scholarly journals The climate role of CO2 – nature’s telling from 400 Mio. years

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Anderl
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Simple Formula ◽  
The Past ◽  
Simulation Results ◽  
Scientific Results ◽  
Public Demand

Abstract The broader public demand reproducibility of scientific results particularly related to hot societal topics such as climate change. Our studies focus on the 80:20-rule to identify the essentials from the readily observable. It is found that the paleo-records on the past 400 Mio. years well constrain the compound universal climate role of CO2, this being represented by a very simple formula in line with previous sophisticated simulation results.

scholarly journals Simplified climate modelling to size economic boundaries

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Anderl
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Economic Growth ◽  
Water Vapor ◽  
Translational Energy ◽  
Climate Modelling ◽  
Foreseeable Future ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
Scientific Results ◽  
Public Demand

The broader public demand reproducibility of scientific results particularly related to hot societal topics. The present work applies the 80:20-rule to climate change, concentrating on the essentials from the readily observable and identifying the inherent relationships in their potential simplicity. Observations on 400 Mio. years of paleoclimate are found to well constrain the compound universal climate role of CO 2. Combined with observations on the industrial-era atmospheric CO 2 and ocean heat evolvement, climate risk assessment and projections on the economic boundaries are performed. Independently in conjunction with energy budget studies, simple models are presented for the fundamental natural processes related to: (i) water vapor and CO 2 effect on temperature; (ii) transient and equilibrium climate; (iii) heating from the V/R-T (vibrational/rotational to translational) energy transfer; (iv) Earth emissivity changing with surface temperature; (v) water vapor for Earths energy balance maintenance; (vi) rainfall pattern altering with temperature; (vii) natures reaction on the anthropogenic energy consumption. In conclusion, realistic estimates point at precluding positive economic growth for the foreseeable future if temperatures are to be given a reasonable chance to become sustainably contained within sensible limits.

scholarly journals Computer-assisted detection and classification of misinformation about climate change

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Travis Coan ◽  
Constantine Boussalis ◽  
John Cook ◽  
Mirjam Nanko
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Detailed History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Computer Assisted Detection ◽  
History Of

A growing body of scholarship investigates the role of misinformation in shaping the debate on climate change. Our research builds on and extends this literature by 1) developing and validating a comprehensive taxonomy of climate misinformation, 2) conducting the largest content analysis to date on contrarian claims, 3) developing a computational model to accurately detect specific claims, and 4) drawing on an extensive corpus from conservative think-tank (CTTs) websites and contrarian blogs to construct a detailed history of misinformation over the past 20 years. Our study finds that climate misinformation produced by CTTs and contrarian blogs has focused on attacking the integrity of climate science and scientists and, increasingly, has challenged climate policy and renewable energy. We further demonstrate the utility of our approach by exploring the influence of corporate and foundation funding on the production and dissemination of specific contrarian claims.

scholarly journals Bio-modulating wine acidity: The role of non-Saccharomyces yeasts

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Vilela
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Good Balance ◽  
The Past ◽  
Spoilage Yeasts ◽  
Wine Composition ◽  
Saccharomyces Yeasts

In recent years, wine consumers have been looking for fruitier wines, with less ethanol, but presenting a good balance in terms of mouthfeel. However, due to the effects of global climate change, wines can be more alcoholic and flatter in terms of acidity. If in the past, non-Saccharomyces yeasts were often considered as spoilage yeasts, now they are used to modulate wine composition, namely in terms of aroma and acidity. In this article, the ability of some non-Saccharomyces yeasts to modulate wine acidity is reviewed.

Fewer butterflies seen by community scientists across the warming and drying landscapes of the American West

Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 371 (6533) ◽  
pp. 1042-1045
Author(s):  
M. L. Forister ◽  
C. A. Halsch ◽  
C. C. Nice ◽  
J. A. Fordyce ◽  
T. E. Dilts ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
American West ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Western United States ◽  
New Approach ◽  
The Past ◽  
Biotic Response ◽  
Insect Populations ◽  
Annual Reduction

Uncertainty remains regarding the role of anthropogenic climate change in declining insect populations, partly because our understanding of biotic response to climate is often complicated by habitat loss and degradation among other compounding stressors. We addressed this challenge by integrating expert and community scientist datasets that include decades of monitoring across more than 70 locations spanning the western United States. We found a 1.6% annual reduction in the number of individual butterflies observed over the past four decades, associated in particular with warming during fall months. The pervasive declines that we report advance our understanding of climate change impacts and suggest that a new approach is needed for butterfly conservation in the region, focused on suites of species with shared habitat or host associations.

