The Enterprise in the 21st Century

2011 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Costas P. Pappis
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
21St Century ◽  
International Community ◽  
State Of Emergency ◽  
Distant Future ◽  
Scientific Hypothesis

Climate change has emerged lately as one of the main issues of concern, may be the most important, in economy and society. This was not so, even just a few years ago. Climate change used to be considered, even until quite recently, as something not much more than mere scientific hypothesis. But the situation has radically changed. The planet is now almost universally recognized as being in a state of emergency because of global warming and its impacts on the environment, economy and human societies. Enterprises are increasingly faced with the climate change challenge and with having to take measures to adapt. Countries and the whole international community are taking urgent measures to mitigate the causes of climate change and hopefully, in a rather distant future, reverse the catastrophic trend.

scholarly journals The role of HFCs in mitigating 21st century climate change

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6083-6089 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Xu ◽  
D. Zaelke ◽  
G. J. M. Velders ◽  
V. Ramanathan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Black Carbon ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Global Warming Potential ◽  
Tropospheric Ozone ◽  
Global Demand ◽  
Carbon Aerosols

Abstract. There is growing international interest in mitigating climate change during the early part of this century by reducing emissions of short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), in addition to reducing emissions of CO2. The SLCPs include methane (CH4), black carbon aerosols (BC), tropospheric ozone (O3) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Recent studies have estimated that by mitigating emissions of CH4, BC, and O3 using available technologies, about 0.5 to 0.6 °C warming can be avoided by mid-21st century. Here we show that avoiding production and use of high-GWP (global warming potential) HFCs by using technologically feasible low-GWP substitutes to meet the increasing global demand can avoid as much as another 0.5 °C warming by the end of the century. This combined mitigation of SLCPs would cut the cumulative warming since 2005 by 50% at 2050 and by 60% at 2100 from the CO2-only mitigation scenarios, significantly reducing the rate of warming and lowering the probability of exceeding the 2 °C warming threshold during this century.

scholarly journals Diverging responses of high-latitude CO<sub>2</sub> and CH<sub>4</sub> emissions in idealized climate change scenarios

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp de Vrese ◽  
Tobias Stacke ◽  
Thomas Kleinen ◽  
Victor Brovkin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Organic Matter ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
21St Century ◽  
High Latitude ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios ◽  
Climate Scenarios ◽  
Soil Co2 ◽  
Linear Dependency ◽  
Soil Co2 Emissions

Abstract. The present study investigates the response of the high latitude's carbon cycle to in- and decreasing atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in idealized climate change scenarios. For this, we use an adapted version of JSBACH – the land-surface component of the Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology's Earth system model (MPI-ESM) – that accounts for the organic matter stored in the permafrost-affected soils of the high northern latitudes. To force the model, we use different climate scenarios that assume an increase in GHG concentrations, following the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway 5, until peaks in the years 2025, 2050, 2075 or 2100, respectively. The peaks are followed by a decrease in atmospheric GHGs that returns the concentrations to the levels at the beginning of the 21st century. We show that the soil CO2 emissions exhibit an almost linear dependency on the global mean surface temperatures that are simulated for the different climate scenarios. Here, each degree of warming increases the fluxes by, very roughly, 50 % of their initial value, while each degree of cooling decreases them correspondingly. However, the linear dependency does not mean that the processes governing the soil CO2 emissions are fully reversible on short timescales, but rather that two strongly hysteretic factors offset each other – namely the vegetation's net primary productivity and the availability of formerly frozen soil organic matter. In contrast, the soil methane emissions show almost no increase with rising temperatures and they are consistently lower after than prior to a peak in the GHG concentrations. Here, the fluxes can even become negative and we find that methane emissions will play only a minor role in the northern high latitudes' contribution to global warming, even when considering the gas's high global warming potential. Finally, we find that the high-latitude ecosystem acts as a source of atmospheric CO2 rather than a sink, with the net fluxes into the atmosphere increasing substantially with rising atmospheric GHG concentrations. This is very different to scenario simulations with the standard version of the MPI-ESM in which the region continues to take up atmospheric CO2 throughout the entire 21st century, confirming that the omission of permafrost-related processes and the organic matter stored in the frozen soils leads to a fundamental misrepresentation of the carbon dynamics in the Arctic.

scholarly journals Climate change, environmental sustainability and health care quality

