responsible for more than 2/3ds of all CO2s.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Lafuente ◽  
Concha Cano-Díaz

What is a dryland? The first thing that may come to your mind is a desert-like place where nothing can live or grow. Despite the scarcity of water, dryland ecosystems are diverse and will expand due to global climate change. The main cause of global warming is the increase of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. To solve this, we obviously need to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, but the study of microorganisms in nature also gives us exciting clues for how to address the problem of global warming. Microorganisms live in all possible Earth environments, and luckily some of them can even take greenhouse gases from the air as their food! In this article, we describe our search of the global soils for bacteria that can consume one of the most powerful greenhouse gases, methane (CH4). Contrary to what was expected, we found that these bacteria live in drylands all over the world!


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Kehan Li

Climate change is of great importance in modern times and global warming is considered as a significant part of climate change. It is proved that human’s emissions such as greenhouse gases are one of the main sources of global warming (IPCC, 2018). Apart from greenhouse gases, there is another kind of matter being released in quantity via emissions from industries and transportations and playing an important role in global warming, which is aerosol. However, atmospheric aerosols have the net effect of cooling towards global warming. In this paper, climate change with respect to global warming is briefly introduced and the role of aerosols in the atmosphere is emphasized. Besides, properties of aerosols including dynamics and thermodynamics of aerosols as well as interactions with solar radiation are concluded. In the end, environmental policies and solutions are discussed. Keywords: Climate change, Global warming, Atmospheric aerosols, Particulate matter, Radiation, Environmental policy.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 383-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Marszałek ◽  
Zygmunt Kowalski ◽  
Agnieszka Makara

Abstract Pig slurry is classified as a natural liquid fertilizer, which is a heterogeneous mixture of urine, faeces, remnants of feed and technological water, used to remove excrement and maintain the hygiene of livestock housing. The storage and distribution of pig slurry on farmland affect the environment as they are associated with, among others, the emission of various types of gaseous pollutants, mainly CH4, CO2, N2O, NH3, H2S, and other odorants. Methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O) are greenhouse gases (GHGs) which contribute to climate change by increasing the greenhouse effect. Ammonia (NH3) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) are malodorous gases responsible for the occurrence of odour nuisance which, due to their toxicity, may endanger the health and lives of humans and animals. NH3 also influences the increase of atmosphere and soil acidification. The article presents the environmental impact of greenhouse gases and odorous compounds emitted from pig slurry. Key gaseous atmospheric pollutants such as NH3, H2S, CH4, CO2 and N2O have been characterized. Furthermore, methods to reduce the emission of odours and GHGs from pig slurry during its storage and agricultural usage have been discussed.


Author(s):  
Tatiana Prorokova

This chapter scrutinizes the complex relationship between climate change and theology, as represented in First Reformed, as well as Paul Schrader’s understanding of humanity’s major problems today. Analyzing the issue of ecological decline through the prism of religion, Schrader outlines the ideology that presumably might help humanity survive at the age of global warming. Through the complex discussions of such issues as despair, anxiety, and hope, Schrader deduces the formula of survival in which preservation is the key component. Equating humans to God, Schrader, on the one hand, censures those actions that led to progress but destroyed the environment, yet, on the other hand, he foregrounds the fact that humans can also save the planet now. Schrader portrays both humans and Earth as living organisms created by God. He draws explicit parallels between the current state of our planet and the problems that we experience – from political ones, including war, to more personal ones like health issues.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Eelco J. Rohling

This chapter outlines the challenge facing us. The Paris Agreement sets a target maximum of 2°C global warming and a preferred limit of 1.5°C. Yet, the subsequent combined national pledges for emission reduction suffice only for limiting warming to roughly 3°C. And because most nations are falling considerably short of meeting their pledges, even greater warming may become locked in. Something more drastic and wide-ranging is needed: a multi-pronged strategy. These different prongs to the climate-change solution are introduced in this chapter and explored one by one in the following chapters. First is rapid, massive reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Second is implementation of ways to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Third may be increasing the reflectivity of Earth to incoming sunlight, to cool certain places down more rapidly. In addition, we need to protect ourselves from climate-change impacts that have already become inevitable.


Author(s):  
Michael H. Fox

We, the teeming billions of people on earth, are changing the earth’s climate at an unprecedented rate because we are spewing out greenhouse gases and are heading to a disaster, say most climate scientists. Not so, say the skeptics. We are just experiencing normal variations in earth’s climate and we should all take a big breath, settle down, and worry about something else. Which is it? A national debate has raged for the last several decades about whether anthropogenic (man-made) sources of carbon dioxide (CO2 ) and other so-called “greenhouse gases“ (primarily methane and nitrous oxide) are causing the world to heat up. This phenomenon is usually called “global warming,” but it is more appropriate to call it “global climate change,” since it is not simply an increase in global temperatures but rather more complex changes to the overall climate. Al Gore is a prominent spokesman for the theory that humans are causing an increase in greenhouse gases leading to global climate change. His movie and book, An Inconvenient Truth, gave the message widespread awareness and resulted in a Nobel Peace Prize for him in 2008. However, the message also led to widespread criticism. On the one hand are a few scientists and a large segment of the general American public who believe that there is no connection between increased CO2 in the atmosphere and global climate change, or if there is, it is too expensive to do anything about it, anyway. On the other hand is an overwhelming consensus of climate scientists who have produced enormous numbers of research papers demonstrating that increased CO2 is changing the earth’s climate. The scientific consensus is expressed most clearly in the Fourth Assessment Report in 2007 by the United Nations–sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the fourth in a series of reports since 1990. The IPCC began as a group of scientists meeting in Geneva in November 1988 to discuss global climate issues under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Program.


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