scholarly journals A Review of Landfills, Waste and the Nearly Forgotten Nexus with Climate Change

Environments ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
John Blair ◽  
Sarath Mataraarachchi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Critical Issue ◽  
Atmospheric Temperature ◽  
Zero Waste ◽  
International Panel ◽  
Regulatory Measures ◽  
Attitudinal Changes ◽  
Term Objective

Landfills have been considered the most convenient approach for dealing with waste from time immemorial, even though some have led to disasters of catastrophic proportions. Moreover, recent findings by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggest that the decomposing fraction of landfill waste that generates greenhouse gases (GHGs) may not be adequately accounted for and could become a critical issue in our effort to restrict atmospheric temperature increases to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. (According to the IPCC, the maximum atmospheric temperature rise is a factor of cumulative net CO2 emissions as well as net non-CO2 radiative forcing. These anthropogenic forcing agents include methane, nitrous oxide and other trace gases from landfill sites. In that sense, landfills can tip the balance from 1.5 towards 2 degrees of warming). This paper draws on data from a number of countries for review and is a timely reminder that society needs to develop a more environmentally and socially sensitive set of methods that could ultimately replace landfills. The paper first examines problems connected with landfills and evaluates alternatives such as incineration, biomass burning and mechanical biological treatment, which generally present their own problems. The paper then considers the range of materials conventionally dispatched to landfill, dealing with them in the context of a zero-waste philosophy. The conclusions propose more disciplined waste management to embrace collective accountability, wherein those who create the waste—chiefly, households and businesses—would be expected to deal with it responsibly. With attitudinal changes and education, supported by regulatory measures, it should be possible to reach the long-term objective of zero waste and the retirement of the traditional landfill.

scholarly journals How Has Human-Induced Climate Change Affected California Drought Risk?

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linyin Cheng ◽  
Martin Hoerling ◽  
Amir AghaKouchak ◽  
Ben Livneh ◽  
Xiao-Wei Quan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Root Zone ◽  
Agricultural Drought ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Drought Risk ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Moisture Availability

Abstract The current California drought has cast a heavy burden on statewide agriculture and water resources, further exacerbated by concurrent extreme high temperatures. Furthermore, industrial-era global radiative forcing brings into question the role of long-term climate change with regard to California drought. How has human-induced climate change affected California drought risk? Here, observations and model experimentation are applied to characterize this drought employing metrics that synthesize drought duration, cumulative precipitation deficit, and soil moisture depletion. The model simulations show that increases in radiative forcing since the late nineteenth century induce both increased annual precipitation and increased surface temperature over California, consistent with prior model studies and with observed long-term change. As a result, there is no material difference in the frequency of droughts defined using bivariate indicators of precipitation and near-surface (10 cm) soil moisture, because shallow soil moisture responds most sensitively to increased evaporation driven by warming, which compensates the increase in the precipitation. However, when using soil moisture within a deep root zone layer (1 m) as covariate, droughts become less frequent because deep soil moisture responds most sensitively to increased precipitation. The results illustrate the different land surface responses to anthropogenic forcing that are relevant for near-surface moisture exchange and for root zone moisture availability. The latter is especially relevant for agricultural impacts as the deep layer dictates moisture availability for plants, trees, and many crops. The results thus indicate that the net effect of climate change has made agricultural drought less likely and that the current severe impacts of drought on California’s agriculture have not been substantially caused by long-term climate changes.

Bifurcations, Global Change, Tipping Points and All That

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Ghil
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Tipping Points ◽  
Intrinsic Variability ◽  
Stochastic Forcing ◽  
International Panel ◽  
Convection Model ◽  
Long Term Prediction ◽  
Autonomous Dynamical Systems

<p>In this talk, we will attempt to cover, as time permits, issues pertaining to a self-consistent, unified treatment of the climate system’s natural and forced variability, i.e. climate change, sensitivity and intrinsic variability. To set the stage, key features of short-, intermediate, and long-term prediction will be sketched, followed by the effects of the system’s multiple scales of motion. After summarizing the main results and uncertainties of successive assessment reports of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), time-dependent forcing will be introduced, in both its natural and anthropogenic forms.</p><p><span>   </span>We will outline the generalization of strange attractors to this non-autonomous setting, namely pullback and random attractors (PBAs & RAs), as well as the generalization of the bifurcations known from classical, autonomous dynamical systems to the tipping points (TPs) of non-autonomous ones. The case of the Lorenz convection model with stochastic forcing and of its RA will be used as an illustrative example. The talk will conclude with a list of questions and a selected bibliography.</p>

scholarly journals Challenging the Greenhouse Effect Specification and the Climate Sensitivity of the IPCC

