Climate Change

Climate Change
Author: The Royal Society
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 74
Release: 2014-02-26
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309302021

Climate Change: Evidence and Causes is a jointly produced publication of The US National Academy of Sciences and The Royal Society. Written by a UK-US team of leading climate scientists and reviewed by climate scientists and others, the publication is intended as a brief, readable reference document for decision makers, policy makers, educators, and other individuals seeking authoritative information on the some of the questions that continue to be asked. Climate Change makes clear what is well-established and where understanding is still developing. It echoes and builds upon the long history of climate-related work from both national academies, as well as on the newest climate-change assessment from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It touches on current areas of active debate and ongoing research, such as the link between ocean heat content and the rate of warming.

Diversification and Cooperation in a Decarbonizing World

Diversification and Cooperation in a Decarbonizing World
Author: Grzegorz Peszko
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2020-07-24
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1464813418

This book is the first stocktaking of what the decarbonization of the world economy means for fossil fuel†“dependent countries. These countries are the most exposed to the impacts of global climate policies and, at the same time, are often unprepared to manage them. They depend on the export of oil, gas, or coal; the use of carbon-intensive infrastructure (for example, refineries, petrochemicals, and coal power plants); or both. Fossil fuel†“dependent countries face financial, fiscal, and macro-structural risks from the transition of the global economy away from carbon-intensive fuels and the value chains based on them. This book focuses on managing these transition risks and harnessing related opportunities. Diversification and Cooperation in a Decarbonizing World identifies multiple strategies that fossil fuel†“dependent countries can pursue to navigate the turbulent waters of a low-carbon transition. The policy and investment choices to be made in the next decade will determine these countries’ degree of exposure and overall resilience. Abandoning their comfort zones and developing completely new skills and capabilities in a time frame consistent with the Paris Agreement on climate change is a daunting challenge and requires long-term revenue visibility and consistent policy leadership. This book proposes a constructive framework for climate strategies for fossil fuel†“dependent countries based on new approaches to diversification and international climate cooperation. Climate policy leaders share responsibility for creating room for all countries to contribute to the goals of the Paris Agreement, taking into account the specific vulnerabilities and opportunities each country faces.

Fossil Fuels in a Changing Climate

Fossil Fuels in a Changing Climate
Author: Ulrich Bartsch
Publisher:
Total Pages: 394
Release: 2000
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

This book assesses the effects on fossil fuel markets of climate change policies as agreed in Kyoto. This evaluation involves, as a reference case, projections for emissions, energy supply, demand, and prices in a world which does not adopt specific greenhouse policies. The impact of a future involvement of developing countries in an expanded climate change agreement is also analysed.

The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels

The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels
Author: Alex Epstein
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2014-11-13
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1591847443

Could everything we know about fossil fuels be wrong? For decades, environmentalists have told us that using fossil fuels is a self-destructive addiction that will destroy our planet. Yet at the same time, by every measure of human well-being, from life expectancy to clean water to climate safety, life has been getting better and better. How can this be? The explanation, energy expert Alex Epstein argues in The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, is that we usually hear only one side of the story. We’re taught to think only of the negatives of fossil fuels, their risks and side effects, but not their positives—their unique ability to provide cheap, reliable energy for a world of seven billion people. And the moral significance of cheap, reliable energy, Epstein argues, is woefully underrated. Energy is our ability to improve every single aspect of life, whether economic or environmental. If we look at the big picture of fossil fuels compared with the alternatives, the overall impact of using fossil fuels is to make the world a far better place. We are morally obligated to use more fossil fuels for the sake of our economy and our environment. Drawing on original insights and cutting-edge research, Epstein argues that most of what we hear about fossil fuels is a myth. For instance . . . Myth: Fossil fuels are dirty. Truth: The environmental benefits of using fossil fuels far outweigh the risks. Fossil fuels don’t take a naturally clean environment and make it dirty; they take a naturally dirty environment and make it clean. They don’t take a naturally safe climate and make it dangerous; they take a naturally dangerous climate and make it ever safer. Myth: Fossil fuels are unsustainable, so we should strive to use “renewable” solar and wind. Truth: The sun and wind are intermittent, unreliable fuels that always need backup from a reliable source of energy—usually fossil fuels. There are huge amounts of fossil fuels left, and we have plenty of time to find something cheaper. Myth: Fossil fuels are hurting the developing world. Truth: Fossil fuels are the key to improving the quality of life for billions of people in the developing world. If we withhold them, access to clean water plummets, critical medical machines like incubators become impossible to operate, and life expectancy drops significantly. Calls to “get off fossil fuels” are calls to degrade the lives of innocent people who merely want the same opportunities we enjoy in the West. Taking everything into account, including the facts about climate change, Epstein argues that “fossil fuels are easy to misunderstand and demonize, but they are absolutely good to use. And they absolutely need to be championed. . . . Mankind’s use of fossil fuels is supremely virtuous—because human life is the standard of value and because using fossil fuels transforms our environment to make it wonderful for human life.”

