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Communicating and Learning About Global Climate Change: Opening Remarks John P. Holdren Director,...
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Transcript of Communicating and Learning About Global Climate Change: Opening Remarks John P. Holdren Director,...
Communicating and Learning About Global Climate Change:
Opening Remarks
John P. HoldrenDirector, The Woods Hole Research Center
Teresa & John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy, Harvard University
President, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Global Climate Change Town Meeting Annual Meeting of the AAAS
San Francisco, 17 February 2007
The scientific evidence is clear: global climate change caused by human activities is occurring now, and it is a growing threat to society. Accumulating data from across the globe reveal a wide array of effects: rapidly melting glaciers, destabilization of major ice sheets, increases in extreme weather, rising sea level, shifts in species ranges, and more. The pace of change and the evidence of harm have increased markedly over the last five years. The time to control greenhouse gas emissions is now.
from the Climate Change Statement of the AAAS Board, released 2-18-07
• Global climate change is the most dangerous environmental problem humans have ever created.
• It is also the most difficult environmental problem humans have ever created.
• But there is much that individuals, firms, & governments can do to reduce the danger.
Climate change: complex & interdisciplinary
• SCIENCE
– what climate is and how it works;
– how global climate has been changing and why;
– how it’s likely to change in the decades ahead;
– what the impacts are likely to be on farms, forests, fisheries, health, property, ecosystems…
• TECHNOLOGY
– the role of humans & their technology in causing climate change;
– technological options for mitigating climate change;
– technological options for adapting to it.
Complex & interdisciplinary (continued)
• ECONOMICS
– population growth & economic growth as climate-change drivers
– costs of abatement, adaptation, and impacts
– consequences of alternative regimes of action & inaction for economic growth, employment, trade
• POLITICS & POLICY
– policy options and their impact on outcomes
– actors and interests in the climate debate…and the evolution of perceptions & interests over time
– finding a global climate-policy framework that is adequate, equitable, and attainable
– uncertainty and prudence in public policy on climate
Climate change as a teaching opportunity
The physics & geometry of Earth’s orientation to the sun
Climate change as a teaching opportunity
PHYSICS:Interaction of electromagneticradiation withmatter
www.livephysics.com
Climate change as a teaching opportunity
Physics: energy flows in the atmosphere
Physics: water, ice, and sea-level rise
Climate change as a teaching opportunity
Climate change as a teaching opportunity
CHEMISTRY
carbon in fossil fuels and combustion
coal ≈ CH
oil ≈ CH2
natural gas ≈ CH4 + a bit more
so, e.g., burning oil entails…
CH2 + 3/2 O2 CO2 + H2O
Climate change as a teaching opportunity
BIOCHEMISTRY
photosynthesis
6 CO2 + 12 H2O C6H12O6 + 6 H2O + 6 O2
(Trees are made of CO2 and water!)
respiration
C6H12O6 + 6 O2 6 CO2 + 6 H2O
anaerobic decomposition
C6H12O6 3 CO2 + 3 CH4
Climate change as a teaching opportunity
Earth science: the carbon cycle
True color MODIS composite image – late March 2000Climate change as a teaching opportunityClimate change as a teaching opportunity
Geography: remote sensing
Mato Grosso State, Brazil, 2004
Climate change as a teaching opportunity
Geography: land-use & deforestation
Climate change as a teaching opportunity
Earth science: winds & jet streams
Climate change as a teaching opportunity
Earth science: ocean currents
Earth science: how hurricanes work
Climate change as a teaching opportunity
Climate change as a teaching opportunity
Earth science: climate & life over geologic time
Climate change as a teaching opportunity
Probability and statistics of climate & weather
Climate change as a teaching opportunity
Ecology: interaction of organisms with a changing environment
Climate change as a teaching opportunity
Geography: climate-related health impacts
World Health Organization estimates of climate-change-related increases in mortality for the year 2000
Climate change as a teaching opportunity
Engineering: technology for CO2 capture
Geology: formations that can store CO2 Climate change as a teaching opportunity
Systems analysis / integrated assessment
Climate change as a teaching opportunity
Source: National Science Board, Science & Engineering Indicators 2004, Ch 7.
Sociology: public-opinion pollingClimate change as a teaching opportunity
Climate change as a teaching opportunity
Political science: leadership