Civil Liability for Global Warming in the Netherlands

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris van Dijk
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Civil Liability

Melting Ice Rivers

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Colopy
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Mount Everest ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
The World ◽  
The Government

From a remote outpost of global warming, a summons crackles over a two-way radio several times a week: . . . Kathmandu, Tsho Rolpa! Babar Mahal, Tsho Rolpa! Kathmandu, Tsho Rolpa! Babar Mahal, Tsho Rolpa! . . . In a little brick building on the lip of a frigid gray lake fifteen thousand feet above sea level, Ram Bahadur Khadka tries to rouse someone at Nepal’s Department of Hydrology and Meteorology in the Babar Mahal district of Kathmandu far below. When he finally succeeds and a voice crackles back to him, he reads off a series of measurements: lake levels, amounts of precipitation. A father and a farmer, Ram Bahadur is up here at this frigid outpost because the world is getting warmer. He and two colleagues rotate duty; usually two of them live here at any given time, in unkempt bachelor quarters near the roof of the world. Mount Everest is three valleys to the east, only about twenty miles as the crow flies. The Tibetan plateau is just over the mountains to the north. The men stay for four months at a stretch before walking down several days to reach a road and board a bus to go home and visit their families. For the past six years each has received five thousand rupees per month from the government—about $70—for his labors. The cold, murky lake some fifty yards away from the post used to be solid ice. Called Tsho Rolpa, it’s at the bottom of the Trakarding Glacier on the border between Tibet and Nepal. The Trakarding has been receding since at least 1960, leaving the lake at its foot. It’s retreating about 200 feet each year. Tsho Rolpa was once just a pond atop the glacier. Now it’s half a kilometer wide and three and a half kilometers long; upward of a hundred million cubic meters of icy water are trapped behind a heap of rock the glacier deposited as it flowed down and then retreated. The Netherlands helped Nepal carve out a trench through that heap of rock to allow some of the lake’s water to drain into the Rolwaling River.

scholarly journals How unusual was autumn 2006 in Europe?

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 659-668 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. van Oldenborgh
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Return Time ◽  
The North ◽  
Global Mean Temperature ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Southern Norway

Abstract. The temperatures in large parts of Europe have been record high during the meteorological autumn of 2006. Compared to 1961–1990, the 2 m temperature was more than three degrees Celsius above normal from the North side of the Alps to southern Norway. This made it by far the warmest autumn on record in the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, with the records in Central England going back to 1659, in the Netherlands to 1706 and in Denmark to 1768. The deviations were so large that under the obviously false assumption that the climate does not change, the observed temperatures for 2006 would occur with a probability of less than once every 10 000 years in a large part of Europe, given the distribution defined by the temperatures in the autumn 1901–2005. A better description of the temperature distribution is to assume that the mean changes proportional to the global mean temperature, but the shape of the distribution remains the same. This includes to first order the effects of global warming. Even under this assumption the autumn temperatures were very unusual, with estimates of the return time of 200 to 2000 years in this region. The lower bound of the 95% confidence interval is more than 100 to 300 years. Apart from global warming, linear effects of a southerly circulation are found to give the largest contributions, explaining about half of the anomalies. SST anomalies in the North Sea were also important along the coast. Climate models that simulate the current atmospheric circulation well underestimate the observed mean rise in autumn temperatures. They do not simulate a change in the shape of the distribution that would increase the probability of warm events under global warming. This implies that the warm autumn 2006 either was a very rare coincidence, or the local temperature rise is much stronger than modelled, or non-linear physics that is missing from these models increases the probability of warm extremes.