Looking out the Window

Looking out the Window
Author: Bob Webster
Publisher: Page Publishing Inc
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2022-01-25
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1662429215

"The hot dry seasons of the past few years have caused rapid disintegration of glaciers in Glacier National Park, Montana...Sperry Glacier...has lost one-quarter or perhaps one-third of its ice in the past 18 years... If this rapid rate should continue...the glacier would almost disappear in another 25 years..." "Born about 4,000 years ago, the glaciers that are the chief attraction in Glacier National Park are shrinking so rapidly that a person who visited them ten or fifteen years ago would hardly recognize them today as the same ice masses." Do these reports sound familiar? Typical of frequent warnings of the dire consequences to be expected from global warming, such reports often claim modern civilization's use of fossil fuels as being the dominant cause of recent climate warming. You might be surprised to learn the reports above were made nearly thirty years apart! The first in 1923 prior to the record heat of the Dust Bowl years during the 1930s. The second in 1952 during the second decade of a four-decade cooling trend that had some scientists concerned that a new ice age might be on the horizon! Did the remnants of Sperry Glacier disappear during global warming of the late 20th century? According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), today Sperry Glacier "ranks as a moderately sized glacier" in Glacier National Park. What caused the warmer global climate prior to "4,000 years ago" before Glacier National Park's glaciers first appeared? Are you aware that during 2019 the National Park Service quietly began removing its "Gone by 2020" signs from Glacier National Park as its most famous glaciers continued their renewed growth that began in 2010? Was late 20th-century global warming caused by fossil fuel emissions? Was it really more pronounced than early 20th-century warming? Or was late 20th-century warming perfectly natural, in part a response to the concurrent peak strength of one of the strongest solar grand maxima in contemporary history? These and other questions are addressed by "Looking Out the Window." Be a juror in the trial of carbon dioxide in the court of public opinion and let the evidence inform your verdict.

Climate Change and Renewable Energy

Climate Change and Renewable Energy
Author: Martin J. Bush
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 547
Release: 2019-10-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3030154246

This book presents a comprehensive overview of the global climate change impacts caused by the continued use of fossil fuels, which results in enormous damage to the global environment, biodiversity, and human health. It argues that the key to a transition to a low carbon future is the rapid and large-scale deployment of renewable energy technologies in power generation, transport and industry, coupled with super energy-efficient building design and construction. However, the author also reveals how major oil companies and petrochemical conglomerates have systematically attempted to manufacture doubt and uncertainty about global warming and climate change, continue to block the commercialization of solar energy and wind power, and impede the electrification of the transport sector. Martin Bush’s solution is a theory-of-change approach to substantially reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050, which sets out realistic steps that people can take now to help make a difference.

SuperFreakonomics LP

SuperFreakonomics LP
Author: Steven D. Levitt
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2009-11-10
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0061927570

Freakonomics was a worldwide sensation, selling more than four million copies. Now Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with SuperFreakonomics, and fans and newcomers alike will find that this freakquel is even bolder, funnier, and more surprising than the first. SuperFreakonomics challenges the way we think all over again, with such questions as: How is a street prostitute like a department-store Santa? What's the best way to catch a terrorist? What do hurricanes, heart attacks, and highway deaths have in common? Are people hardwired for altruism or selfishness? Can eating kangaroo save the planet? Levitt and Dubner mix smart thinking and great storytelling like no one else, whether investigating a solution to global warming or explaining why the price of oral sex has fallen so drastically.

Microbiome Under Changing Climate

Microbiome Under Changing Climate
Author: Ajay Kumar
Publisher: Woodhead Publishing
Total Pages: 575
Release: 2022-01-21
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0323906974

Microbiome Under Changing Climate: Implications and Solutions presents the latest biotechnological interventions for the judicious use of microbes to ensure optimal agricultural yield. Summarizing aspects of vulnerability, adaptation and amelioration of climate impact, this book provides an important resource for understanding microbes, plants and soil in pursuit of sustainable agriculture and improved food security. It emphasizes the interaction between climate and soil microbes and their potential role in promoting advanced sustainable agricultural solutions, focusing on current research designed to use beneficial microbes such as plant growth promoting microorganisms, fungi, endophytic microbes, and more. Changes in climatic conditions influence all factors of the agricultural ecosystem, including adversely impacting yield both in terms of quantity and nutritional quality. In order to develop resilience against climatic changes, it is increasingly important to understand the effect on the native micro-flora, including the distribution of methanogens and methanotrophs, nutrient content and microbial biomass, among others. Demonstrates the impact of climate change on secondary metabolites of plants and potential responses Incorporates insights on microflora of inhabitant soil Explores mitigation processes and their modulation by sustainable methods Highlights the role of microbial technologies in agricultural sustainability

Fracking and the Environment

Fracking and the Environment
Author: Daniel J. Soeder
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2020-11-11
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 3030591212

This book provides a systematic scientific approach to the understanding of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) as a hydrocarbon extraction technology and its impact on the environment. The book addresses research from the past decade to assess how fracking can affect air, water, landscapes and ecosystems, and presents the subject in the context of the history of fracking and shale gas development in the United States, describing what is known and not known about environmental impacts, and the broader implications of fossil energy use, climate change, and technology development. In 9 chapters, the author lays out how and why hydraulic fracturing was developed, what driving forces existed at the beginning of the so-called "shale revolution", how success was achieved, and when and why public acceptance of the technology changed. The intended audience is scientific people who are concerned about fracking, but perhaps do not know all that much about it. It is also intended for lay people who would be interested in understanding the technical details of the process and what effects it might or might not be having on the environment. The book is written at a level that is both understandable and technically correct. A further goal is to give some useful insights even to experienced petroleum geologists and engineers who have been doing fracking for many years.