WorldWideScience

Sample records for climatic thermostat making

  1. Field Evaluation of Programmable Thermostats

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sachs, O.; Tiefenbeck, V.; Duvier, C.; Qin, A.; Cheney, K.; Akers, C.; Roth, K.

    2012-12-01

    Prior research suggests that poor programmable thermostats usability may prevent their effective use to save energy. We hypothesized that home occupants with a high-usability thermostats would be more likely to use them to save energy than people with a basic thermostat. We randomly installed a high-usability thermostat in half the 77 apartments of an affordable housing complex, installing a basic thermostat in the other half. During the heating season, we collected space temperature and furnace on-off data to evaluate occupant interaction with the thermostats, foremost nighttime setbacks. We found that thermostat usability did not influence energy-saving behaviors, finding no significant difference in temperature maintained among apartments with high- and low-usability thermostats.

  2. Field Evaluation of Programmable Thermostats

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sachs, O. [Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems (CSE), Cambridge, MA (United States); Tiefenbeck, V. [Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems (CSE), Cambridge, MA (United States); Duvier, C. [Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems (CSE), Cambridge, MA (United States); Qin, A. [Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems (CSE), Cambridge, MA (United States); Cheney, K. [Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems (CSE), Cambridge, MA (United States); Akers, C. [Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems (CSE), Cambridge, MA (United States); Roth, K. [Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems (CSE), Cambridge, MA (United States)

    2012-12-01

    Prior research suggests that poor programmable thermostats usability may prevent their effective use to save energy. The Fraunhofer team hypothesized that home occupants with high-usability thermostats would be more likely to use them to save energy than people with a basic thermostats. In this report, the team discusses results of a project in which the team monitored and compared programmable thermostats with basic thermostats in an affordable housing apartment complex.

  3. Thermostat Interface and Usability: A Survey

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Meier, Alan; Peffer, Therese; Pritoni, Marco; Aragon, Cecilia

    2010-09-04

    This report investigates the history of thermostats to better understand the context and legacy regarding the development of this important tool, as well as thermostats' relationships to heating, cooling, and other environmental controls. We analyze the architecture, interfaces, and modes of interaction used by different types of thermostats. For over sixty years, home thermostats have translated occupants' temperature preferences into heating and cooling system operations. In this position of an intermediary, the millions of residential thermostats control almost half of household energy use, which corresponds to about 10percent of the nation's total energy use. Thermostats are currently undergoing rapid development in response to emerging technologies, new consumer and utility demands, and declining manufacturing costs. Energy-efficient homes require more careful balancing of comfort, energy consumption, and health. At the same time, new capabilities will be added to thermostats, including scheduling, control of humidity and ventilation, responsiveness to dynamic electricity prices, and the ability to join communication networks inside homes. Recent studies have found that as many as 50percent of residential programmable thermostats are in permanent"hold" status. Other evaluations found that homes with programmable thermostats consumed more energy than those relying on manual thermostats. Occupants find thermostats cryptic and baffling to operate because manufacturers often rely on obscure, and sometimes even contradictory, terms, symbols, procedures, and icons. It appears that many people are unable to fully exploit even the basic features in today's programmable thermostats, such as setting heating and cooling schedules. It is important that people can easily, reliably, and confidently operate thermostats in their homes so as to remain comfortable while minimizing energy use.

  4. Building America Case Study: The Impact of Thermostat Placement in Low-Load Homes in Sunny Climates, Denver, Colorado

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    2016-02-01

    Modern, energy-efficient homes conforming to the Zero Energy Ready Home standard face the challenge of meeting high customer expectations for comfort. Traditional heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) sizing and control strategies may be insufficient to adequately condition each zone due to unique load patterns in each room caused by a number of factors. These factors include solar heat gains, occupant-related gains, and gains associated with appliances and electronics. Because of shrinking shell loads, these intermittent factors are having an increasingly significant impact on the thermal load in each zone. Consequently, occupant comfort can be compromised. To evaluate the impact of climate and house geometry, as well as HVAC system and control strategies on comfort conditions, IBACOS analyzed the results of 99 TRNSYS multiple-zone simulations. The results of this analysis indicate that for simple-geometry and single-story plans, a single zone and thermostat can adequately condition the entire house. Demanding house geometry and houses with multiple stories require the consideration of multiple thermostats and multiple zones.

  5. Texas traffic thermostat software tool.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-04-01

    The traffic thermostat decision tool is built to help guide the user through a logical, step-wise, process of examining potential changes to their Manage Lane/toll facility. : **NOTE: Project Title: Application of the Traffic Thermostat Framework. Ap...

  6. Texas traffic thermostat marketing package.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-04-01

    The traffic thermostat decision tool is built to help guide the user through a logical, step-wise, process of examining potential changes to their Manage Lane/toll facility. : **NOTE: Project Title: Application of the Traffic Thermostat Framework. Ap...

  7. End users heat energy savings using thermostat regulation valves radiators, v. 16(64)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jakimovska, Emilija Misheva; Potsev, Eftim

    2008-01-01

    Billing the used heat energy offers the opportunity to motivate end users to use the heat energy rationally and to save the energy. Installing the thermostat valves on the radiators it is possible frequently to regulate the room temperature and to use the heat gains, obtaining comfortable climate in the apartments and saving the energy. Thermostat valves give the possibility to use the heat energy rationally and save the energy, and these way and users can regulate the heat energy consumption according to their own level of thermal comfort. (Author)

  8. End users heat energy savings using thermostat regulation valves radiators, v. 16(63)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jakimovska, Emilija Misheva; Potsev, Eftim

    2008-01-01

    Billing the used heat energy offers the opportunity to motivate end users to use the heat energy rationally and to save the energy. Installing the thermostat valves on the radiators it is possible frequently to regulate the room temperature and to use the heat gains, obtaining comfortable climate in the apartments and saving the energy. Thermostat valves give the possibility to use the heat energy rationally and save the energy, and these way and users can regulate the heat energy consumption according to their own level of thermal comfort. (Author)

  9. Efficient stochastic thermostatting of path integral molecular dynamics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ceriotti, Michele; Parrinello, Michele; Markland, Thomas E; Manolopoulos, David E

    2010-09-28

    The path integral molecular dynamics (PIMD) method provides a convenient way to compute the quantum mechanical structural and thermodynamic properties of condensed phase systems at the expense of introducing an additional set of high frequency normal modes on top of the physical vibrations of the system. Efficiently sampling such a wide range of frequencies provides a considerable thermostatting challenge. Here we introduce a simple stochastic path integral Langevin equation (PILE) thermostat which exploits an analytic knowledge of the free path integral normal mode frequencies. We also apply a recently developed colored noise thermostat based on a generalized Langevin equation (GLE), which automatically achieves a similar, frequency-optimized sampling. The sampling efficiencies of these thermostats are compared with that of the more conventional Nosé-Hoover chain (NHC) thermostat for a number of physically relevant properties of the liquid water and hydrogen-in-palladium systems. In nearly every case, the new PILE thermostat is found to perform just as well as the NHC thermostat while allowing for a computationally more efficient implementation. The GLE thermostat also proves to be very robust delivering a near-optimum sampling efficiency in all of the cases considered. We suspect that these simple stochastic thermostats will therefore find useful application in many future PIMD simulations.

  10. Introducing the ecobee smart thermostat

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2009-07-01

    This pamphlet described a thermostat system designed to help households conserve energy and reduce the environmental impacts related to home heating. Features of the ecobee smart thermostat include a weather button that provides the latest forecast for the specific region and a quick save button designed to automatically set the thermostat into an energy conservation mode. A details button provides customer access to all customized heating and cooling settings interfaced in list format. A programming feature assists customers in basic and advanced programming. A vacation setting is also provided to allow customers to save energy while on vacation. The ecobee system uses advanced furnace fan control, ventilator control, and automatic setback calculations. The thermostat system includes a full colour display and integrated web portal designed to allow remote access and provide tools for easily adapting to changing rate structures. Optional broadband connectivity allows real time delivery to customers. The pamphlet also included technical specifications. 1 tab., 9 figs.

  11. Room Thermostat with Servo Controlled by PIC Microcontroller

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jan Skapa

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper describes the design of room thermostat with Microchip PIC microcontroller. Thermostat is designated for two-pipe heating system. The microprocessor controls thermostatic valve via electric actuator with mechanical gear unit. The room thermostat uses for its activity measurements of air temperature in the room and calorimetric measurement of heat, which is served to the radiator. These features predestinate it mainly for underfloor heating regulation. The thermostat is designed to work in a network. Communication with heating system's central control unit is proceeded via RS485 bus with proprietary communication protocol. If the communication failure occurs the thermostat is able to work separately. The system uses its own real time clock circuit and memory with heating programs. These programs are able to cover the whole heating season. The method of position discontinuous PSD control is used in this equipment.

  12. Optimal daily operation of a smart-household under dynamic pricing considering thermostatically and non-thermostatically controllable appliances

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Paterakis, N.G.; Medeiros, M.F.; Catalao, J.P.S.; Siaraka, A.; Bakirtzis, A.G.; Erdinc, O.

    2015-01-01

    In this study, a home energy management system structure is developed in order to determine the optimal commitment of a smart-household. Two types of loads are explicitly modeled: non-thermostatically controllable (electric vehicle, shiftable appliances) and thermostatically controllable loads (air

  13. Investigation of a chaotic thermostat

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morales, G. J.

    2018-03-01

    A numerical study is presented of a free particle interacting with a deterministic thermostat in which the usual friction force is supplemented with a fluctuating force that depends on the self-consistent damping coefficient associated with coupling to the heat bath. It is found that this addition results in a chaotic environment in which a particle self-heats from rest and moves in positive and negative directions, exhibiting a characteristic diffusive behavior. The frequency power spectrum of the dynamical quantities displays the exponential frequency dependence ubiquitous to chaotic dynamics. The velocity distribution function approximates a Maxwellian distribution, but it does show departures from perfect thermal equilibrium, while the distribution function for the damping coefficient shows a closer fit. The behavior for the classic Nosé-Hoover (NH) thermostat is compared to that of the enlarged Martyna-Klein-Tuckerman (MKT) model. Over a narrow amplitude range, the application of a constant external force results quantitatively in the Einstein relation for the NH thermostat, and for the MKT model it differs by a factor of 2.

  14. RESIDENTIAL THERMOSTATS: COMFORT CONTROLS IN CALIFORNIA HOMES

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Meier, Alan K.; Walker, Iain

    2008-03-02

    This report summarizes results of a literature review, a workshop, and many meetings with demand response and thermostat researchers and implementers. The information obtained from these resources was used to identify key issues of thermostat performance from both energy savings and peak demand perspectives. A research plan was developed to address these issues and activities have already begun to pursue the research agenda.

  15. Energy, Carbon-emission and Financial Savings from Thermostat Control

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Blasing, T J [ORNL; Schroeder, Dana [University of Georgia, Athens, GA

    2013-08-01

    Among the easiest approaches to energy, and cost, savings for most people is the adjustment of thermostats to save energy. Here we estimate savings of energy, carbon, and money in the United States of America (USA) that would result from adjusting thermostats in residential and commercial buildings by about half a degree Celsius downward during the heating season and upward during the cooling season. To obtain as small a unit as possible, and therefore the least likely to be noticeable by most people, we selected an adjustment of one degree Fahrenheit (0.56 degree Celsius) which is the gradation used almost exclusively on thermostats in the USA and is the smallest unit of temperature that has been used historically. Heating and/or cooling of interior building space for personal comfort is sometimes referred to as space conditioning, a term we will use for convenience throughout this work without consideration of humidity. Thermostat adjustment, as we use the term here, applies to thermostats that control the indoor temperature, and not to other thermostats such as those on water heaters. We track emissions of carbon only, rather than of carbon dioxide, because carbon atoms change atomic partners as they move through the carbon cycle, from atmosphere to biosphere or ocean and, on longer time scales, through the rock cycle. To convert a mass of carbon to an equivalent mass of carbon dioxide (thereby including the mass of the 2 oxygen atoms in each molecule) simply multiply by 3.67.

  16. Thermostatted delta f

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Krommes, J.A.

    2000-01-01

    The delta f simulation method is revisited. Statistical coarse-graining is used to rigorously derive the equation for the fluctuation delta f in the particle distribution. It is argued that completely collisionless simulation is incompatible with the achievement of true statistically steady states with nonzero turbulent fluxes because the variance of the particle weights w grows with time. To ensure such steady states, it is shown that for dynamically collisionless situations a generalized thermostat or W-stat may be used in lieu of a full collision operator to absorb the flow of entropy to unresolved fine scales in velocity space. The simplest W-stat can be implemented as a self-consistently determined, time-dependent damping applied to w. A precise kinematic analogy to thermostatted nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) is pointed out, and the justification of W-stats for simulations of turbulence is discussed. An extrapolation procedure is proposed such that the long-time, steady-state, collisionless flux can be deduced from several short W-statted runs with large effective collisionality, and a numerical demonstration is given

  17. How People Actually Use Thermostats

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Meier, Alan; Aragon, Cecilia; Hurwitz, Becky; Mujumdar, Dhawal; Peffer, Therese; Perry, Daniel; Pritoni, Marco

    2010-08-15

    Residential thermostats have been a key element in controlling heating and cooling systems for over sixty years. However, today's modern programmable thermostats (PTs) are complicated and difficult for users to understand, leading to errors in operation and wasted energy. Four separate tests of usability were conducted in preparation for a larger study. These tests included personal interviews, an on-line survey, photographing actual thermostat settings, and measurements of ability to accomplish four tasks related to effective use of a PT. The interviews revealed that many occupants used the PT as an on-off switch and most demonstrated little knowledge of how to operate it. The on-line survey found that 89% of the respondents rarely or never used the PT to set a weekday or weekend program. The photographic survey (in low income homes) found that only 30% of the PTs were actually programmed. In the usability test, we found that we could quantify the difference in usability of two PTs as measured in time to accomplish tasks. Users accomplished the tasks in consistently shorter times with the touchscreen unit than with buttons. None of these studies are representative of the entire population of users but, together, they illustrate the importance of improving user interfaces in PTs.