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans C Ossebaard ◽  
Peter Lachman
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Healthcare Service ◽  
Health Care Quality ◽  
Care Quality ◽  
Climate Crisis

Abstract The challenges for health care continue to grow and in the 21st century healthcare policymakers and providers will need to respond to the developing impact of global warming and the environmental impact of healthcare service delivery. This cannot be viewed apart from the current Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, which is likely to be linked to the climate crisis.

scholarly journals South Asia in the 21st Century: “Catching-Up” yet Overheating

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Jan-Erik Lane
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Transaction Costs ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Financial Assistance ◽  
Water Shortages ◽  
Catching Up

Economist Stern (2016) asks now why so little is concretely done against global warming. But consider the huge countries in South Asia and their mighty neighbours. South Asia is poised to become the next set of Asian economic miracles. Yet they face a terrible threat from the environment, as global warming picks up speed together with more and more environmental degradation. Can these more than 2 billion people work and find food and water, if temperature rises more than 2-3 degrees? Can peasants work and survive? And how to generate enough electricity for housing, given increasing water shortages? Without massive financial assistance, there will occur widespread reneging on the COP21 objectives (Goal I-III). The system of UNFCCC with yearly big meetings does not offer an organization that is up to the coordination tasks involved in halting climate change—too much transaction costs. South Asia needs the promised Super Fund badly that Stern anticipated 2007.

scholarly journals Creating the Healthiest Nation: Climate Change and Environmental Health Impacts in Nigeria: A Narrative Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. p61
Author(s):  
Morufu Olalekan Raimi ◽  
Tonye Vivien Odubo ◽  
Adedoyin Oluwatoyin Omidiji
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation

Climate change is a “threat multiplier and a prime cause of universal threat to health in the 21st century, including 4th industrial revolution. The health effects of climate change will increase dramatically over the next few years and pose a risk to human life and the well-being of billions of people. As we all know, the milieu is fundamental to our sustained earth survival and environmental changes (natural and artificial) affect it either to the benefit or detriment of humans. Climate change is one of such changes in the physical environment which has grave consequences for the existence of mankind. Climate change is interestingly, no longer a speculative subject. There is a good international scientific consensus existing to show that this phenomenon is real and if recent global warming movements continue, temperature rise, ocean levels and more frequently weather conditions that is extreme (storms, heat-waves, droughts, floods, cyclones, etc.) may perhaps cause severe food shortages, loss of shelter, water, livelihoods, extinction of flora and fauna species. In the recent past, the earth has witnessed devastating weather-related events in different portions of the globe including hurricanes (e.g., Katrina and Rita in USA), tsunamis, typhoons, flooding especially in the Asian Continent, wild fires especially in Australia, USA, etc. Currently, the on-going flood incident in Pakistan that has so far claimed about 1,600 lives and rendered another four million people homeless is a sad reminder of the ugly and devastating consequences of global warming on the environment. There is no gainsaying the fact that humankind is paying dearly for the massive alterations in the environment that have induced changes in climate. This is because of frequent incidence of changes in climate related disasters in the world today. There is hardly any month that passes without an incident occurring in one part of the globe or another since the advent of the 21st century. Changes in climate has significant and potentially devastating health consequences, whether through direct actions (e.g., deaths resulting from heat wave and weather disasters) or disruption of complex biological methods (e.g., changes in infectious diseases patterns, supplies in fresh water and production of food).The report of the fourth assessment of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have globally submitted that “it is estimated that the health of millions of people is affected, for instance, malnutrition increases; deaths increase, diseases and injury; burden of increase diarrheal diseases; frequency of increased cardio-respiratory diseases caused by high levels of ground-level ozone in cities due to climate change; besides altered spatial distribution of some communicable diseases”. The association amongst changes in climate, its drivers, systemic effects, health and socioeconomic growth, mitigation and adaptation has been specified.

scholarly journals Climate and land use change impacts on global terrestrial ecosystems and river flows in the HadGEM2-ES Earth system model using the representative concentration pathways

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1317-1338 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Betts ◽  
N. Golding ◽  
P. Gonzalez ◽  
J. Gornall ◽  
R. Kahana ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Land Cover Change ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Earth System Model ◽  
System Model ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

