clair031

Summary .   Shakun and coworkers (2012) examined atmospheric CO 2 concentrations and proxies for local temperature at 80 global locations for the period in which the last ice age was receding.   They found a very strong correlation between increased CO 2 levels and global temperature increases, with a lag in temperature change of several hundred years with respect to CO 2 changes.   Modeling of the climate during this period showed that changes in CO 2 levels alone were sufficient to explain most of the warming of the planet, providing a causative explanation for the warming.   The present trends of increasing atmospheric CO 2 concentrations and rising long-term average global temperatures are occurring at a rate about 100 times faster than happened during the melting of the glaciers of the last ice age. Introduction .   The long-term global average temperature (i.e., temperature as measured over the entire surface of the world averaged over time periods o...

Summary .   Yale University and George Mason University released their latest survey, Extreme Weather, Climate & Preparedness in the American Mind, concerning attitudes of the American public over long-term world-wide average temperature and extreme weather events, in April, 2012.   A clear majority of the American public finds that unusual weather events have occurred in the preceding year.   By more than 2-to-1, people feel that over the past several years the weather has gotten worse rather than better.   Americans associated the recent extreme weather events with long-term increases in global temperature.   The New York Times reports that other recent surveys have provided similar results. This survey appears to represent a shift toward greater recognition of the consequences arising from long-term increases in global temperature, compared to earlier recent Yale-George Mason surveys. We conclude by urging American federal policymakers to recogni...

Summary .   The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued a new proposed rule to limit greenhouse gas emissions from large electric generating plants.   The rule provides a strong incentive to migrate from coal-fired power plants to combined cycle gas-fired plants, and to commercialize carbon capture and storage technology.   Implementing this rule may provide an incentive to all parties of the world to coalesce around a new international agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Introduction .   The U. S. does not have a nation-wide legislated policy governing emissions of greenhouse gases that lead to warming of the planet.   Certain American states and regions do have such policies at various stages of progress and achievement; they generally employ a cap-and-trade market-driven mechanism to limit emissions.   Separately, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has put forth a regulation limiting greenhouse gas emissions from new...

Summary .   The OECD reports that the sustainability of the Earth’s natural environment and human population is threatened over the next forty years.   In its “OECD Environmental Outlook to 2050” it summarizes threats to the planet’s climate, its biodiversity, the water resources that supply human needs and economic activities, and human health.   Growth of the world’s population and concomitant significant expansion of its economic output will put strains on these systems.   Importantly, under its Baseline scenario, which assumes no new policies to combat emissions of greenhouse gases, OECD projects that the world will need 80% more energy in 2050 than now, 85% of which will still be supplied by fossil fuels.   The resulting increase in greenhouse gas emissions will threaten many aspects of human life, because Baseline policies are insufficient to keep the rise in global average temperature below the internationally formulated goal of 2ºC.   OECD proposes...