  18. ENERGY STAR Certified Smart Thermostats

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — Certified models meet all ENERGY STAR requirements as listed in the Version 1.0 ENERGY STAR Program Requirements for Connected Thermostats that are effective as of...

  19. Danfos: Thermostatic Radiator Valves

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gregersen, Niels; Oliver, James; Hjorth, Poul G.

    2000-01-01

    This problem deals with modelling the flow through a typical Danfoss thermostatic radiator valve.Danfoss is able to employ Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in calculations of the capacity of valves, but an experienced engineer can often by rules of thumb "guess" the capacity, with a precision...

  20. Cesium heat-pipe thermostat

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wu, F.; Song, D.; Sheng, K.; Wu, J. [Changcheng Institute of Metrology and Measurement, 100095, Beijing (China); Yi, X. [China National South Aviation industry CO., LTD., 412002, Hunan (China); Yu, Z. [Dalian Jinzhou Institute of Measurement and Testing, 116100, Liaoning (China)

    2013-09-11

    In this paper the authors report a newly developed Cesium Heat-Pipe Thermostat (Cs HPT) with the operation range of 400 °C to 800 °C. The working medium is cesium (Cs) of 99.98% purity and contains no radioisotope. A Cs filing device is developed which can prevent Cs being in contact with air. The structural material is stainless steel. A 5000 h test has been made to confirm the compatibility between cesium and stainless steel. The Cs HPT has several thermometer wells of 220mm depth with different diameters for different sizes of thermometers. The temperature uniformity of the Cs HPT is 0.06 °C to 0.20 °C. A precise temperature controller is used to ensure the temperature fluctuation within ±0.03 °C. The size of Cs HPT is 380mm×320mm×280mm with foot wheels for easy moving. The thermostat has been successfully used for the calibration of industrial platinum resistance thermometers and thermocouples.

  1. Deterministic time-reversible thermostats: chaos, ergodicity, and the zeroth law of thermodynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patra, Puneet Kumar; Sprott, Julien Clinton; Hoover, William Graham; Griswold Hoover, Carol

    2015-09-01

    The relative stability and ergodicity of deterministic time-reversible thermostats, both singly and in coupled pairs, are assessed through their Lyapunov spectra. Five types of thermostat are coupled to one another through a single Hooke's-law harmonic spring. The resulting dynamics shows that three specific thermostat types, Hoover-Holian, Ju-Bulgac, and Martyna-Klein-Tuckerman, have very similar Lyapunov spectra in their equilibrium four-dimensional phase spaces and when coupled in equilibrium or nonequilibrium pairs. All three of these oscillator-based thermostats are shown to be ergodic, with smooth analytic Gaussian distributions in their extended phase spaces (coordinate, momentum, and two control variables). Evidently these three ergodic and time-reversible thermostat types are particularly useful as statistical-mechanical thermometers and thermostats. Each of them generates Gibbs' universal canonical distribution internally as well as for systems to which they are coupled. Thus they obey the zeroth law of thermodynamics, as a good heat bath should. They also provide dissipative heat flow with relatively small nonlinearity when two or more such temperature baths interact and provide useful deterministic replacements for the stochastic Langevin equation.

  2. How the Invisible Hand is Supposed to Adjust the Natural Thermostat: A Guide for the Perplexed.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Storm, Servaas

    2017-10-01

    Mainstream climate economics takes global warming seriously, but perplexingly concludes that the optimal economic policy is to almost do nothing about it. This conclusion can be traced to just a few "normative" assumptions, over which there exists fundamental disagreement amongst economists. This paper explores two axes of this disagreement. The first axis ("market vs. regulation") measures faith in the invisible hand to adjust the natural thermostat. The second axis expresses differences in views on the efficiency and equity implications of climate action. The two axes combined lead to a classification of conflicting approaches in climate economics. The variety of approaches does not imply a post-modern "anything goes", as the contradictions between climate and capitalism cannot be wished away.

  3. Testing the effect of defaults on the thermostat settings of OECD employees

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brown, Zachary; Johnstone, Nick; Haščič, Ivan; Vong, Laura; Barascud, Francis

    2013-01-01

    We describe a randomized controlled experiment in which the default settings on office thermostats in an OECD office building were manipulated during the winter heating season, and employees' chosen thermostat setting observed over a 6-week period. Using difference-in-differences, panel, and censored regression models (to control for maximum allowable thermostat settings), we find that a 1 °C decrease in the default caused a reduction in the chosen setting by 0.38 °C, on average. Sixty-five percent of this effect could be attributed to office occupant behavior (p-value = 0.044). The difference-in-differences models show that small decreases in the default (1°) led to a greater reduction in chosen settings than large decreases (2°). We also find that office occupants who were more apt to adjust their thermostats prior to the intervention were less susceptible to the default. We conclude that this kind of intervention can increase building-level energy efficiency, and discuss potential explanations and broader policy implications of our findings. - Highlights: • We conduct a randomized controlled trial to test if thermostat defaults affect agent behavior. • Two treatments (schedules of default settings) were tested against a control for 6 weeks at OECD. • Small changes in defaults had a greater effect on chosen settings than larger changes in defaults. • Occupants who frequently changed their thermostats in baseline were less affected by defaults. • Thermostat defaults in office environments can be manipulated to increase energy efficiency

  4. Model predictive control for a thermostatic controlled system

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Shafiei, Seyed Ehsan; Rasmussen, Henrik; Stoustrup, Jakob

    2013-01-01

    This paper proposes a model predictive control scheme to provide temperature set-points to thermostatic controlled cooling units in refrigeration systems. The control problem is formulated as a convex programming problem to minimize the overall operating cost of the system. The foodstuff temperat......This paper proposes a model predictive control scheme to provide temperature set-points to thermostatic controlled cooling units in refrigeration systems. The control problem is formulated as a convex programming problem to minimize the overall operating cost of the system. The foodstuff...

  5. Thermostatic Radiator Valve Evaluation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dentz, Jordan [Advanced Residential Integrated Energy Solutions Collaborative, New York, NY (United States); Ansanelli, Eric [Advanced Residential Integrated Energy Solutions Collaborative, New York, NY (United States)

    2015-01-01

    A large stock of multifamily buildings in the Northeast and Midwest are heated by steam distribution systems. Losses from these systems are typically high and a significant number of apartments are overheated much of the time. Thermostatically controlled radiator valves (TRVs) are one potential strategy to combat this problem, but have not been widely accepted by the residential retrofit market.

  6. Smart Thermostats: An Experimental Facility to Test Their Capabilities and Savings Potential

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sergio Bustamante

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available The European Commission has explained how heating and cooling in buildings and industry account for half of the energy consumption of the EU. Several studies explain how to achieve an energy saving at home, and the use of smart thermostats will help to reduce energy consumption while increasing the efficiency of households. In this article, a comparative evaluation was carried out between four smart thermostats that are now on the market, whose characteristics vary in terms of price, precision of measurements and set temperature, algorithms, etc. A thermal test chamber was designed and constructed from a refrigerator, a thermal blanket, a Raspberry Pi and the necessary electronic components for its control and data collection. From the tests carried out in the thermal chamber, data on the operation of the four thermostats such as the maintenance and the anticipation of the setpoint temperature, were obtained. It was necessary to run the system enough times for each thermostat to memorize the housing characteristics, such as its inertia and its thermal insulation. This would also allow for the generation of a better algorithm to regulate the temperature, which would create a lower oscillation with respect to the setpoint temperature. The learning of the thermostats was not demonstrated and for the anticipation mode it was seen that the thermostats failed to improve or learn in this aspect, as they did not improve the start-up times of the heating system, with the consequent increase in energy consumption.

  7. How the Invisible Hand is Supposed to Adjust the Natural Thermostat: A Guide for the Perplexed

    OpenAIRE

    Storm, Servaas

    2016-01-01

    Mainstream climate economics takes global warming seriously, but perplexingly concludes that the optimal economic policy is to almost do nothing about it. This conclusion can be traced to just a few “normative” assumptions, over which there exists fundamental disagreement amongst economists. This paper explores two axes of this disagreement. The first axis (“market vs. regulation”) measures faith in the invisible hand to adjust the natural thermostat. The second axis expresses differences in ...

  8. Deterministic thermostats, theories of nonequilibrium systems and parallels with the ergodic condition

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jepps, Owen G; Rondoni, Lamberto

    2010-01-01

    Deterministic 'thermostats' are mathematical tools used to model nonequilibrium steady states of fluids. The resulting dynamical systems correctly represent the transport properties of these fluids and are easily simulated on modern computers. More recently, the connection between such thermostats and entropy production has been exploited in the development of nonequilibrium fluid theories. The purpose and limitations of deterministic thermostats are discussed in the context of irreversible thermodynamics and the development of theories of nonequilibrium phenomena. We draw parallels between the development of such nonequilibrium theories and the development of notions of ergodicity in equilibrium theories. (topical review)

  9. Development of modular thermostatic vapour-cooled current leads for cryogenic service

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blessing, H.; Lebrun, P.

    1983-01-01

    Cryogenic current leads cooled by helium vapour have been developed, built and tested. Their construction, based on standard electrolytic copper braids crimped at the ends, is such as to provide flexible cold terminations and make possible a modular design. The warm terminations combine electrical insulation, leak-tightness and integrated thermostatic valves controlling lead temperature and avoiding thermal run-away or ice build-up. After giving a detailed description of their construction, this report presents results of performance and reliability tests made on prototype units. (orig.)

  10. Large Scale Demand Response of Thermostatic Loads

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Totu, Luminita Cristiana

    This study is concerned with large populations of residential thermostatic loads (e.g. refrigerators, air conditioning or heat pumps). The purpose is to gain control over the aggregate power consumption in order to provide balancing services for the electrical grid. Without affecting the temperat......This study is concerned with large populations of residential thermostatic loads (e.g. refrigerators, air conditioning or heat pumps). The purpose is to gain control over the aggregate power consumption in order to provide balancing services for the electrical grid. Without affecting....... The control architecture is defined by parsimonious communication requirements that also have a high level data privacy, and it furthermore guarantees a robust and secure local operation. Mathematical models are put forward, and the effectiveness is shown by numerical simulations. A case study of 10000...

  11. A unified thermostat scheme for efficient configurational sampling for classical/quantum canonical ensembles via molecular dynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Zhijun; Liu, Xinzijian; Chen, Zifei; Zheng, Haifeng; Yan, Kangyu; Liu, Jian

    2017-07-01

    We show a unified second-order scheme for constructing simple, robust, and accurate algorithms for typical thermostats for configurational sampling for the canonical ensemble. When Langevin dynamics is used, the scheme leads to the BAOAB algorithm that has been recently investigated. We show that the scheme is also useful for other types of thermostats, such as the Andersen thermostat and Nosé-Hoover chain, regardless of whether the thermostat is deterministic or stochastic. In addition to analytical analysis, two 1-dimensional models and three typical real molecular systems that range from the gas phase, clusters, to the condensed phase are used in numerical examples for demonstration. Accuracy may be increased by an order of magnitude for estimating coordinate-dependent properties in molecular dynamics (when the same time interval is used), irrespective of which type of thermostat is applied. The scheme is especially useful for path integral molecular dynamics because it consistently improves the efficiency for evaluating all thermodynamic properties for any type of thermostat.

  12. Determination of the mechanical thermostat electrical contacts switching quality with sound and vibration analysis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rejc, Jure; Munih, Marko [University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana (Slovenia)

    2017-05-15

    A mechanical thermostat is a device that switches heating or cooling appliances on or off based on temperature. For this kind of use, electronic or mechanical switching concepts are applied. During the production of electrical contacts, several irregularities can occur leading to improper switching events of the thermostat electrical contacts. This paper presents a non-obstructive method based on the fact that when the switching event occurs it can be heard and felt by human senses. We performed several laboratory tests with two different methods. The first method includes thermostat switch sound signal analysis during the switching event. The second method is based on sampling of the accelerometer signal during the switching event. The results show that the sound analysis approach has great potential. The approach enables an accurate determination of the switching event even if the sampled signal carries also the switching event of the neighbour thermostat.

  13. Design and Implementation of Frequency-responsive Thermostat Control

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nyeng, Preben; Østergaard, Jacob; Togeby, Mikael

    2010-01-01

    properties and needs of each application, and on the other hand the requirements of the system operator. The control algorithms are implemented on a microcontroller unit that is interfaced with existing thermostats for each application. To validate the control algorithms and overall system design, a series...