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Antero Ollila
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Sensitivity ◽  
Greenhouse Effect ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Atmospheric Temperature ◽  
Shortwave Radiation ◽  
Radiation Absorption ◽  
Heating Effect ◽  
Downward Radiation

The greenhouse effect concept has been developed to explain the Earth’s elevated temperature. The prevailing theory of climate change is the anthropogenic global warming theory, which assumes that the greenhouse (GH) effect is due to the longwave (LW) absorption of 155.6 Wm-2 by GH gases and clouds. The actual warming increase to 33°C of the Earth’s surface temperature according to the present GH effect definition is the infrared downward LW radiation of 345.6 Wm-2 emitted by the atmosphere. The atmosphere’s temperature is the key element behind this radiation. According to the energy laws, it is not possible that the LW absorption of 155.6 Wm-2 by the GH gases could re-emit downward LW radiation of 345.6 Wm-2 on the Earth’s surface. In this study, the GH effect is 294.5 Wm-2, including shortwave radiation absorption by the atmosphere and the latent and sensible heating effect. This greater GH effect is a prerequisite for the present atmospheric temperature, which provides downward radiation on the surface. Clouds’ net effect is 1% based on the empirical observations. The contribution of CO2 in the GH effect is 7.3% corresponding to 2.4°C in temperature. The reproduction of CO2 radiative forcing (RF) showed the climate sensitivity RF value to be 2.16 Wm-2, which is 41.6% smaller than the 3.7 Wm-2 used by the IPCC. A climate model showing a climate sensitivity (CS) of 0.6°C matches the CO2 contribution in the GH effect, but the IPCC’s climate model showing a CS of 1.8°C or 1.2°C does not.

scholarly journals Prompt rewetting of drained peatlands reduces climate warming despite methane emissions

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anke Günther ◽  
Alexandra Barthelmes ◽  
Vytas Huth ◽  
Hans Joosten ◽  
Gerald Jurasinski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Carbon Stocks ◽  
Time Dependent ◽  
Climatic Effects ◽  
Mitigation Potential ◽  
Peatland Rewetting ◽  
Change Mitigation

AbstractPeatlands are strategic areas for climate change mitigation because of their matchless carbon stocks. Drained peatlands release this carbon to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2). Peatland rewetting effectively stops these CO2 emissions, but also re-establishes the emission of methane (CH4).Essentially, management must choose between CO2 emissions from drained or CH4 emissions from rewetted peatland. This choice must consider radiative effects and atmospheric lifetimes of both gases, with CO2 being a weak but persistent and CH4 a strong but short-lived greenhouse gas. The resulting climatic effects are, thus, strongly time-dependent. We used a radiative forcing model to compare forcing dynamics of global scenarios for future peatland management using areal data from the Global Peatland Database. Our results show that CH4 radiative forcing does not undermine the climate change mitigation potential of peatland rewetting. Instead, postponing rewetting increases the long-term warming effect of continued CO2 emissions. Warnings against CH4 emissions from rewetted peatlands are therefore unjustified and counterproductive.

Turkish Muslims in a German city: Entrepreneurial and residential self-determination

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Sarah Hackett
Keyword(s):  
Residential Patterns ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
German City ◽  
Post War ◽  
Oral History Interviews ◽  
The City ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Term Objective

Drawing upon a collection of oral history interviews, this paper offers an insight into entrepreneurial and residential patterns and behaviour amongst Turkish Muslims in the German city of Bremen. The academic literature has traditionally argued that Turkish migrants in Germany have been pushed into self-employment, low-quality housing and segregated neighbourhoods as a result of discrimination, and poor employment and housing opportunities. Yet the interviews reveal the extent to which Bremen’s Turkish Muslims’ performances and experiences have overwhelmingly been the consequences of personal choices and ambitions. For many of the city’s Turkish Muslim entrepreneurs, self-employment had been a long-term objective, and they have succeeded in establishing and running their businesses in the manner they choose with regards to location and clientele, for example. Similarly, interviewees stressed the way in which they were able to shape their housing experiences by opting which districts of the city to live in and by purchasing property. On the whole, they perceive their entrepreneurial and residential practices as both consequences and mediums of success, integration and a loyalty to the city of Bremen. The findings are contextualised within the wider debate regarding the long-term legacy of Germany’s post-war guest-worker system and its position as a “country of immigration”.