Children Climate Change Activism and Protests in Africa: Reflections and Lessons From Greta Thunberg

2021 ◽  
pp. 027046762110496
Author(s):  
Kelvin Zhanda ◽  
Munyaradzi A Dzvimbo ◽  
Leonard Chitongo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
The Past ◽  
Climate Policies ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Regional Organisations ◽  
National Governments ◽  
Document Review

This article is based on a distinctive study that seeks to analyse the nascent role of teenagers’ activism and protests for climate change action. With the increasing realisation of children's rights to participation, the past few years have marked the rise of the new dispensation of climate activism and protests in which teenagers have occupied the centre stage. We pay specific reference to Greta Thunberg, a Swedish child climate activist, in as much as she can set a framework upon which Africa can draw parallels, lessons and insights for climate activism and protests. Even though the context may be different, the paper attempts to inform vibrant climate action through activism by children and ultimately climate policies, laws and management for environmental sustainability in Africa. We engaged document review and thematic approaches, and it emerged that children climate activism and protests in Africa are not as vibrant as they should be given the prevalence of climate inaction across the continent. Therefore, there is much to learn from Thunberg by pushing national governments and regional organisations to increase the decision-making space of children in the fight against climate change.

scholarly journals Demanding stories: television coverage of sustainability, climate change and material demand

2017 ◽  
Vol 375 (2095) ◽  
pp. 20160375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joe Smith
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Future Role ◽  
The Past ◽  
Demand Reduction ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
Television Coverage

This paper explores the past, present and future role of broadcasting, above all via the medium of television, in shaping how societies talk, think about and act on climate change and sustainability issues. The paper explores these broad themes via a focus on the important but relatively neglected issue of material demand and opportunities for its reduction. It takes the outputs and decision-making of one of the world's most influential broadcasters, the BBC, as its primary focus. The paper considers these themes in terms of stories, touching on some of the broader societal frames of understanding into which they can be grouped. Media decision-makers and producers from a range of genres frequently return to the centrality of ‘story’ in the development, commissioning and production of an idea. With reference to specific examples of programming, and drawing on interviews with media practitioners, the paper considers the challenges of generating broadcast stories that can inspire engagement in issues around climate change, and specifically material demand. The concluding section proposes actions and approaches that might help to establish material demand reduction as a prominent way of thinking about climate change and environmental issues more widely. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Material demand reduction’.

scholarly journals Role of climate in the rise and fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (11) ◽  
pp. eaax6656 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashish Sinha ◽  
Gayatri Kathayat ◽  
Harvey Weiss ◽  
Hanying Li ◽  
Hai Cheng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Northern Iraq ◽  
The Past ◽  
Economic Collapse ◽  
Wet Climate

Northern Iraq was the political and economic center of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (c. 912 to 609 BCE)—the largest and most powerful empire of its time. After more than two centuries of regional dominance, the Neo-Assyrian state plummeted from its zenith (c. 670 BCE) to complete political collapse (c. 615 to 609 BCE). Earlier explanations for the Assyrian collapse focused on the roles of internal politico-economic conflicts, territorial overextension, and military defeat. Here, we present a high-resolution and precisely dated speleothem record of climate change from the Kuna Ba cave in northern Iraq, which suggests that the empire’s rise occurred during a two-centuries-long interval of anomalously wet climate in the context of the past 4000 years, while megadroughts during the early-mid seventh century BCE, as severe as recent droughts in the region but lasting for decades, triggered a decline in Assyria’s agrarian productivity and thus contributed to its eventual political and economic collapse.

Who makes the world? Academics and (un)cancelling the future

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 413-427
Author(s):  
Leonie Holthaus ◽  
Nils Stockmann
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Policy Advice ◽  
Homogenous Group ◽  
The Past ◽  
Long Line ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future

In this essay, we consider the role of academics as change-makers. There is a long line of reflection about academics’ sociopolitical role(s) in international relations (IR). Yet, our attempt differs from available considerations in two regards. First, we emphasize that academics are not a homogenous group. While some keep their distance from policymakers, others frequently provide policy advice. Hence, positions and possibilities of influence differ. Second, our argument is not oriented towards the past but the future. That is, we develop our reflections on academics as change-makers by outlining the vision of a ‘FutureLab’, an innovative, future forum that brings together different world-makers who are united in their attempt to improve ‘the world'. Our vision accounts for current, perhaps alarming trends in academia, such as debates about the (in)ability to confront post-truth politics. Still, it is a (critically) optimistic one and can be read as an invitation for experimentation. Finally, we sympathize with voices demanding the democratization of academia and find that further cross-disciplinary dialogues within academia and dialogues between different academics, civil society activists and policymakers may help in finding creditable solutions to problems such as climate change and populism.

scholarly journals Computer-assisted classification of contrarian claims about climate change

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Travis G. Coan ◽  
Constantine Boussalis ◽  
John Cook ◽  
Mirjam O. Nanko
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Detailed History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
History Of

AbstractA growing body of scholarship investigates the role of misinformation in shaping the debate on climate change. Our research builds on and extends this literature by (1) developing and validating a comprehensive taxonomy of climate contrarianism, (2) conducting the largest content analysis to date on contrarian claims, (3) developing a computational model to accurately classify specific claims, and (4) drawing on an extensive corpus from conservative think-tank (CTTs) websites and contrarian blogs to construct a detailed history of claims over the past 20 years. Our study finds that the claims utilized by CTTs and contrarian blogs have focused on attacking the integrity of climate science and scientists and, increasingly, has challenged climate policy and renewable energy. We further demonstrate the utility of our approach by exploring the influence of corporate and foundation funding on the production and dissemination of specific contrarian claims.

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