  14. An Inductive Water Thermostat Using On‐Off Triac Control and Platinum Sensing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Diamond, Joseph M.

    1971-01-01

    An on‐off thermostat is described using novel means for heating, sensing, and triac control. Heating is performed by sending the water through a coil of silver tubing which forms the short‐circuited secondary winding of a transformer. This arrangement permits extremely good insulation, which...... was essential in the medical application (a dialysis water thermostat) for which it was designed; its quick response also contributes to the excellent regulation achieved with simple on‐off control. Sensing is provided by a very low resistance platinum coil in direct contact with the water, thus providing quick...

  15. A Microwave Thermostatic Reactor for Processing Liquid Materials Based on a Heat-Exchanger.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Yongqiang; Zhang, Chun; Xie, Tian; Hong, Tao; Zhu, Huacheng; Yang, Yang; Liu, Changjun; Huang, Kama

    2017-10-08

    Microwaves have been widely used in the treatment of different materials. However, the existing adjustable power thermostatic reactors cannot be used to analyze materials characteristics under microwave effects. In this paper, a microwave thermostatic chemical reactor for processing liquid materials is proposed, by controlling the velocity of coolant based on PLC (programmable logic controller) in different liquid under different constant electric field intensity. A nonpolar coolant (Polydimethylsiloxane), which is completely microwave transparent, is employed to cool the liquid materials. Experiments are performed to measure the liquid temperature using optical fibers, the results show that the precision of temperature control is at the range of ±0.5 °C. Compared with the adjustable power thermostatic control system, the effect of electric field changes on material properties are avoided and it also can be used to detect the properties of liquid materials and special microwave effects.

  16. Time step MOTA thermostat simulation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guthrie, G.L.

    1978-09-01

    The report details the logic, program layout, and operating procedures for the time-step MOTA (Materials Open Test Assembly) thermostat simulation program known as GYRD. It will enable prospective users to understand the operation of the program, run it, and interpret the results. The time-step simulation analysis was the approach chosen to determine the maximum value gain that could be used to minimize steady temperature offset without risking undamped thermal oscillations. The advantage of the GYRD program is that it directly shows hunting, ringing phenomenon, and similar events. Programs BITT and CYLB are faster, but do not directly show ringing time

  17. A thermostatted kinetic theory model for event-driven pedestrian dynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bianca, Carlo; Mogno, Caterina

    2018-06-01

    This paper is devoted to the modeling of the pedestrian dynamics by means of the thermostatted kinetic theory. Specifically the microscopic interactions among pedestrians and an external force field are modeled for simulating the evacuation of pedestrians from a metro station. The fundamentals of the stochastic game theory and the thermostatted kinetic theory are coupled for the derivation of a specific mathematical model which depicts the time evolution of the distribution of pedestrians at different exits of a metro station. The perturbation theory is employed in order to establish the stability analysis of the nonequilibrium stationary states in the case of a metro station consisting of two exits. A general sensitivity analysis on the initial conditions, the magnitude of the external force field and the number of exits is presented by means of numerical simulations which, in particular, show how the asymptotic distribution and the convergence time are affected by the presence of an external force field. The results show how, in evacuation conditions, the interaction dynamics among pedestrians can be negligible with respect to the external force. The important role of the thermostat term in allowing the reaching of the nonequilibrium stationary state is stressed out. Research perspectives are underlined at the end of paper, in particular for what concerns the derivation of frameworks that take into account the definition of local external actions and the introduction of the space and velocity dynamics.

  18. Make Markets Work for Climate

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2006-11-01

    In developing countries with rapidly growing economies, energy consumption will more than triple by 2030. This will require more than 8 trillion euros in investments in energy in these countries. The way these investments are made will be crucial in determining whether greenhouse gas emissions will rise proportionately. By creating a worldwide, lucrative market for clean technologies, countries can use the money they set aside for fighting climate change to stimulate large-scale private investment in clean energy production and efficient energy consumption. A well-functioning market ensures that money is invested where it will be the most cost-effective and will have the greatest impact in helping to solve a generally recognised problem. This also means making sure that innovations get to the market, so as to take advantage of economies of scale. The conference on 16 and 17 October 2006 in Amsterdam was the official start of the collaboration of governments, business and financial institutions to Make Markets Work for Climate. At the conference it was underlined that coordinated strategies are needed for international financial institutions, private banks, private investors and governments. Business and governments stand shoulder to shoulder in shaping the much needed actions on climate change. The participants agreed that potentially profitable opportunities exist for investment in commercial technologies in developing countries, especially aimed at energy efficiency. An enabling environment is needed in developing countries to attract funds for clean energy. Attention should be paid to less-developed countries. They have difficulty profiting from the current CDM market and are unable to compete on the technology learning curve. In order to make markets work for climate there is a strong need for long-term continuity in the carbon market beyond 2012. Governments need to create stable incentives for business to invest in clean energy technologies. Business is ready

  19. Thermostatic Radiator Valve Evaluation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dentz, J. [Advanced Residential Integrated Energy Solutions Collaborative (ARIES), New York, NY (United States); Ansanelli, E. [Advanced Residential Integrated Energy Solutions Collaborative (ARIES), New York, NY (United States)

    2015-01-01

    A large stock of multifamily buildings in the Northeast and Midwest are heated by steam distribution systems. Losses from these systems are typically high and a significant number of apartments are overheated much of the time. Thermostatically controlled radiator valves (TRVs) are one potential strategy to combat this problem, but have not been widely accepted by the residential retrofit market. In this project, the ARIES team sought to better understand the current usage of TRVs by key market players in steam and hot water heating and to conduct limited experiments on the effectiveness of new and old TRVs as a means of controlling space temperatures and reducing heating fuel consumption. The project included a survey of industry professionals, a field experiment comparing old and new TRVs, and cost-benefit modeling analysis using BEopt™ (Building Energy Optimization software).

  20. Making the Climate Count: Climate Policy Integration and Coherence in Finland

    OpenAIRE

    Kivimaa, Paula; Mickwitz, Per

    2009-01-01

    Tackling climate change in Finland and other industrialised countries requires major changes in production processes and consumption patterns. These changes will not take place unless climate change becomes a crucial factor in general and sector-specific policy-making. In this report climate policy integration in Finland is studied at different levels of policy-making: at the national level, regionally in Kymenlakso and the Metropolitan Area, as well as in the city of Helsinki and the town of...

  1. Modeling Populations of Thermostatic Loads with Switching Rate Actuation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Totu, Luminita Cristiana; Wisniewski, Rafal; Leth, John-Josef

    2015-01-01

    We model thermostatic devices using a stochastic hybrid description, and introduce an external actuation mechanism that creates random switch events in the discrete dynamics. We then conjecture the form of the Fokker-Planck equation and successfully verify it numerically using Monte Carlo...... simulations. The actuation mechanism and subsequent modeling result are relevant for power system operation....

  2. Evaluating functions of positive-definite matrices using colored-noise thermostats

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nava, Marco; Ceriotti, Michele; Dryzun, Chaim; Parrinello, Michele

    2014-02-01

    Many applications in computational science require computing the elements of a function of a large matrix. A commonly used approach is based on the the evaluation of the eigenvalue decomposition, a task that, in general, involves a computing time that scales with the cube of the size of the matrix. We present here a method that can be used to evaluate the elements of a function of a positive-definite matrix with a scaling that is linear for sparse matrices and quadratic in the general case. This methodology is based on the properties of the dynamics of a multidimensional harmonic potential coupled with colored-noise, generalized Langevin equation thermostats. This "f-thermostat" approach allows us to calculate directly elements of functions of a positive-definite matrix by carefully tailoring the properties of the stochastic dynamics. We demonstrate the scaling and the accuracy of this approach for both dense and sparse problems and compare the results with other established methodologies.

  3. Modeling heterogeneous populations of thermostatically controlled loads using diffusion-advection PDEs

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Moura, Scott; Ruiz, Victor; Bendtsen, Jan Dimon

    2013-01-01

    This paper focuses on developing a partial differential equation (PDE)-based model and parameter identification scheme for heterogeneous populations of thermostatically controlled loads (TCLs). First, a coupled two-state hyperbolic PDE model for homogenous TCL populations is derived. This model i...

  4. How Useful Are Climate Projections for Adaptation Decision Making?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, J. B.; Vogel, J. M.

    2011-12-01

    Decision making is often portrayed as a linear process that assumes scientific knowledge is a necessary precursor to effective policy and is used directly in policy making. Yet, in practice, the use of scientific information in decision making is more complex than the linear model implies. The use of climate projections in adaptation decision making is a case in point. This paper briefly reviews efforts by some decision makers to understand climate change risks and to apply this knowledge when making decisions on management of climate sensitive resources and infrastructure . In general, and in spite of extensive efforts to study climate change at the regional and local scale to support decision making, few decisions outside of adapting to sea level rise appear to directly apply to climate change projections. A number of U.S. municipalities and states, including Seattle, New York City, Phoenix, and the States of California and Washington, have used climate change projections to assess their vulnerability to various climate change impacts. Some adaptation decisions have been made based on projections of sea level rise, such as change in location of infrastructure. This may be because a future rise is sea level is virtually certain. In contrast, decision making on precipitation has been more limited, even where there is consensus on likely changes in sign of the variable. Nonetheless, decision makers are adopting strategies that can be justified based on current climate and climate variability and that also reduce risks to climate change. A key question for the scientific community is whether improved projections will add value to decision making. For example, it remains unclear how higher-resolution projections can change decision making as long as the sign and magnitude of projections across climate models and downscaling techniques retains a wide range of uncertainty. It is also unclear whether even better information on the sign and magnitude of change would

  5. Thermostatic system of sensor in NIR spectrometer based on PID control

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Zhihong; Qiao, Liwei; Ji, Xufei

    2016-11-01

    Aiming at the shortcomings of the primary sensor thermostatic control system in the near infrared (NIR) spectrometer, a novel thermostatic control system based on proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control technology was developed to improve the detection precision of the NIR spectrometer. There were five parts including bridge amplifier circuit, analog-digital conversion (ADC) circuit, microcontroller, digital-analog conversion (DAC) circuit and drive circuit in the system. The five parts formed a closed-loop control system based on PID algorithm that was used to control the error between the temperature calculated by the sampling data of ADC and the designed temperature to ensure the stability of the spectrometer's sensor. The experimental results show that, when the operating temperature of sensor is -11°, compared with the original system, the temperature control precision of the new control system is improved from ±0.64° to ±0.04° and the spectrum signal to noise ratio (SNR) is improved from 4891 to 5967.

  6. Capillary Tube and Thermostatic Expansion Valve Comparative Analysis in Water Chiller Air Conditioning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wijaya Sunu, Putu; Made Rasta, I.; Anakottapary, Daud Simon; Made Suarta, I.; Cipta Santosa, I. D. M.

    2018-01-01

    The aims of this study to compares the performance characteristics of a water chiller air conditioning simulation equipped with thermostatic expansion valve (TEV) with those of a capillary tube. Water chiller system filled with the same charge of refrigerant. Comparative analyses were performed based on coefficient of performance (COP) and performance parameter of the refrigeration system, carried out at medium cooling load level with the ambient temperature of 29-31°C, constant compressor speed and fixed chilled water volume flowrate at 15 lpm. It was shown that the TEV system showed better energy consumption compared to that of capillary tube. From the coefficient of performance perspective, the thermostatic expansion valve system showed higher COP (± 21.4%) compared to that of capillary tube system.

  7. Climate Information Needs for Financial Decision Making

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Higgins, Paul [American Meteorological Society, Washington, DC (United States)

    2013-11-19

    Climate Information Needs for Financial Decision Making (Final Report) This Department of Energy workshop award (grant #DE-SC0008480) provided primary support for the American Meteorological Society’s study on climate information needs for financial decision making. The goal of this study was to help advance societal decision making by examining the implications of climate variability and change on near-term financial investments. We explored four key topics: 1) the conditions and criteria that influence returns on investment of major financial decisions, 2) the climate sensitivity of financial decisions, 3) climate information needs of financial decision makers, and 4) potential new mechanisms to promote collaboration between scientists and financial decision makers. Better understanding of these four topics will help scientists provide the most useful information and enable financial decision makers to use scientific information most effectively. As a result, this study will enable leaders in business and government to make well-informed choices that help maximize long-term economic success and social wellbeing in the United States The outcomes of the study include a workshop, which brought together leaders from the scientific and financial decision making communities, a publication of the study report, and a public briefing of the results to the policy community. In addition, we will present the results to the scientific community at the AMS Annual Meeting in February, 2014. The study results were covered well by the media including Bloomberg News and E&E News. Upon request, we also briefed the Office of Science Technology Policy (OSTP) and the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) on the outcomes. We presented the results to the policy community through a public briefing in December on Capitol Hill. The full report is publicly available at www.ametsoc.org/cin. Summary of Key Findings The United States invests roughly $1.5 trillion U.S. dollars (USD) in

  8. Peltier battery thermostat for semiconductor detectors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Caini, V.

    1980-01-01

    The description is given of a Peltier battery cooling thermostat for semiconductor detectors, whose sensing element is the detector itself. A signal proportional to the leakage current is amplified and compared with a chosen reference voltage. The difference, amplified and sensed, regulates the cooling current to the Peltier battery. Special mechanical devices speed up measurement-taking. The leakage current proved to be reducible to as little as 1/1000 of that at ambient temperature and the stabilization obtained is between +-5 nA (although between +-1 nA is also feasible). Hence it is possible to use very high load resistance preamplifiers to reduce noise and to improve stability and pulse height resolution in α spectroscopy, even with a detector unsuitable for work at very low temperatures. Other applications can be foreseen. (orig.)