2018 Nobel Economics Prize: Integrating Climate Change Measures into Sustainable Economic Growth

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyen Thi Thuc An ◽  
Dau Kieu Ngoc Anh
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Economic Growth ◽  
Endogenous Growth ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Growth Theory ◽  
Endogenous Growth Theory ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Sustainable Economic Growth

The 2018 Nobel Economics Prize was awarded to two American economists - William D. Nordhaus and Paul M. Romer - who designed methods for better assessing environmental issues and technological advances on growth. This year’s Laureates, Nordhaus was the first person to create an intergrated model to assess interactions between society and nature and Romer laid the foundation for what is now called endogenous growth theory. According to the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, these two macroeconomists’ research have helped “significantly broaden the scope of economic analysis by constructing models that explain how the market economy interacts with nature and knowledge” which integrates climate change measures into long-term sustainable economic growth. Keywords Nobel in economics, William D. Nordhaus, Paul M. Romer, climate change, endogenous growth theory, economic growth References [1] Y Vân (2018), “Lý lịch 'khủng' của hai nhà khoa học vừa giành giải Nobel Kinh tế 2018”, Vietnambiz, đăng tải ngày 08/10/2018, https://vietnambiz.vn/ly-lich-khung-cua-hai-nha-khoa-hoc-vua-gianh-giai-nobel-kinh-te-2018-95776.html[2] Jonas O. Bergman, Rich Miller (2018), “Nordhaus, Romer Win Nobel for Thinking on Climate, Innovation”, đăng tải ngày 8/10/2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-08/nordhaus-romer-win-2018-nobel-prize-in-economic-sciences [3] Antonin Pottier (2018), “Giải Nobel” William Nordhaus có thật sự nghiêm túc?”, Nguyễn Đôn Phước dịch, đăng tải ngày 11/10/2018, http://www.phantichkinhte123.com/2018/10/giai-nobel-william-nordhaus-co-that-su.html[4] Thăng Điệp (2018), “Giải Nobel kinh tế 2018 về tay hai người Mỹ”, đăng tải ngày 8/10/2018, http://vneconomy.vn/giai-nobel-kinh-te-2018-ve-tay-hai-nguoi-my-20181008185809239.htm[5] Lars P. Syll (2018), “Cuối cùng - Paul Romer cũng có được giải thưởng Nobel”, Huỳnh Thiện Quốc Việt dịch, đăng tải ngày 14/10/2018, http://www.phantichkinhte123.com/2018/10/cuoi-cung-paul-romer-cung-co-uoc-giai.html[6] Phương Võ (2018), “Nobel Kinh tế 2018: Chạm tới bài toán khó của thời đại”, đăng tải ngày 9/10/2018, https://nld.com.vn/thoi-su-quoc-te/nobel-kinh-te-2018-cham-toi-bai-toan-kho-cua-thoi-dai-20181008221734228.htm[7] Đông Phong (2018), “Nobel Kinh tế cho giải pháp phát triển bền vững và phúc lợi người dân”, đăng tải ngày 8/10/2018, https://news.zing.vn/nobel-kinh-te-cho-giai-phap-phat-trien-ben-vung-va-phuc-loi-nguoi-dan-post882860.html[8] Thanh Trúc (2018), “Giải Nobel kinh tế 2018: Thay đổi tư duy về biến đổi khí hậu”, https://tusach.thuvienkhoahoc.com/wiki/Gi%E1%BA%A3i_Nobel_kinh_t%E1%BA%BF_2018:_Thay_%C4%91%E1%BB%95i_t%C6%B0_duy_v%E1%BB%81_bi%E1%BA%BFn_%C4%91%E1%BB%95i_kh%C3%AD_h%E1%BA%ADu[9] Cẩm Anh (2018), “Nobel kinh tế 2018: Lời giải cho tăng trưởng kinh tế bền vững”, đăng tải ngày 11/10/2018, http://enternews.vn/nobel-kinh-te-2018-loi-giai-cho-tang-truong-kinh-te-ben-vung-137600.html.

On Climate Change Risks of Long-Term Socio-Economic Development in Russia

2019 ◽  
pp. 79-95
Author(s):  
N.E. Terentiev
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Technological Innovation ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Climate Risk ◽  
Climate Change Risks ◽  
Socio Economic Development ◽  
Management Policies

Based on the latest data, paper investigates the dynamics of global climate change and its impact on economic growth in the long-term. The notion of climate risk is considered. The main directions of climate risk management policies are analyzed aimed, first, at reducing anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions through technological innovation and structural economic shifts; secondly, at adaptation of population, territories and economic complexes to the irreparable effects of climate change. The problem of taking into account the phenomenon of climate change in the state economic policy is put in the context of the most urgent tasks of intensification of long-term socio-economic development and parrying strategic challenges to the development of Russia.

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