Th e Environment

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Baldwin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Environmental Policy ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
The United States ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Environmental Standards ◽  
Modern Life ◽  
An Inconvenient Truth

If We Turn To The Environment and its protection, the contrasts between the United States and Europe are less stark than the debates over Kyoto and global warming suggest. Popular attitudes across the Atlantic appear to be quite comparable. A smaller percentage of Americans than any Europeans are fearful that current population trends are unsustainable. The percentage that fears strongly that modern life harms the environment is at the lower end of a very broad European spectrum. But a higher percentage of Americans than anyone other than the gloomy Portuguese are very worried about the environment. Already long before Al Gore and An Inconvenient Truth, proportionately more Americans considered global warming extremely dangerous than do the Dutch, Norwegians, Danes, and Finns. Relatively more Americans than anyone but the Swiss claim to be very willing to pay higher prices to protect the environment. Proportionately more Americans than any Europeans are prepared to pay higher taxes for the sake of nature. Americans also claim willingness more than anyone other than the Swiss and the Swedes to accept a cut in living standards to achieve such ends. A higher percentage of Americans think that government should pass laws to protect the environment than the British, Swiss, Dutch, Germans, and all Scandinavians other than the Danes. American executives are more convinced that complying with government environmental standards helps their businesses’ long-term competitiveness than their colleagues in Germany, Iceland, Austria, Luxembourg, Greece, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, Spain, or Portugal. In a recent comparative ranking of environmental policy conducted by Yale and Columbia universities, the score assigned the United States was not impressive. But that of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Greece was worse. The Achilles’ heel of America’s environmental policy is its energy inefficiency, which is partly related to the size of the country and the extremities of its weather. On most other measures, U.S. rankings are better

scholarly journals Leniency in exchange for cartel confessions

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.D. Jaspers
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Civil Liability ◽  
Private Enforcement ◽  
Legal Counsel ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Detection Tool ◽  
Theoretical Assumptions ◽  
To Come

Leniency offers corporations the possibility to come clean about their involvement in cartel conduct (for example, price-fixing, bid-rigging) in exchange for immunity or reduction of financial penalties. In Europe, nearly 60 percent of detected cartels are discovered through leniency. This makes leniency the most applied detection tool for uncovering cartel conduct violations. What are the considerations in applying for leniency or refraining from doing so? How do those considerations relate to private law enforcement through civil liability regarding business cartels? These questions are discussed based on semi-structured interviews ( n = 34) with cartelists, competition lawyers and in-house legal counsel to study theoretical assumptions underpinning leniency arrangements in the Netherlands. This study investigates four scenarios on the use of leniency suggested in the literature and finds empirical support for only two. Strategic use of leniency and false confessions occur in the Netherlands, but to a lesser extent than the existing literature suggests. Moreover, various disincentives, and especially the rise of private enforcement, make leniency an unattractive and uncertain option for cartelists.

Long-Term Monitoring in the Netherlands Suggests that Lichens Respond to Global Warming

2002 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. M. van Herk ◽  
A. Aptroot ◽  
H. F. van Dobben
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Tropical Species ◽  
Epiphytic Lichen ◽  
Nutrient Demand ◽  
Long Term Monitoring ◽  
Term Monitoring ◽  
Lichen Flora

AbstractThere is evidence to suggest that part of the recent changes in the lichen flora of the Netherlands is attributable to an increase in temperature. Changes which have occurred over the last 22 years were studied in detail, and were subjected to a statistical treatment by comparing the change of species to their latitudinal distribution and to ecological determinants.All 329 epiphytic and terrestrial lichen species occurring in the Netherlands were considered in relation to their world distribution. Arctic-alpine/boreo-montane species appear to be declining, while (sub)tropical species are invading. The proportion of increasing species is by far the largest among the wide-tropical lichens (83%), and smallest among the arctic-alpine/boreo-montane lichens (14%). None of the wide-tropical species was found to decrease, while 50% of the arctic-alpine/boreomontane species show a decline.Long-term monitoring of the epiphytic lichen flora in the province of Utrecht from 1979 onwards shows that the total number of taxa present increased from 95 in 1979 to 172 in 2001, while the average number of taxa per site increased from 7·5 to 18·9. The rate of increase was greatest by far between 1989 and 1995. The majority of the species (152 taxa or 85%) show a gross increase, only 17 species (10%) show a decrease.A detailed analysis of these data using multiple regression suggests global warming as an additional cause for recent changes, next to decreasing SO⊂2 and increasing NH⊂3. Changes appear to be correlated initially (1979-1995) only with toxitolerance and nutrient demand. Changes between 1995 and 2001, however, appear positively correlated to both temperature and nutrient demand, indicating a recent and significant shift towards species preferring warm circumstances, independent from, and concurrent with changes due to nutrient availability.This is the first paper reporting long-term floristic changes for lichens that appear to be correlated significantly with increasing temperatures. We suggest that future lichen monitoring programmes also pay attention to effects of climatic change, instead of focusing on air pollution effects only.