  9. Load management: Model-based control of aggregate power for populations of thermostatically controlled loads

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Perfumo, Cristian; Kofman, Ernesto; Braslavsky, Julio H.; Ward, John K.

    2012-01-01

    Highlights: ► Characterisation of power response of a population of air conditioners. ► Implementation of demand side management on a group of air conditioners. ► Design of a controller for the power output of a group of air conditioners. ► Quantification of comfort impact of demand side management. - Abstract: Large groups of electrical loads can be controlled as a single entity to reduce their aggregate power demand in the electricity network. This approach, known as load management (LM) or demand response, offers an alternative to the traditional paradigm in the electricity market, where matching supply and demand is achieved solely by regulating how much generation is dispatched. Thermostatically controlled loads (TCLs), such as air conditioners (ACs) and fridges, are particularly suitable for LM, which can be implemented using feedback control techniques to regulate their aggregate power. To achieve high performance, such feedback control techniques require an accurate mathematical model of the TCL aggregate dynamics. Although such models have been developed, they appear too complex to be effectively used in control design. In this paper we develop a mathematical model aimed at the design of a model-based feedback control strategy. The proposed model analytically characterises the aggregate power response of a population of ACs to a simultaneous step change in temperature set points. Based on this model, we then derive, and completely parametrise in terms of the ACs ensemble properties, a reduced-order mathematical model to design an internal-model controller that regulates aggregate power by broadcasting temperature set-point offset changes. The proposed controller achieves high LM performance provided the ACs are equipped with high resolution thermostats. With coarser resolution thermostats, which are typical in present commercial and residential ACs, performance deteriorates significantly. This limitation is overcome by subdividing the population

  10. Farmer Decision-Making for Climate Adaptation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lubell, M.; Niles, M.; Salerno, J.

    2015-12-01

    This talk will provide an overview of several studies of how farmers make decisions about climate change adaptation and mitigation. A particular focus will be the "limiting factors hypothesis", which argues that farmers will respond to the climate variables that usually have the largest impact on their crop productivity. For example, the most limiting factor in California is usually water so how climate change affects water will be the largest drive of climate adaptation decisions. This basic idea is drawn from the broader theory of "psychological distance", which argue that human decisions are more attuned to ideas that are psychologically closer in space, time, or other factors. Empirical examples come from California, New Zealand, and Africa.

  11. Investigation of charges for thermostatic expansion valves containing condensable and non condensable gas

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Langmaack, Lasse Nicolai; Knudsen, Hans-Jørgen Høgaard

    2006-01-01

    The bulb of a thermostatic expansion valve (TXV) is basically a temperature-pressure converter. It senses the temperature at the outlet of the evaporator, and the substance in the bulb (charge) generates the corresponding saturation pressure inside the bulb. The aim of the work presented in this ...

  12. Control for large scale demand response of thermostatic loads

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Totu, Luminita Cristiana; Leth, John; Wisniewski, Rafal

    2013-01-01

    appliances with on/off operation. The objective is to reduce the consumption peak of a group of loads composed of both flexible and inflexible units. The power flexible units are the thermostat-based appliances. We discuss a centralized, model predictive approach and a distributed structure with a randomized......Demand response is an important Smart Grid concept that aims at facilitating the integration of volatile energy resources into the electricity grid. This paper considers a residential demand response scenario and specifically looks into the problem of managing a large number thermostatbased...

  13. Control characteristics and heating performance analysis of automatic thermostatic valves for radiant slab heating system in residential apartments

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ahn, Byung-Cheon [Department of Building Equipment System Engineering, Kyungwon University, Seongnam City (Korea); Song, Jae-Yeob [Graduate School, Building Equipment System Engineering, Kyungwon University, Seongnam City (Korea)

    2010-04-15

    Computer simulations and experiments are carried out to research the control characteristics and heating performances for a radiant slab heating system with automatic thermostatic valves in residential apartments. An electrical equivalent R-C circuit is applied to analyze the unsteady heat transfer in the house. In addition, the radiant heat transfer between slabs, ceilings and walls in the room is evaluated by enclosure analysis method. Results of heating performance and control characteristics were determined from control methods such as automatic thermostatic valves, room air temperature-sensing method, water-temperature-sensing method, proportional control method, and On-Off control method. (author)

  14. Construction and Start-up of a Large-Volume Thermostat for Dielectric-Constant Gas Thermometry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Merlone, A.; Moro, F.; Zandt, T.; Gaiser, C.; Fellmuth, B.

    2010-07-01

    A liquid-bath thermostat with a volume of about 800 L was designed to provide a suitable thermal environment for a dielectric-constant gas thermometer (DCGT) in the range from the triple point of mercury to the melting point of gallium. In the article, results obtained with the unique, huge thermostat without the DCGT measuring chamber are reported to demonstrate the capability of controlling the temperature of very large systems at a metrological level. First tests showed that the bath together with its temperature controller provide a temperature variation of less than ±0.5mK peak-to-peak. This temperature instability could be maintained over a period of several days. In the central working volume (diameter—500mm, height—650mm), in which the vacuum chamber containing the measuring system of the DCGT will be placed later, the temperature inhomogeneity has been demonstrated to be also well below 1mK.

  15. Electrodeposition of nickel onto steel, using a thermostatic cell and movable anode by a variable current

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vega G, J.D.

    1994-01-01

    In this work, metallic coatings of nickel was made over carbon steel using two different electrolytic solutions: The Watts's bath and the nickel sulfamate bath, using a pulse variable current. The method use was the traditional method, its means a thermostatic cell and one movable anode, which is a few know technique nowadays, it allow realize depositions away from any laboratory or special workshop, it has the advantage to be a portable dispositive. At last of all the electro depositions the coatings quality was valuable by them physical properties like: adhesion, hardness, wrinkled and thickness. The best results was obtain by the Nickel sulfamate bath and movable anode, less in the thickness, which has higher on the thermostatic cell. The variable current was obtain by a Pulse Generator and a Cathodic galvanometer. (Author)

  16. Demand Response of Thermostatic Loads by Optimized Switching-Fraction Broadcast

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Totu, Luminita Cristiana; Wisniewski, Rafal

    2014-01-01

    Demand response is an important Smart Grid concept that aims at facilitating the integration of volatile energy resources into the electricity grid. This paper considers the problem of managing large populations of thermostat-based devices with on/off operation. The objective is to enable demand...... Method is used to spatially discretize these equations. Next, a broadcast strategy with two switching-fraction signals is proposed for actuating the population. This is applied in an open-loop scenario for tracking a power reference by running an optimization with a multilinear objective....

  17. Demand Response on domestic thermostatically controlled loads

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lakshmanan, Venkatachalam

    . For a safe and reliable operation of electric power systems, the balance between electricity generation and consumption has to be maintained. The conventional fossil fuel based power generation achieves this balance by adjusting the generation to follow the consumption. In the electric power system......Electricity has become an inevitable part of human life in present day world. In the past two centuries, the electric power system has undergone a lot of changes. Due to the awareness about the adverse impact of the fossil fuels, the power industry is adopting green and sustainable energy sources....... In general, the electricity consumers are classified as industrial, commercial and domestic. In this dissertation, only the thermostatically controlled loads (TCLs) in the domestic segment are considered for the demand response study. The study is funded by Danish Council for Strategic Research (DCSR...

  18. Communicating climate information: travelling through the decision-making process

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stoverinck, F.; Dubois, G.; Amelung, B.

    2013-01-01

    Climate change forces society to adapt. Adaptation strategies are preferably based on the best available climate information. Climate projections, however, often inform adaptation strategies after being interpreted once or several times. This process affects the original message put forward by climate scientists when presenting the basic climate projections, in particular regarding uncertainties. The nature of this effect and its implications for decision-making are as yet poorly understood. This paper explores the nature and consequences of a) the communication tools used by scientists and experts, and b)changes in the communicated information as it travels through the decision-making process. It does so by analysing the interpretative steps taken in a sample of 25 documents, pertaining to the field of public policies for climate change impact assessment and adaptation strategies. Five phases in the provisioning of climate information are distinguished: pre-existing knowledge (i.e. climate models and data), climate- change projection, impact assessment, adaptation strategy, and adaptation plan. Between the phases, climate information is summarized and synthesised in order to be passed on. The results show that in the sample information on uncertainty is under-represented: e.g. studies focus on only one scenario, and/or disregard probability distributions. In addition, visualization tools are often used ineffectively, leading to confusion and unintended interpretations. Several recommendations are presented. A better training of climatologists to communication issues, but also a training to climatology for decision makers are required, as well as more cautious and robust adaptation strategies, accounting for the uncertainty inherent to climate projections. (authors)

  19. Design and Development of Autonomous High Voltage Driving System for DEAP Actuator in Radiator Thermostat

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Huang, Lina; Zhang, Zhe; Andersen, Michael A. E.

    2014-01-01

    In radiator thermostat applications, DEAP (Dielectric Electro Active Polymer) actuator tends to be a good candidate to replace the conventional self-actuating or step motor based actuator due to its intrinsic advantages. The capacitive property and high voltage (HV) driving demand of DEAP actuator...

  20. Design and Modelling of Thermostatically Controlled Loads as Frequency Controlled Reserve

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Xu, Zhao; Østergaard, Jacob; Togeby, Mikael

    2007-01-01

    Using demand as frequency controlled reserve (DFR) is beneficial to power systems in many aspects. To study the impacts of this technology on power system operation, control logics and simulation models of relevant loads should be carefully developed. Two advanced control logics for using demand...... frequency, is developed. The developed simulation model is able to represent a variety of aggregated thermostatically controlled loads, such as heaters or refrigerators. Uncertainties including customer behaviours and ambient temperature variation are also modelled. Preliminary simulation results...

  1. Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in Ecosystems - Benefits, Barriers and Decision‐Making

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Møller, Lea Ravnkilde

    ) -Simulation of decision and reaction patterns in relation to the belief in future climate changes and trajectory of decisions when knowledge about future climate is gradually increased (Paper 4. Simulation of Optimal Decision‐Making under the Impacts of Climate Change) Overall, the PhD thesis concludes...... the uncertainty about the actual benefits of adaptation and mitigation of climate change and complicates the process of deciding how to act. Paper 3 provides a more in‐depth empirical analysis of actual decision‐making, considering rural Nepalese households dependent on agricultural production. Paper 3 finds...... to consider long‐term strategies. This underlines the importance of linking development with the fight against climate change in order to secure increased freedom of action for the world’s poorest, thereby increasing their ability to adapt and make optimal decisions for the future. Because climate change...

  2. Making Climate Change Visceral Through the Arts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bilodeau, C.

    2016-12-01

    Through their affective power, the arts offer a more visceral understanding of our global crisis and have a greater potential to inspire people to take action than scientific data alone. In this talk, I will look at three projects that use art to translate scientific data into sensory experiences, galvanize communities around visions of a positive future, and make climate change relevant to our lives. Jill Pelto's work makes science visible. A recent graduate from the University of Maine, Pelto practices what she calls glaciogenic art. As an artist and scientist, she uses her creative skills to communicate information about extreme environmental issues. Pelto's watercolors merge scientific data commonly found on graphs with the interpretation of that data in the form of illustrations. The result is an immediate understanding of the science and its implications. The Land Art Generator Initiative provides a platform for artists, architects, landscape architects, and other creatives working with engineers and scientists to bring forward human-centered solutions for sustainable energy infrastructures that enhance the city as works of public art while cleanly powering thousands of homes. Land Art Generator works are optimistic reminders that there is still time to make positive changes. Climate Change Theatre Action was a series of 100 readings and performances of climate change plays, poems and songs, written by writers from all six continents, presented in over 25 countries in support of the United Nations 2015 Paris Climate Conference. Events ranged from informal readings in classrooms to fully-staged performances, and often included presentations and/or panel conversations with scientists. The project reached people from all walks of life (including homeless youth and refugees) and had a powerful impact on audiences.

  3. Climate change decision-making: Model & parameter uncertainties explored

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dowlatabadi, H.; Kandlikar, M.; Linville, C.

    1995-12-31

    A critical aspect of climate change decision-making is uncertainties in current understanding of the socioeconomic, climatic and biogeochemical processes involved. Decision-making processes are much better informed if these uncertainties are characterized and their implications understood. Quantitative analysis of these uncertainties serve to inform decision makers about the likely outcome of policy initiatives, and help set priorities for research so that outcome ambiguities faced by the decision-makers are reduced. A family of integrated assessment models of climate change have been developed at Carnegie Mellon. These models are distinguished from other integrated assessment efforts in that they were designed from the outset to characterize and propagate parameter, model, value, and decision-rule uncertainties. The most recent of these models is ICAM 2.1. This model includes representation of the processes of demographics, economic activity, emissions, atmospheric chemistry, climate and sea level change and impacts from these changes and policies for emissions mitigation, and adaptation to change. The model has over 800 objects of which about one half are used to represent uncertainty. In this paper we show, that when considering parameter uncertainties, the relative contribution of climatic uncertainties are most important, followed by uncertainties in damage calculations, economic uncertainties and direct aerosol forcing uncertainties. When considering model structure uncertainties we find that the choice of policy is often dominated by model structure choice, rather than parameter uncertainties.