Abstract. A new generation of an Earth system model now includes a number of land-surface processes directly relevant to analyzing potential impacts of climate change. This model, HadGEM2-ES, allows us to assess the impacts of climate change, multiple interactions, and feedbacks as the model is run. This paper discusses the results of century-scale HadGEM2-ES simulations from an impacts perspective – specifically, terrestrial ecosystems and water resources – for four different scenarios following the representative concentration pathways (RCPs), used in the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2013, 2014). Over the 21st century, simulated changes in global and continental-scale terrestrial ecosystems due to climate change appear to be very similar in all 4 RCPs, even though the level of global warming by the end of the 21st century ranges from 2 °C in the lowest scenario to 5.5° in the highest. A warming climate generally favours broadleaf trees over needleleaf, needleleaf trees over shrubs, and shrubs over herbaceous vegetation, resulting in a poleward shift of temperate and boreal forests and woody tundra in all scenarios. Although climate related changes are slightly larger in scenarios of greater warming, the largest differences between scenarios arise at regional scales as a consequence of different patterns of anthropogenic land cover change. In the model, the scenario with the lowest global warming results in the most extensive decline in tropical forest cover due to a large expansion of agriculture. Under all four RCPs, fire potential could increase across extensive land areas, particularly tropical and sub-tropical latitudes. River outflows are simulated to increase with higher levels of CO2 and global warming in all projections, with outflow increasing with mean temperature at the end of the 21st century at the global scale and in North America, Asia, and Africa. In South America, Europe, and Australia, the relationship with climate warming and CO2 rise is less clear, probably as a result of land cover change exerting a dominant effect in those regions.

scholarly journals The Sustainable Solution Green Building

2021 ◽  
pp. 435-438
Author(s):  
Aboli Mendhe ◽  
Ankit Ghode ◽  
Umesh Jibhakate ◽  
Ritik Chalurkar ◽  
Niraj Bhople ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Construction Technology ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

Since the 21st century, the idea of green constructing has gradually become popular again was launched in many countries, which has become a popular alternative to sustainable development construction industry. Over the past few decades, many scholars and experts have done more research on the green structure. Green construction technology is one of the world’s leading topics set to reduce the major impact of the construction industry on the environment, society and the economy. The world has an urgent need for sustainability and an intelligent development as the problem of pollution and global warming grows rapidly around the world. Major climate change has also been noted and experience globally due to the proliferation of Green House Gases (GHG's). The purpose of this paper is to focus on how sustainable constructing material can help reduce the impact of environmental degradation, and produce healthy buildings that are sustainable for the human being and for our environment.

2. History of climate change

2021 ◽  
pp. 12-25
Author(s):  
Mark Maslin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
History Of ◽  
Environmental Social Movement

‘History of climate change’ traces the history of climate change and the evidence that supports it. The science of climate change started in 1856 with experiments by Eunice Newton Foote demonstrating the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide. The essential science of climate change was there in the late 1950s, but it was not taken seriously until the late 1980s. Why was there a delay between the science of global warming being accepted in the late 1950s and the realization by those outside the scientific community of the true threat of global warming at the beginning of the 21st century? The key reasons for this delay were the lack of increase in global temperatures and the lack of global environmental awareness. What is the importance of the rise of the global environmental social movement and the new wave of protest and optimism of the last few years?

scholarly journals 21st Century Projections of Extreme Precipitation Indicators for Cyprus

Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 343 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Zittis ◽  
Adriana Bruggeman ◽  
Corrado Camera
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Extreme Precipitation ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean Region ◽  
Daily Rainfall ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
The Impact

According to observational and model-based studies, the eastern Mediterranean region is one of the most prominent climate-change hotspots in the world. The combined effect of warming and drying is expected to augment the regional impacts of global warming. In addition to changes in mean climatic conditions, global warming is likely to induce changes in several aspects of extreme rainfall such as duration and magnitude. In this context, we explore the impact of climate change on precipitation with the use of several indicators. We focus on Cyprus, a water-stressed island located in the eastern Mediterranean Basin. Our results are derived from a new high-resolution simulation for the 21st century, which is driven by a “business-as-usual” scenario. In addition to a strong temperature increase (up to 4.1 °C), our analysis highlights that, on average for the island, most extreme precipitation indicators decrease, suggesting a transition to much drier conditions. The absolute daily rainfall maxima exhibit strong local variability, indicating the need for high resolution simulations to understand the potential impacts on future flooding.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document