A new foliicolous Fellhaneropsis (Pilocarpaceae) from the Netherlands

2012 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 441-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
André APTROOT
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
New Species ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Temperate Area

AbstractThe new species Fellhaneropsis rhododendri is described from living Rhododendron leaves in the Netherlands. It is characterized by pyriform pycnidia with stiff, septate hairs at the mouth. It is doubtlessly due to recent global warming that an obligately foliicolous lichen can be described from a temperate area in Europe.

New climate change scenarios for the Netherlands

2007 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 27-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. van den Hurk ◽  
A.K. Tank ◽  
G. Lenderink ◽  
A. van Ulden ◽  
G.J. van Oldenborgh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact

A new set of climate change scenarios for 2050 for the Netherlands was produced recently. The scenarios span a wide range of possible future climate conditions, and include climate variables that are of interest to a broad user community. The scenario values are constructed by combining output from an ensemble of recent General Climate Model (GCM) simulations, Regional Climate Model (RCM) output, meteorological observations and a touch of expert judgment. For temperature, precipitation, potential evaporation and wind four scenarios are constructed, encompassing ranges of both global mean temperature rise in 2050 and the strength of the response of the dominant atmospheric circulation in the area of interest to global warming. For this particular area, wintertime precipitation is seen to increase between 3.5 and 7% per degree global warming, but mean summertime precipitation shows opposite signs depending on the assumed response of the circulation regime. Annual maximum daily mean wind speed shows small changes compared to the observed (natural) variability of this variable. Sea level rise in the North Sea in 2100 ranges between 35 and 85 cm. Preliminary assessment of the impact of the new scenarios on water management and coastal defence policies indicate that particularly dry summer scenarios and increased intensity of extreme daily precipitation deserves additional attention in the near future.

scholarly journals How unusual was autumn 2006 in Europe?

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 811-837 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. van Oldenborgh
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Anomalous Temperature ◽  
The North ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Southern Norway ◽  
Current Circulation

Abstract. The temperatures in large parts of Europe have been record high during the meteorological autumn of 2006. Compared to the 1961–1990 normals it was more than three degrees Celsius warmer from the North side of the Alps to southern Norway. This made it by far the warmest autumn on record in the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, with the records in Central England going back to 1659, in the Netherlands to 1706 and in Denmark to 1768. Also in most of Austria, southern Sweden, southern Norway and parts of Ireland the autumn was the warmest on record. Under the obviously false assumption that the climate does not change, the observed temperatures for 2006 would occur with a probability of less than once every 10 000 years in a large part of Europe, given the distribution defined by the temperatures in the autumn 1901–2005. However, even taking global warming linearly into account the event was still very unusual, with return times of 200 years or more in most of this region using the most conservative extrapolation. Global warming and a southerly circulation were found to give the largest contributions to the anomalous temperature, with minor contributions of more sunshine and SST anomalies in the North Sea. Climate models that simulate the current circulation well do not simulate an increasing probability of warm events in autumn under global warming, implying that it either was a very rare coincidence or some non-linear physics is missing from these models.

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