  4. The presence and growth of Legionella species in thermostatic shower mixer taps: an exploratory field study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Joost van Hoof; P.W.J.J. van der Wielen; E. van der Blom; O.W.W. Nuijten; L. Hornstra

    2014-01-01

    Legislation in the Netherlands requires routine analysis of drinking water samples for cultivable Legionella species from high-priority installations. A field study was conducted to investigate the presence of Legionella species in thermostatic shower mixer taps. Water samples and the interior of

  5. Extending the Internet to make demand management e-smart

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nelson, M. D. [emWare Inc., Salt Lake City, UT (United States)

    2001-06-01

    A new cost-effective solution to managing peak power demand by utility companies is described. The system was developed by Carrier Corporation, in conjunction with Silicon Energy, AT and T and emWare Inc. The program is known as 'ComfortChoice'. The heart of the system is a new generation of energy management interface (Emi) thermostat which is Internet-enabled. These thermostats allow the utility company to adjust the customer's temperature set point during peak energy time to reduce energy usage, while giving the customer complete freedom to override the utility company's settings and to control the thermostat remotely via a Web browser interface on a PC. The device-networking system runs on the EMIT software package, developed by emWare Inc, which is ideal for electronic devices with 8- or 16-bit micro-controllers, like thermostats and other everyday devices, and enable bringing the Internet into homes in a cost-effective platform. It is particularly well-suited to controlling power and resource management, heating and cooling systems, building and home automation, telemedicine and health services to network-enable new and existing products, making them e-smart. In addition to being enabled to monitor, diagnose, upgrade and control these devices over the Internet, the embedded micro internet-working technology (EMIT) also offers improved service, greater convenience, and increased cost savings. Productivity and safety are also claimed to be enhanced.

  6. Making it personal: Diversity and deliberation in climate adaptation planning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roopali Phadke

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The vulnerabilities and health burdens of climate change fall disproportionately upon lower income communities and communities of color. Yet the very groups who are most affected by climate change impacts are least likely to be involved in climate adaptation discussions. These communities face critical barriers to involvement including historical disenfranchisement, as well as a sense that climate change is distant and not personally relevant. Boundary organizations are increasingly playing an important role in bringing science to bear on policy decision-making with respect to climate change adaptation, an issue fraught with political and ideological tensions. Our project aimed to engage underrepresented communities in climate change adaptation decision-making using a neighborhood consensus conference model developed and tested in several diverse districts of Saint Paul, Minnesota. Our partnership, a “linked chain” of boundary organizations, devised a neighborhood consensus conference model to present best-available climate data as tangible, place-based scenarios. In so doing, we made climate change “personal” for those who remain outside of climate change planning discourses and opened an opportunity for them to assess their community’s vulnerabilities and communicate their priorities for public investment. Our neighborhood-based model built trust and social capital with local residents and allowed us to bring new voices into conversations around climate change adaptation concerns and priorities. We believe this work will have a long term impact on local climate adaptation planning decisions.

  7. Small causes, big effects. For environment and sales: Check of thermostat valves in the internet; Kleine Ursache, grosse Wirkung. Zugunsten Umwelt und Umsatz: Thermostatventil-Check jetzt im Internet

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Anon.

    2008-04-15

    Fifty percent of all installed thermostat valves are assumed to be lacking in energy efficiency, according to the ''Optimus'' research report. Industry has reacted to this by developing a ThermostatCheck, which can be accessed in the internet by builder-owners and fitters. (orig.)

  8. Uncertainties and insufficiencies: making sense of climate adaption

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Toesse, Sunniva Eikeland

    2012-11-01

    The scientist papers show, first, that climate scientists are concerned about the relevance of their research and engage in practices, even though they may, in a sense, be criticized for taking the relevance for granted. They work hard to communicate their research, even this proves uncomfortable for them personally. Secondly, these first two papers have displayed a potential challenge for climate science communication and translation: climate skeptics. The scientists' fear is that people will be confused by the climate skeptics' misleading messages about the state of climate research. A related concern may be whether the way climate scientists shape their communication efforts to avoid 'sceptic attacks', in some way inhibit translation of climate knowledge? The user papers, on the other hand, show that to potential users of climate science knowledge, the knowledge is not obviously relevant. Furthermore, there are many factors - existing institutional context, professional identities and ideas about science and climate science, and aspects of the available science information - that shape the way in which evaluate relevance. Furthermore, scientists are not particularly central in these evaluations. There is, thus, an asymmetry between the scientist's engagement with relevance and the way users evaluate the relevance of climate science knowledge. How can we make sense of this? (Author)

  9. Comfort in High-Performance Homes in a Hot-Humid Climate

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Poerschke, A. [IBACOS, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA (United States); Beach, R. [IBACOS, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA (United States)

    2016-01-22

    "9IBACOS monitored 37 homes during the late summer and early fall of 2014 in a hot and humid climate to better understand indoor comfort conditions. These homes were constructed in the last several years by four home builders that offered a comfort and performance guarantee for the homes. The homes were located in one of four cities: Tampa, Florida; Orlando, Florida; Houston, Texas; and San Antonio, Texas. Temperature and humidity data were collected from the thermostat and each room of the house using small, battery-powered data loggers. To understand system runtime and its impact on comfort, supply air temperature also was measured on a 1-minute interval. Overall, the group of homes only exceeded a room-to-room temperature difference of 6 degrees F for 5% of the time. For 80% of the time, the rooms in each house were within 4 degrees F of each other. Additionally, the impact of system runtime on comfort is discussed. Finally, measurements made at the thermostat were used to better understand the occupant operation of each cooling system's thermostat setpoint. Builders were questioned on their perceived impact of offering a comfort and performance guarantee. Their feedback, which generally indicates a positive perception, has been summarized in the report.

  10. Nuclear quantum effects in solids using a colored-noise thermostat.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ceriotti, Michele; Bussi, Giovanni; Parrinello, Michele

    2009-07-17

    We present a method, based on a non-Markovian Langevin equation, to include quantum corrections to the classical dynamics of ions in a quasiharmonic system. By properly fitting the correlation function of the noise, one can vary the fluctuations in positions and momenta as a function of the vibrational frequency, and fit them so as to reproduce the quantum-mechanical behavior, with minimal a priori knowledge of the details of the system. We discuss the application of the thermostat to diamond and to ice Ih. We find that results in agreement with path-integral methods can be obtained using only a fraction of the computational effort.

  11. Imaginary politics: Climate change and making the future

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Manjana Milkoreit

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Climate change places major transformational demands on modern societies. Transformations require the capacity to collectively envision and meaningfully debate realistic and desirable futures. Without such a collective imagination capacity and active deliberation processes, societies lack both the motivation for change and guidance for decision-making in a certain direction of change. Recent arguments that science fiction can play a role in societal transformation processes is not yet supported by theory or empirical evidence. Advancing the argument that fiction can support sustainability transformations, this paper makes four contributions. First, building on the imaginary concept, I introduce and define the idea of socio-climatic imaginaries. Second, I develop a theory of imagination as linked cognitive-social processes that enable the creation of collectively shared visions of future states of the world. This theory addresses the dynamics that bridge imagination processes in the individual mind and collective imagining that informs social and political decision-making. Third, emphasizing the political nature of creating and contesting imaginaries in a society, I introduce the role of power and agency in this theory of collective imagination. I argue that both ideational and structural power concepts are relevant for understanding the potential societal influence of climate fiction. Finally, the paper illuminates these different forms of transformational power and agency with two brief case studies: two climate fiction novels. I contrast a dystopian and utopian science fiction novel – Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Water Knife (2015 and Kim Stanley Robinson's Green Earth (2015. The two books are very similar in their power/agency profile, but the comparison provides initial insights into the different roles of optimistic and pessimistic future visions.

  12. Examining Challenges Related to the Production of Actionable Climate Knowledge for Adaptation Decision-Making: A Focus on Climate Knowledge System Producers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ernst, K.; Preston, B. L.; Tenggren, S.; Klein, R.; Gerger-Swartling, Å.

    2017-12-01

    Many challenges to adaptation decision-making and action have been identified across peer-reviewed and gray literature. These challenges have primarily focused on the use of climate knowledge for adaptation decision-making, the process of adaptation decision-making, and the needs of the decision-maker. Studies on climate change knowledge systems often discuss the imperative role of climate knowledge producers in adaptation decision-making processes and stress the need for producers to engage in knowledge co-production activities and to more effectively meet decision-maker needs. While the influence of climate knowledge producers on the co-production of science for adaptation decision-making is well-recognized, hardly any research has taken a direct approach to analyzing the challenges that climate knowledge producers face when undertaking science co-production. Those challenges can influence the process of knowledge production and may hinder the creation, utilization, and dissemination of actionable knowledge for adaptation decision-making. This study involves semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and participant observations to analyze, identify, and contextualize the challenges that climate knowledge producers in Sweden face as they endeavor to create effective climate knowledge systems for multiple contexts, scales, and levels across the European Union. Preliminary findings identify complex challenges related to education, training, and support; motivation, willingness, and culture; varying levels of prioritization; professional roles and responsibilities; the type and amount of resources available; and professional incentive structures. These challenges exist at varying scales and levels across individuals, organizations, networks, institutions, and disciplines. This study suggests that the creation of actionable knowledge for adaptation decision-making is not supported across scales and levels in the climate knowledge production landscape. Additionally

  13. Generation Following with Thermostatically Controlled Loads via Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers Sharing Algorithm

    OpenAIRE

    Burger, Eric M.; Moura, Scott J.

    2015-01-01

    A fundamental requirement of the electric power system is to maintain a continuous and instantaneous balance between generation and load. The intermittency and uncertainty introduced by renewable energy generation requires the expansion of ancillary power system services to maintain such a balance. In this paper, we examine the potential of thermostatically controlled loads (TCLs), such as refrigerators and electric water heaters, to provide generation following services in real-time energy m...

  14. Make way for the climate. National adaptation strategy. The policy paper

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2007-11-01

    The policy paper is a background document of the interdepartmental memorandum 'Make way for climate', in which the outline is described for a national strategy for adaptation to the consequences of climate change. [mk] [nl

  15. Thermostat Controlled Loads Flexibility Assessment for Enabling Load Shifting – An Experimental Proof in a Low Voltage Grid

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lakshmanan, Venkatachalam; Marinelli, Mattia; Kosek, Anna M.

    2017-01-01

    This paper investigates the usability of thermostat controlled domestic appliances for load shift in LV distribution grids. The proposed method uses refrigerators for the demonstration of adaptive load prediction to estimate its flexibility and perform scheduling based on load threshold limit. Tw...

  16. Many-objective robust decision making for water allocation under climate change

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Yan, Dan; Ludwig, Fulco; Huang, He Qing; Werners, Saskia E.

    2017-01-01

    Water allocation is facing profound challenges due to climate change uncertainties. To identify adaptive water allocation strategies that are robust to climate change uncertainties, a model framework combining many-objective robust decision making and biophysical modeling is developed for large

  17. Thermal response of a Fermi-Pasta-Ulam chain with Andersen thermostats

    Science.gov (United States)

    D'Ambrosio, Federico; Baiesi, Marco

    2017-11-01

    The linear response to temperature variations is well characterised for equilibrium systems but a similar theory is not available, for example, for inertial heat conducting systems, whose paradigm is the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) model driven by two different boundary temperatures. For models of inertial systems out of equilibrium, including relaxing systems, we show that Andersen thermostats are a natural tool for studying the thermal response. We derive a fluctuation-response relation that allows to predict thermal expansion coefficients or the heat capacitance in nonequilibrium regimes. Simulations of the FPU chain of oscillators suggest that estimates of susceptibilities obtained with our relation are better than those obtained via a small perturbation.

  18. Bad seeds sprout perilous dynamics: stochastic thermostat induced trajectory synchronization in biomolecules

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Voter, A. F.; Sindhikara, Daniel J.; Kim, Seonah; Roitberg, Adrian E.

