Tropical tropospheric chemistry and climate change

A systematic programme of monitoring surface ozone and its precursor gases CH4, CO and NOx (NO + NO2) at some selected sites in the Indian region was started under ISRO's geosphere biosphere programme in 1991. Measurements have been made at Ahmedabad an urban polluted site, Gadanki a rural relatively clean site, Gurusikhar a high altitude site representative of the free troposphere and Trivandrum a coastal (relatively clean) site influenced by marine air. The data has been used to study different features of troposphere chemistry in the tropics. Some of the results from this programme relevant to the climate change problem are presented in this paper.

W. QUINE, NATURALIZATION, SKEPTICISM AND CONCEPTUAL CHANGE PROBLEM

The paper aims to show the relationship between the W. Alston’s idea about the formal independence of the contexts of “being justified” and of “knowing that one is justified” and the means to overcome the problems of skepticism within the naturalized epistemology by W. Quine. Based on some works – “From a Logical Point of View” (1963), “The Ways of Paradox” (1966), “Ontological Relativity” (1969) etc. – an attempt is made to reconstruct close to the text the possible answers that W. Quine may give to the skeptical challenge of the problem of justification of standards of justification and of the “conceptual change” problem. It is shown that W. Quine's response to the skeptical “challenge to natural science that arises from within natural science” can be understood as a reference of the independence of different “epistemic levels”, one of which is set by the “background” theory that provides the understanding of terms such “reality”, “evidence” and “justification”, and the other is related to the search for a more effective representation of the theory and determines the possibility of its change.

How Much Should We Spend to Fight against Climate Change? The Value of Backstop Technologies in a Simplified Model

The estimation of the social cost of climate change is typically carried out with complex, difficult to interpret, integrated assessment models (IAMs). Instead, this paper presents a simple, tractable model with which to estimate the willingness to pay of societies against climate change. The model is based on an already comprehensive and intuitive one developed by Besley and Dixit, which has been modified by including a backstop technology (e.g., a renewable energy technology). This improved formulation allows for a more realistic representation of the climate change problem in that it is able to include the decoupling of economic growth and GHG emissions. The model allows us to understand the implications of different assumptions, such as the rate of growth of the economy, or the damages expected from climate change, on the willingness to pay against it. Our results show that, for a baseline scenario, the willingness to pay (WTP) is 0.52% of annual GDP, lower than that obtained by Besley and Dixit, which shows the significant benefits of developing competitive mitigation technologies. Our results also show the benefits of international collaboration, or of devoting more resources to R&D, as efficient ways to fight against climate change.

Exploring how the tone of written climate change communication influences coping strategies

The purpose of this study is to explore the influence that various tones of written climate change communication have on coping strategies. 126 New Jersey college students responded to a quantitative questionnaire that had a passage on climate change written in one of the following tones: dreadful, cautiously optimistic, or hopeful. Students then answered 9 Likert scale questions that assessed their coping strategies in response to climate change: problem-focused, meaning-focused, and/or emotion-focused coping. Previous research has found that problem-focused and meaning-focused coping is positively correlated to pro-environmental behavior, but little research exists on what tones of climate change communication evoke problem-focused and meaning-focused coping. In this study, no statistical difference was found with respect to evoking problem-focused coping across the three tones. However, there were statistical differences in evoking meaning-focused and emotion-focused coping. Namely, those who responded to a cautiously optimistic or hopeful tone were more likely to resort to meaning-focused coping, and those who read a dreadful tone were more likely to apply emotion-focused coping. The findings of this study suggest using cautiously optimistic and hopeful tones in climate change communication in education to encourage environmental engagement and mitigate climate change related mental health concerns.

Plan Across Borders

This chapter looks at promising regional cooperation efforts to de-escalate tensions heightened by climate change. Tackling problems like pandemics or climate change within the framework of traditional jurisdictional boundaries means that policymakers continue to treat these challenges like matters of domestic or local concern, rather than the transboundary threats that they are. Breaking down these barriers requires deep focus on cross-border solutions. For example, the climate change problem of “too little and too much water” demands transboundary consideration of evolving conditions in river basins and ocean fisheries. Risk reduction efforts that stretch across regions also offer good avenues for building disaster preparedness, including stockpiling, creating insurance risk pools, setting up systems for regional climate forecasting and early warning, and re-energizing multilateralism. Likewise, the most urgent transborder challenge of all, climate-induced migration, calls for ever greater global cooperation—not less.

Radial integral boundary element method for simulating phase change problem with mushy zone

A radial integral boundary element method (BEM) is used to simulate the phase change problem with a mushy zone in this paper. Three phases, including the solid phase, the liquid phase, and the mushy zone, are considered in the phase change problem. First, according to the continuity conditions of temperature and its gradient on the liquid-mushy interface, the mushy zone and the liquid phase in the simulation can be considered as a whole part, namely, the non-solid phase, and the change of latent heat is approximated by heat source which is dependent on temperature. Then, the precise integration BEM is used to obtain the differential equations in the solid phase zone and the non-solid phase zone, respectively. Moreover, an iterative predictor-corrector precise integration method (PIM) is needed to solve the differential equations and obtain the temperature field and the heat flux on the boundary. According to an energy balance equation and the velocity of the interface between the solid phase and the mushy zone, the front-tracking method is used to track the move of the interface. The interface between the liquid phase and the mushy zone is obtained by interpolation of the temperature field. Finally, four numerical examples are provided to assess the performance of the proposed numerical method.

Resource Management Under Catastrophic Threats

We survey the rapidly growing economic literature on environmental catastrophes and the various approaches developed to address the hovering threats. Various theoretical descriptions of catastrophic occurrences are classified with respect to the uncertain conditions that trigger the events, the postoccurrence dynamic regime, and the form of the inflicted damage. We show that variations in each of these characteristics strongly affect the ensuing optimal response to the threats. The basic setup is then extended in several dimensions, allowing the modeler to consider more realistic formulations of catastrophic scenarios. Recent efforts to incorporate catastrophic events within large-scale numerical schemes to study the global climate change problem are reviewed. The number of publications in this vein increases in tandem with the growing number of disasters reported globally and their scale of damage, reflecting the growing concern that this phenomenon portends environmental collapse. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Resource Economics, Volume 13 is October 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Energy Transition of the Baltic States: Problems and Solutions

The importance of the climate change problem is recognised by the governments of the overwhelming majority of the world’s countries. To bring additional attention and enable more concrete action, in a number of countries and municipalities the issue has been declared a climate emergency. The need to solve this problem predetermines the task of replacing fossil energy sources with renewable alternatives. The process of the ongoing transformation is called energy transition. It includes transformation of all the energy-intensive sectors of economic activity: power generation, supply and consumption, heat generation and supply, electrification of transport, agriculture and households. The main goal of the energy transition is obvious – it is necessary to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The main sources of energy used to achieve this goal in power generation are wind and solar energy. Even though the goal is unambiguously defined and the way to achieve it seems evident, it is already clear that a number of serious problems and obstacles have arisen. They are caused by the emergence of additional objectives that must be achieved and constraints that need to be satisfied in the process of the required transformations. Indeed, the transition should be carried out taking into account power system properties describing techno-economic efficiency, reliability, stability, adequacy, etc. This list can be expanded easily. It should be noted that the additional objectives are not less important than the overarching goal. Along with reducing emissions, it is also necessary to improve energy supply reliability, its availability and affordability for all the segments of the population as well as maintain the security of the energy supply infrastructure and processes.