    2009-01-01

    Molecular dynamics simulations starting from different initial conditions are commonly used to mimic the behavior of an experimental ensemble. We show in this article that when a Langevin thermostat is used to maintain constant temperature during such simulations, extreme care must be taken when choosing the random number seeds used in order to prevent statistical correlation among the MD trajectories. While recent studies have shown that stochastically thermostatted trajectories evolving within a single potential basin with identical random number seeds tend to synchronize, we show that there is a synchronization effect even for complex, biologically relevant systems. We demonstrate this effect in simulations of Alanine trimer and pentamer and in a simulation of a temperature-jump experiment for peptide folding of a 14-residue peptide. Even in replica-exchange simulations, in which the trajectories are at different temperatures, we find partial synchronization occurring when the same random number seed is employed. We explain this by extending the recent derivation of the synchronization effect for two trajectories in a harmonic well to the case in which the trajectories are at two different temperatures. Our results suggest several ways in which mishandling selection of a pseudo random number generator initial seed can lead to corruption of simulation data. Simulators can fall into this trap in simple situations such as neglecting to specifically indicate different random seeds in either parallel or sequential restart simulations, utilizing a simulation package with a weak pseudorandom number generator, or using an advanced simulation algorithm that hasn't been programmed to distribute initial seeds

  19. Bad Seeds Sprout Perilous Dynamics: Stochastic Thermostat Induced Trajectory Synchronization in Biomolecules.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sindhikara, Daniel J; Kim, Seonah; Voter, Arthur F; Roitberg, Adrian E

    2009-06-09

    Molecular dynamics simulations starting from different initial conditions are commonly used to mimic the behavior of an experimental ensemble. We show in this article that when a Langevin thermostat is used to maintain constant temperature during such simulations, extreme care must be taken when choosing the random number seeds to prevent statistical correlation among the MD trajectories. While recent studies have shown that stochastically thermostatted trajectories evolving within a single potential basin with identical random number seeds tend to synchronize, we show that there is a synchronization effect even for complex, biologically relevant systems. We demonstrate this effect in simulations of alanine trimer and pentamer and in a simulation of a temperature-jump experiment for peptide folding of a 14-residue peptide. Even in replica-exchange simulations, in which the trajectories are at different temperatures, we find partial synchronization occurring when the same random number seed is employed. We explain this by extending the recent derivation of the synchronization effect for two trajectories in a harmonic well to the case in which the trajectories are at two different temperatures. Our results suggest several ways in which mishandling selection of a pseudorandom number generator initial seed can lead to corruption of simulation data. Simulators can fall into this trap in simple situations such as neglecting to specifically indicate different random seeds in either parallel or sequential restart simulations, utilizing a simulation package with a weak pseudorandom number generator, or using an advanced simulation algorithm that has not been programmed to distribute initial seeds.

  20. Making sense of climate risk information: The case of future indoor climate risks in Swedish churches

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gustaf Leijonhufvud

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Organizations and institutions managing built heritage have to make use of increasingly detailed, elaborate and complex climate change impact assessments. It is a challenge to determine how, when and by whom climate predictions should be translated into risk estimates usable for decision-making. In this paper results from the Climate for Culture project are used to study how heritage decision-makers interpret future indoor climate-related risks to Swedish churches. Different sets of risk maps were presented to ten engineers, ten building conservators and five experts on indoor climate related risks. Interviews were used to understand how the interviewees made sense of the presented information and if they associated it with a perceived need for adaptation. The results show that the risks were interpreted and assessed largely dependent on their pre-understanding and familiarity with the individual risks. The magnitude of change and the lack of uncertainty estimates were subordinate to the overall impression of the information as being credible and salient. The major conclusion is that the dissemination of risk information, also from projects which at the outset have aimed at producing knowledge relevant for end-users, should be both customized and tested in collaborative efforts by stakeholders and scientists.

  1. Combating climate change: How nuclear science and technology are making a difference

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Amano, Yukiya

    2015-01-01

    Climate change is the biggest environmental challenge of our time. As governments around the world prepare to negotiate a legally binding, universal agreement on climate at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris at the end of the year, it is important that the contributions that nuclear science and technology can make to combating climate change are recognized. Nuclear science, including nuclear power, can play a significant role in both climate change mitigation and adaptation.

  2. Climate Change: Making the Best Use of Scientific Information

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2012-01-01

    Climate science regularly makes headlines in the media, usually after an extreme weather event or a disaster, or in the wake of campaigns by think tanks about the science of climate change. In this presentation, I discuss four specific challenges that are posed to climate scientist when communicating with the public: (i) The widening gap between the scientific literacy of the public and the communication literacy of the scientists; (ii), the multiplicity of scientific information conduits; (iii), information of, and under, uncertainty; and (iv), the requirement to be precise without using technical language. It turns out that these challenges are quite generic to science communication. Climate scientists have learned from the regular international assessments they perform under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and have accumulated a collective experience of more than 20 years. In this presentation I discuss the most important lessons learned from this experience and their relevant...

  3. Economic MPC based on LPV model for thermostatically controlled loads

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zemtsov, Nikita; Hlava, Jaroslav; Frantsuzova, Galina

    2017-01-01

    Rapid increase of the renewable energy share in electricity production requires optimization and flexibility of the power consumption side. Thermostatically controlled loads (TCLs) have a large potential for regulation service provision. Economic model predictive control (MPC) is an advanced...... control method which can be used to syncronize the power consumption with undispatchable renewable electricity production. Thermal behavior of TCLs can be described by linear models based on energy balance of the system. In some cases, parameters of the model may be time-varying. In this work, we present...... a modified economic MPC based on linear parameter-varying model. In particular, we provide an exact transformation from a standard economic MPC formulation to a linear program. We assume that the variables influencing the model parameters are known (predictable) for the prediction horizon of the controller...

  4. European Union Climate Change Policy: in the nexus of internal policy-making and itnernational negotiations

    OpenAIRE

    Cao, Hui

    2012-01-01

    The aim of the dissertation is to examine the European Union s climate policy in the nexus of domestic policy-making and international negotiations. I firstly test the EU s internal climate policy-making by applying the rational choice institutionalism on the model of institution and preference affect EU s policy outcomes and conclude that: as the EU has a convergent preference, the EU s unique decision-making procedure, the entrepreneurship and EU s membership had been driving EU s climate...

  5. Making the Earth to Life Connection Using Climate Change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haine, D. B.; Berbeco, M.

    2016-12-01

    From ocean acidification to changes in air quality to shifts in the range of disease vectors, there are many opportunities for educators to make the earth science to life science connection by incorporating the impacts of climate change on organisms and entire ecosystems and by describing how living organisms impact climate. NCSE's study in Science found that 86% of life science teachers are teaching climate, but few admit they have any formal climate science training. This session will introduce activities we developed that utilize the 2014 National Climate Assessment, data visualizations, technology tools and models to allow students to explore the evidence that climate change is impacting life. Translating the NCA into classroom activities is an approach that becomes more pertinent with the advent of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Using the NCA and the NGSS we demonstrate strategies for weaving the concept of climate change into an already packed life science curriculum by enhancing rather than displacing content and ultimately promoting integration of science and engineering practices into instruction. Since the fall of 2014 we have engaged approximately 200 K-12 educators at local, state, regional and national teacher professional development events. Here we will summarize what we have learned from science teachers about how they address life science impacts of climate change and we will summarize evaluation data to inform future efforts to engage life science educators in light of the recent USGCRP Climate and Health Assessment and the upcoming 4th National Climate Assessment.

  6. Quantum Oscillator in the Thermostat as a Model in the Thermodynamics of Open Quantum Systems

    OpenAIRE

    Sukhanov, Aleksander

    2005-01-01

    The quantum oscillator in the thermostat is considered as the model of an open quantum system. Our analysis will be heavily founded on the use of the Schroedinger generalized uncertainties relations (SUR). Our first aim is to demonstrate that for the quantum oscillator the state of thermal equilibrium belongs to the correlated coherent states (CCS), which imply the saturation of SUR at any temperature. The obtained results open the perspective for the search of some statistical theory, which ...

  7. Overview of Existing and Future Residential Use Cases for Connected Thermostats

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rotondo, Julia [Energetics Inc., Washington, DC (United States); Johnson, Robert [Energetics Inc., Washington, DC (United States); Gonzalez, Nancy [Energetics Inc., Washington, DC (United States); Waranowski, Alexandra [Energetics Inc., Washington, DC (United States); Badger, Chris [Vermont Energy Investment Corporation, Burlington, VT (United States); Lange, Nick [Vermont Energy Investment Corporation, Burlington, VT (United States); Goldman, Ethan [Vermont Energy Investment Corporation, Burlington, VT (United States); Foster, Rebecca [Vermont Energy Investment Corporation, Burlington, VT (United States)

    2017-03-01

    This paper is intended to help inform future technology deployment opportunities for connected thermostats (CTs), based on investigation and review of the U.S. residential housing and CT markets, as well as existing, emerging, and future use cases for CT hardware and CT-generated data. The CT market has experienced tremendous growth over the last 5 years—both in terms of the number of units sold and the number of firms offering competing products—and can be characterized by its rapid pace of technological innovation. Despite many assuming CTs would become powerful tools for increasing comfort while saving energy, there remains a great deal of uncertainty about the actual energy and cost savings that are likely to be realized from deployment of CTs, particularly under different conditions.

  8. GAIA - A New Approach To Decision Making on Climate Disruption Issues

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paxton, L. J.; Weiss, M.; Schaefer, R. K.; Swartz, W. H.; Nix, M.; Strong, S. B.; Fountain, G. H.; Babin, S. M.; Pikas, C. K.; Parker, C. L.; Global Assimilation of InformationAction

    2011-12-01

    GAIA - the Global Assimilation of Information for Action program - provides a broadly extensible framework for enabling the development of a deeper understanding of the issues associated with climate disruption. The key notion of GAIA is that the global climate problem is so complex that a "system engineering" approach is needed in order to make it understandable. The key tenet of system engineering is to focus on requirements and to develop a cost-effective process for satisfying those requirements. To demonstrate this approach we focused first on the impact of climate disruption on public health. GAIA is described in some detail on our website (http://gaia.jhuapl.edu). Climate disruption is not just a scientific problem; one of the key issues that our community has is that of translating scientific results into knowledge that can be used to make informed decisions. In order to support decision makers we have to understand their issues and how to communicate with them. In this talk, we describe how we have built a community of interest that combines subject matter experts from diverse communities (public health, climate change, government, public policy, industry, etc) with policy makers and representatives from industry to develop, on a "level playing field", an understanding of each other's points of view and issues. The first application of this technology was the development of a workshop on Climate, Climate Change and Public Health held April 12-14, 2011. This paper describes our approach to going beyond the workshop environment to continue to engage the decision maker's community in a variety of ways that translate abstract scientific data into actionable information. Key ideas we will discuss include the development of social media, simulations of global/national/local environments affected by climate disruption, and visualizations of the monetary and health impacts of choosing not to address mitigation or adaptation to climate disruption.

  9. Urban drainage design and climate change adaptation decision making

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zhou, Qianqian

    response impacts in the context of hydrological extremes are considered while the added intangible values (e.g. recreational amenities due to a nice blue-green neighbourhood) of adaptation options are often ignored or underestimated. In order to facilitate the development and implementation of water...... the benefits of provision of positive environmental values and the preservation of water resources. It is found that neglecting intangible values in climate adaptation assessment can easily bias the decision making; the reframed approach hence provide an important tool for assessment of additional benefits...... and costs of such innovative solutions. The thesis points towards an integrated framework for urban drainage adaptation design considering climate change effects and adaptation benefits and costs. The case studies show how the proposed framework can be utilized to manage the anticipated climate change risks...

  10. A framework for modeling adaptive forest management and decision making under climate change

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Yousefpour, Rasoul; Temperli, Christian; Jacobsen, Jette Bredahl

    2017-01-01

    optimal for a certain climate change scenario. We describe four stylized types of decision-making processes that differ in how they (1) take into account uncertainty and new information on the state and development of the climate and (2) evaluate alternative management decisions: the “no......-change,” the “reactive,” the “trend-adaptive,” and the “forward-looking adaptive” decision-making types. Accordingly, we evaluate the experiences with alternative management strategies and recent publications on using Bayesian optimization methods that account for different simulated learning schemes based on varying......Adapting the management of forest resources to climate change involves addressing several crucial aspects to provide a valid basis for decision making. These include the knowledge and belief of decision makers, the mapping of management options for the current as well as anticipated future...

  11. Integrating climate change adaptation in energy planning and decision-making - Key challenges and opportunities

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Olhoff, Anne; Olsen, Karen Holm

    2011-01-01

    management framework is used as the basis for identifying key challenges and opportunities to enhance the integration of climate change adaptation in energy planning and decision-making. Given its importance for raising awareness and for stimulating action by planners and decision-makers, emphasis is placed......Energy systems are significantly vulnerable to current climate variability and extreme events. As climate change becomes more pronounced, the risks and vulnerabilities will be exacerbated. To date, energy sector adaptation issues have received very limited attention. In this paper, a climate risk...... barriers to integration of climate risks and adaptive responses in energy planning and decision making. Both detailed assessments of the costs and benefits of integrating adaptation measures and rougher ‘order of magnitude’ estimates would enhance awareness raising and momentum for action....

  12. Overview of Existing and Future Residential Use Cases for Connected Thermostats

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rotondo, Julia [Energetics Inc., Washington, DC (United States); Johnson, Robert [Energetics Inc., Washington, DC (United States); Gonzales, Nancy [Energetics Inc., Washington, DC (United States); Waranowski, Alexandra [Energetics Inc., Washington, DC (United States); Badger, Chris [Vermont Energy Investment Corp., Burlington, VT (United States); Lange, Nack [Vermont Energy Investment Corp., Burlington, VT (United States); Goldman, Ethan [Vermont Energy Investment Corp., Burlington, VT (United States); Foster, Rebecca [Vermont Energy Investment Corp., Burlington, VT (United States)

    2016-12-01

    This paper is intended to help inform future technology deployment opportunities for connected thermostats (CTs), based on investigation and review of the U.S. residential housing and CT markets, as well as existing, emerging, and future use cases for CT hardware and CT-generated data. The CT market has experienced tremendous growth over the last five years — both in terms of the number of units sold and the number of firms offering competing products — and can be characterized by its rapid pace of technological innovation. Despite many assuming CTs would become powerful tools for increasing comfort while saving energy, there remains a great deal of uncertainty about the actual energy and cost savings that are likely to be realized from deployment of CTs, particularly under different conditions.

  13. Urban drainage design and climate change adaptation decision making

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Qianqian Zhou

    2012-10-15

    adaptation actions (e.g. formulation of an appropriate service level). Furthermore, the risk-based economic approach enables an assessment and comparison of the expected benefits (due to saved flood damage) and corresponding costs of different adaptation measures. This gives more detailed insights into the pros and cons of different adaptation options, thus helping to optimize the efficiency and performance of urban drainage adaptation design. The thesis investigates impacts of uncertainties associated with not only the hydrological conditions (e.g. design intensities, climate change impacts), but also the present and future vulnerability conditions (e.g. impacts on assets). This enables a complete assessment of effects of various uncertainties in the climate change assessment process. Furthermore, in the study, two types of uncertainties are distinguished: 1) the overall uncertainty of an individual adaptation scenario, which may influence the choice of action; and 2) the marginal uncertainty between adaptation alternatives in order for a direct comparison of their efficiency once a decision of action is taken. Based on assessments of the two types of uncertainties, it is found that although climate change adaptation assessment is often associated with large uncertainties, it is still possible to identify robust adaptation options based on calculated marginal uncertainties. This is because that the uncertainties related to costing of floods and magnitude of climate impacts will be levelled out when comparing adaptation alternatives. In addition, a sensitivity analysis is also incorporated in the framework to assess the relative contribution of inherent uncertainties in the assessment. This allows an identification of critical/important uncertainties that matter for decision making and also provides a guide for further efforts to improve decision making in relation to climate change adaptation. Traditionally, assessment of climate change adaptation is based on conventional

  14. A framework for modeling adaptive forest management and decision making under climate change

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rasoul Yousefpour

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Adapting the management of forest resources to climate change involves addressing several crucial aspects to provide a valid basis for decision making. These include the knowledge and belief of decision makers, the mapping of management options for the current as well as anticipated future bioclimatic and socioeconomic conditions, and the ways decisions are evaluated and made. We investigate the adaptive management process and develop a framework including these three aspects, thus providing a structured way to analyze the challenges and opportunities of managing forests in the face of climate change. We apply the framework for a range of case studies that differ in the way climate and its impacts are projected to change, the available management options, and how decision makers develop, update, and use their beliefs about climate change scenarios to select among adaptation options, each being optimal for a certain climate change scenario. We describe four stylized types of decision-making processes that differ in how they (1 take into account uncertainty and new information on the state and development of the climate and (2 evaluate alternative management decisions: the "no-change," the "reactive," the "trend-adaptive," and the "forward-looking adaptive" decision-making types. Accordingly, we evaluate the experiences with alternative management strategies and recent publications on using Bayesian optimization methods that account for different simulated learning schemes based on varying knowledge, belief, and information. Finally, our proposed framework for identifying adaptation strategies provides solutions for enhancing forest structure and diversity, biomass and timber production, and reducing climate change-induced damages. They are spatially heterogeneous, reflecting the diversity in growing conditions and socioeconomic settings within Europe.

  15. Methods for a Smart Thermostat to Estimate the Characteristics of a House Based on Sensor Data with Varying Extent of Completeness

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van der Ham, Wim; Klein, Michel; Tabatabaei, Seyed Amin; Thilakarathne, Dilhan; Treur, Jan

    Smart thermostats can play an important role in achieving more economic energy usage in domestic situations. This paper focuses on the energy used for natural gas-based heating, and monitoring of gas usages versus indoor and outdoor temperatures over time. Two methods are presented that enable the

  16. Fostering climate dialogue by introducing students to uncertainty in decision-making

    Science.gov (United States)

    Addor, N.; Ewen, T.; Johnson, L.; Coltekin, A.; Derungs, C.; Muccione, V.

    2014-12-01

    Uncertainty is present in all fields of climate research, spanning from climate projections, to assessing regional impacts and vulnerabilities to adaptation policy and decision-making. The complex and interdisciplinary nature of climate information, however, makes the decision-making process challenging. This process is further hindered by a lack of institutionalized dialogue between climate researchers, decision-makers and user groups. Forums that facilitate such dialogue would allow these groups to actively engage with each other to improve decisions. In parallel, introducing students to these challenges is one way to foster such climate dialogue. We present the design and outcome of an innovative workshop-seminar series we convened at the University of Zurich to demonstrate the pedagogical importance of such forums. An initial two-day workshop brought together 50 participants, including bachelor, master and PhD students and academic staff, and nine speakers from academia, industry, government, and philanthropy. The main objectives were to provide participants with tools to communicate uncertainty in their current or future research projects, to foster exchange between practitioners, students and scientists from different backgrounds and finally to expose students to multidisciplinary collaborations and real-world problems involving decisions under uncertainty. An opinion survey conducted before and after the workshop enabled us to observe changes in participants' perspectives on what information and tools should be exchanged between researchers and decision-makers to better address uncertainty. Responses demonstrated a marked shift from a pre-workshop vertical conceptualization of researcher-user group interaction to a post-workshop horizontal mode: in the former, researchers were portrayed as bestowing data-based products to decision-makers, while in the latter, both sets of actors engaged in frequent communication, exchanging their needs and expertise. Drawing

  17. Many-objective robust decision making for water allocation under climate change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yan, Dan; Ludwig, Fulco; Huang, He Qing; Werners, Saskia E

    2017-12-31

    Water allocation is facing profound challenges due to climate change uncertainties. To identify adaptive water allocation strategies that are robust to climate change uncertainties, a model framework combining many-objective robust decision making and biophysical modeling is developed for large rivers. The framework was applied to the Pearl River basin (PRB), China where sufficient flow to the delta is required to reduce saltwater intrusion in the dry season. Before identifying and assessing robust water allocation plans for the future, the performance of ten state-of-the-art MOEAs (multi-objective evolutionary algorithms) is evaluated for the water allocation problem in the PRB. The Borg multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (Borg MOEA), which is a self-adaptive optimization algorithm, has the best performance during the historical periods. Therefore it is selected to generate new water allocation plans for the future (2079-2099). This study shows that robust decision making using carefully selected MOEAs can help limit saltwater intrusion in the Pearl River Delta. However, the framework could perform poorly due to larger than expected climate change impacts on water availability. Results also show that subjective design choices from the researchers and/or water managers could potentially affect the ability of the model framework, and cause the most robust water allocation plans to fail under future climate change. Developing robust allocation plans in a river basin suffering from increasing water shortage requires the researchers and water managers to well characterize future climate change of the study regions and vulnerabilities of their tools. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  18. Would science serve decision-making to adapt the impact of climate change? Introduction to Climate Change Adaptation – scientific evidence, assessment framework and decision-making

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gin-Rong Liu Peiwen Lu

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available We live in challenging times with a heightened sense of uncertainty and unpredictability. Climate change, with its impact on disruptive events as well as gradual trends, has been addressed in scientific studies and become increasingly important in policymaking. This rises up a great need on scientific integration and knowledge transformation. The Taiwan Integrated Research Programme on Climate Change Adaptation Technology (TaiCCAT is formed under this concern. Directing by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST, it carries a strong intention to explore and to conduct adequate knowledge of climate change and adaptation strategies for decision-making supports. The TaiCCAT highly recommends the approach of cross-disciplinary collaboration from environmental studies to adaptation governance. The result can therefore be more contributive to reflect the complexity of the changing world.

  19. Collaborative use of geodesign tools to support decision-making on adaptation to climate change

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Eikelboom, T.; Janssen, R.

    2017-01-01

    Spatial planners around the world need to make climate change adaptation plans. Climate adaptation planning requires combining spatial information with stakeholder values. This study demonstrates the potential of geodesign tools as a mean to integrate spatial analysis with stakeholder participation

  20. Revisiting the generation and interpretation of climate models experiments for adaptation decision-making (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ranger, N.; Millner, A.; Niehoerster, F.

    2010-12-01

    Traditionally, climate change risk assessments have taken a roughly four-stage linear ‘chain’ of moving from socioeconomic projections, to climate projections, to primary impacts and then finally onto economic and social impact assessment. Adaptation decisions are then made on the basis of these outputs. The escalation of uncertainty through this chain is well known; resulting in an ‘explosion’ of uncertainties in the final risk and adaptation assessment. The space of plausible future risk scenarios is growing ever wider with the application of new techniques which aim to explore uncertainty ever more deeply; such as those used in the recent ‘probabilistic’ UK Climate Projections 2009, and the stochastic integrated assessment models, for example PAGE2002. This explosion of uncertainty can make decision-making problematic, particularly given that the uncertainty information communicated can not be treated as strictly probabilistic and therefore, is not an easy fit with standard decision-making under uncertainty approaches. Additional problems can arise from the fact that the uncertainty estimated for different components of the ‘chain’ is rarely directly comparable or combinable. Here, we explore the challenges and limitations of using current projections for adaptation decision-making. We report the findings of a recent report completed for the UK Adaptation Sub-Committee on approaches to deal with these challenges and make robust adaptation decisions today. To illustrate these approaches, we take a number of illustrative case studies, including a case of adaptation to hurricane risk on the US Gulf Coast. This is a particularly interesting case as it involves urgent adaptation of long-lived infrastructure but requires interpreting highly uncertain climate change science and modelling; i.e. projections of Atlantic basin hurricane activity. An approach we outline is reversing the linear chain of assessments to put the economics and decision-making

  1. Climate science informs participatory scenario development and applications to decision making in Alaska

    Science.gov (United States)

    Welling, L. A.; Winfree, R.; Mow, J.

    2012-12-01

    Climate change presents unprecedented challenges for managing natural and cultural resources into the future. Impacts are expected to be highly consequential but specific effects are difficult to predict, requiring a flexible process for adaptation planning that is tightly coupled to climate science delivery systems. Scenario planning offers a tool for making science-based decisions under uncertainty. The National Park Service (NPS) is working with the Department of the Interior Climate Science Centers (CSCs), the NOAA Regional Integrated Science and Assessment teams (RISAs), and other academic, government, non-profit, and private partners to develop and apply scenarios to long-range planning and decision frameworks. In April 2012, Alaska became the first region of the NPS to complete climate change scenario planning for every national park, preserve, and monument. These areas, which collectively make up two-thirds of the total area of the NPS, are experiencing visible and measurable effects attributable to climate change. For example, thawing sea ice, glaciers and permafrost have resulted in coastal erosion, loss of irreplaceable cultural sites, slope failures, flooding of visitor access routes, and infrastructure damage. With higher temperatures and changed weather patterns, woody vegetation has expanded into northern tundra, spruce and cedar diebacks have occurred in southern Alaska, and wildland fire severity has increased. Working with partners at the Alaska Climate Science Center and the Scenario Network for Alaska Planning the NPS integrates quantitative, model-driven data with qualitative, participatory techniques to scenario creation. The approach enables managers to access and understand current climate change science in a form that is relevant for their decision making. Collaborative workshops conducted over the past two years grouped parks from Alaska's southwest, northwest, southeast, interior and central areas. The emphasis was to identify and connect

  2. Do colder and hotter climates make richer societies more, but poorer societies less, happy and altruistic?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Van de Vliert, E; Huang, X; Parker, PM

    Physiological needs for thermal comfort, nutritional comfort, and healthiness make colder and hotter climates more demanding than more temperate climates. Affluence may help to meet those thermal demands. Two country-level studies indeed show that thermal demands (colder and hotter climates) and

  3. Using "Making Sense of Climate Science Denial" MOOC videos in a college course

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schuenemann, K. C.; Cook, J.

    2015-12-01

    The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) "Denial101x: Making Sense of Climate Science Denial" teaches students to make sense of the science and respond to climate change denial. The course is made up of a series of short, myth-debunking lecture videos that can be strategically used in college courses. The videos and the visuals within have proven a great resource for an introductory college level climate change course. Methods for using the videos in both online and in-classroom courses will be presented, as well as student reactions and learning from the videos. The videos introduce and explain a climate science topic, then paraphrase a common climate change myth, explain why the myth is wrong by identifying the characteristic of climate denial used, and concludes by reinforcing the correct science. By focusing on common myths, the MOOC has made an archive of videos that can be used by anyone in need of a 5-minute response to debunk a myth. By also highlighting five characteristics of climate denial: fake experts, logical fallacies, impossible expectations, cherry picking, and conspiracy theories (FLICC), the videos also teach the viewer the skills they need to critically examine myths they may encounter in the real world on a variety of topics. The videos also include a series of expert scientist interviews that can be used to drive home points, as well as put some faces to the science. These videos are freely available outside of the MOOC and can be found under the relevant "Most used climate myths" section on the skepticalscience.com webpage, as well as directly on YouTube. Discover ideas for using videos in future courses, regardless of discipline.

  4. Overcoming Barriers: Tailoring Climate Education for Latino and non-Latino Citizen to Impact Decision Making

    Science.gov (United States)

    Estrada, M.; Boudrias, M. A.; Silva-Send, N. J.; Gershunov, A.; Anders, S.

    2013-12-01

    Culture has been shown to be an important determinant of Latino/Hispanic American environmental attitudes (Schultz, Unipan, & Gamba, 2000), which might help to explain the underrepresentation of Latinos in the U.S. 'environmental' movement. With shifting U.S. demographics, however, there is increased urgency to understand how Latinos integrate into the community that is concerned and literate about climate change. As part of the Climate Education Partners (CEP) work in San Diego, we investigated how to address this ethnic group disparity. In this paper, we describe a study of how climate change science knowledge relates to Latino and Non-Latino citizen (a) engagement in conservation behaviors and (b) more informed decision-making. Drawing upon previous work on the Tripartite Integration Model of Social Influence (TIMSI) (Estrada et al., 2011), we hypothesized that climate change knowledge that promotes efficacy (i.e., a sense that one can do something) would relate to greater engagement in conservation behaviors and more informed decision-making (both common of community members concerned about climate change). To test this model, 1001 San Diego residence participated in a telephone survey in which the attitudes towards climate change were assessed using '6 Americas' segmentation (Leiserowitz et al., 2011), in addition to climate change science knowledge, efficacy, values, and engagement in weekly and yearly climate change friendly behaviors (e.g., conservation, transportation, community engagement behaviors). Results showed that there were significant differences in the 6 America segmentation distributions, knowledge, efficacy and behavioral engagement with Latinos significantly more concerned than Non-Latinos, and reporting greater knowledge, efficacy and engagement in behaviors. However, data from both groups showed support for the TIMSI theoretical framework, such that efficacy mediated the relationship between climate change knowledge and behavior. Thus, for

  5. Simulation of Optimal Decision-Making Under the Impacts of Climate Change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Møller, Lea Ravnkilde; Drews, Martin; Larsen, Morten Andreas Dahl

    2017-07-01

    Climate change causes transformations to the conditions of existing agricultural practices appointing farmers to continuously evaluate their agricultural strategies, e.g., towards optimising revenue. In this light, this paper presents a framework for applying Bayesian updating to simulate decision-making, reaction patterns and updating of beliefs among farmers in a developing country, when faced with the complexity of adapting agricultural systems to climate change. We apply the approach to a case study from Ghana, where farmers seek to decide on the most profitable of three agricultural systems (dryland crops, irrigated crops and livestock) by a continuous updating of beliefs relative to realised trajectories of climate (change), represented by projections of temperature and precipitation. The climate data is based on combinations of output from three global/regional climate model combinations and two future scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) representing moderate and unsubstantial greenhouse gas reduction policies, respectively. The results indicate that the climate scenario (input) holds a significant influence on the development of beliefs, net revenues and thereby optimal farming practices. Further, despite uncertainties in the underlying net revenue functions, the study shows that when the beliefs of the farmer (decision-maker) opposes the development of the realised climate, the Bayesian methodology allows for simulating an adjustment of such beliefs, when improved information becomes available. The framework can, therefore, help facilitating the optimal choice between agricultural systems considering the influence of climate change.

  6. Making sense of climate change risks and responses at the community level: A cultural-political lens

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ainka A. Granderson

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available How to better assess, communicate and respond to risks from climate change at the community level have emerged as key questions within climate risk management. Recent research to address these questions centres largely on psychological factors, exploring how cognition and emotion lead to biases in risk assessment. Yet, making sense of climate change and its responses at the community level demands attention to the cultural and political processes that shape how risk is conceived, prioritized and managed. I review the emergent literature on risk perceptions and responses to climate change using a cultural-political lens. This lens highlights how knowledge, meaning and power are produced and negotiated across multiple stakeholders at the community level. It draws attention to the different ways of constructing climate change risks and suggests an array of responses at the community level. It further illustrates how different constructions of risk intersect with agency and power to shape the capacity for response and collective action. What matters are whose constructions of risk, and whose responses, count in decision-making. I argue for greater engagement with the interpretive social sciences in research, practice and policy. The interpretive social sciences offer theories and tools for capturing and problematising the ways of knowing, sense-making and mobilising around risks from climate change. I also highlight the importance of participatory approaches in incorporating the multiplicity of interests at the community level into climate risk management in fair, transparent and culturally appropriate ways.

  7. Creating dialogue: a workshop on "Uncertainty in Decision Making in a Changing Climate"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ewen, Tracy; Addor, Nans; Johnson, Leigh; Coltekin, Arzu; Derungs, Curdin; Muccione, Veruska

    2014-05-01

    Uncertainty is present in all fields of climate research, spanning from projections of future climate change, to assessing regional impacts and vulnerabilities, to adaptation policy and decision-making. In addition to uncertainties, managers and planners in many sectors are often confronted with large amounts of information from climate change research whose complex and interdisciplinary nature make it challenging to incorporate into the decision-making process. An overarching issue in tackling this problem is the lack of institutionalized dialogue between climate researchers, decision-makers and user groups. Forums that facilitate such dialogue would allow climate researchers to actively engage with end-users and researchers in different disciplines to better characterize uncertainties and ultimately understand which ones are critically considered and incorporated into decisions made. We propose that the introduction of students to these challenges at an early stage of their education and career is a first step towards improving future dialogue between climate researchers, decision-makers and user groups. To this end, we organized a workshop at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, entitled "Uncertainty in Decision Making in a Changing Climate". It brought together 50 participants, including Bachelor, Master and PhD students and academic staff, and nine selected speakers from academia, industry, government, and philanthropy. Speakers introduced participants to topics ranging from uncertainties in climate model scenarios to managing uncertainties in development and aid agencies. The workshop consisted of experts' presentations, a panel discussion and student group work on case studies. Pedagogical goals included i) providing participants with an overview of the current research on uncertainty and on how uncertainty is dealt with by decision-makers, ii) fostering exchange between practitioners, students, and scientists from different backgrounds, iii) exposing

  8. 饱和蒸汽压式波纹管疏水阀热动元件实验研究%Experimental study on the saturated vapor pressure type thermostatic bellows for steam traps

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    李树勋; 徐登伟; 把桥环

    2011-01-01

    针对液体膨胀式波纹管蒸汽疏水阀排量不稳定、漏汽率高等问题,分析波纹管热动元件的热工特性.基于Riedel蒸汽压方程和气液平衡方程,建立饱和蒸汽压式波纹管热动元件的热力学模型,设计相应实验系统,进行不同参数下的实验研究.结果表明,饱和蒸汽压式波纹管热动元件伸长量是相变温度的单值函数,近似呈指数关系;采用不同混合比、刚度及填充方式,可调节疏水阀的排水过冷度.%In view of the instabilities of displacement and high steam leakage rate for the liquid-expansion type ther-mostatic bellows steam traps, thermodynamic characteristical of thermostatic bellows was analyzed. Based on the Riedel equation and the vapor-liquid equilibrium equation, thermodynamic model of the saturated vapor pressure type thermostatic bellows was set up, corresponding experimental system was designed, and experimental studies with different parameters was carried out. The experimental results agree well with the theoretical analysis. The results show that the elongation A/I of the saturated vapor pressure type thermostatic bellows is monodrome function of phase transition temperature T, and relationship between the elongation A/I and the phase change temperature t is an exponential function. The subcooled temperature of steam trap can be adjusted by using different mixture ratio, different bellows' stiffness and different sufficient attire method. This paper establishes theoretical and experimental foundation for improving the performance of thermostatic bellows steam traps.

  9. Ethical decision-making climate in the ICU: theoretical framework and validation of a self-assessment tool.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van den Bulcke, Bo; Piers, Ruth; Jensen, Hanne Irene; Malmgren, Johan; Metaxa, Victoria; Reyners, Anna K; Darmon, Michael; Rusinova, Katerina; Talmor, Daniel; Meert, Anne-Pascale; Cancelliere, Laura; Zubek, Làszló; Maia, Paolo; Michalsen, Andrej; Decruyenaere, Johan; Kompanje, Erwin J O; Azoulay, Elie; Meganck, Reitske; Van de Sompel, Ariëlla; Vansteelandt, Stijn; Vlerick, Peter; Vanheule, Stijn; Benoit, Dominique D

    2018-02-23

    Literature depicts differences in ethical decision-making (EDM) between countries and intensive care units (ICU). To better conceptualise EDM climate in the ICU and to validate a tool to assess EDM climates. Using a modified Delphi method, we built a theoretical framework and a self-assessment instrument consisting of 35 statements. This Ethical Decision-Making Climate Questionnaire (EDMCQ) was developed to capture three EDM domains in healthcare: interdisciplinary collaboration and communication; leadership by physicians; and ethical environment. This instrument was subsequently validated among clinicians working in 68 adult ICUs in 13 European countries and the USA. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was used to determine the structure of the EDM climate as perceived by clinicians. Measurement invariance was tested to make sure that variables used in the analysis were comparable constructs across different groups. Of 3610 nurses and 1137 physicians providing ICU bedside care, 2275 (63.1%) and 717 (62.9%) participated respectively. Statistical analyses revealed that a shortened 32-item version of the EDMCQ scale provides a factorial valid measurement of seven facets of the extent to which clinicians perceive an EDM climate: self-reflective and empowering leadership by physicians; practice and culture of open interdisciplinary reflection; culture of not avoiding end-of-life decisions; culture of mutual respect within the interdisciplinary team; active involvement of nurses in end-of-life care and decision-making; active decision-making by physicians; and practice and culture of ethical awareness. Measurement invariance of the EDMCQ across occupational groups was shown, reflecting that nurses and physicians interpret the EDMCQ items in a similar manner. The 32-item version of the EDMCQ might enrich the EDM climate measurement, clinicians' behaviour and the performance of healthcare organisations. This instrument offers opportunities to develop tailored ICU

  10. Smelling land : the hydrogen defense against climate catastrophe

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Scott, D.S. [International Association for Hydrogen Energy, Miami, FL (United States)]|[Victoria Univ., BC (Canada). Inst. for Integrated Energy Systems

    2007-07-01

    This book described how the hydrogen energy system works and how it can be used in the planning of an inexhaustible and clean energy system that can address the threat of climate destabilization. It was noted that any energy source can produce hydrogen. As such, hydrogen will allow solar, wind or nuclear energy to power cars, ships and airplanes. The book explained why using hydrogen is the only way to harvest clean, sustainable sources of energy. The author emphasized that driving hybrid cars, turning down thermostats and using wind turbines does not solve the energy and climate problem. He argued that any solution to climate change and the environment must have hydrogen at its core, because it is the essential component that will bring a safer and cleaner energy future. It was cautioned that climate change is a serious environmental threat, that if not stopped, will bring economic collapse, mass migrations and competition for depleting resources such as fossil fuel, water or even the ability to grow food. It was emphasized that sustainable energy sources that do not emit carbon dioxide must be adopted, and that these sources must be used to manufacture the twin carbon-free energy currencies, hydrogen and electricity. refs., tabs., figs.

  11. Smelling land : the hydrogen defense against climate catastrophe

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Scott, D.S. |; Victoria Univ., BC

    2007-01-01

    This book described how the hydrogen energy system works and how it can be used in the planning of an inexhaustible and clean energy system that can address the threat of climate destabilization. It was noted that any energy source can produce hydrogen. As such, hydrogen will allow solar, wind or nuclear energy to power cars, ships and airplanes. The book explained why using hydrogen is the only way to harvest clean, sustainable sources of energy. The author emphasized that driving hybrid cars, turning down thermostats and using wind turbines does not solve the energy and climate problem. He argued that any solution to climate change and the environment must have hydrogen at its core, because it is the essential component that will bring a safer and cleaner energy future. It was cautioned that climate change is a serious environmental threat, that if not stopped, will bring economic collapse, mass migrations and competition for depleting resources such as fossil fuel, water or even the ability to grow food. It was emphasized that sustainable energy sources that do not emit carbon dioxide must be adopted, and that these sources must be used to manufacture the twin carbon-free energy currencies, hydrogen and electricity. refs., tabs., figs

  12. Small Business Demand Response with Communicating Thermostats: SMUD's Summer Solutions Research Pilot

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Herter, Karen; Wayland, Seth; Rasin, Josh

    2009-09-25

    This report documents a field study of 78 small commercial customers in the Sacramento Municipal Utility District service territory who volunteered for an integrated energy-efficiency/demand-response (EE-DR) program in the summer of 2008. The original objective for the pilot was to provide a better understanding of demand response issues in the small commercial sector. Early findings justified a focus on offering small businesses (1) help with the energy efficiency of their buildings in exchange for occasional load shed, and (2) a portfolio of options to meet the needs of a diverse customer sector. To meet these expressed needs, the research pilot provided on-site energy efficiency advice and offered participants several program options, including the choice of either a dynamic rate or monthly payment for air-conditioning setpoint control. An analysis of hourly load data indicates that the offices and retail stores in our sample provided significant demand response, while the restaurants did not. Thermostat data provides further evidence that restaurants attempted to precool and reduce AC service during event hours, but were unable to because their air-conditioning units were undersized. On a 100 F reference day, load impacts of all participants during events averaged 14%, while load impacts of office and retail buildings (excluding restaurants) reached 20%. Overall, pilot participants including restaurants had 2007-2008 summer energy savings of 20% and bill savings of 30%. About 80% of participants said that the program met or surpassed their expectations, and three-quarters said they would probably or definitely participate again without the $120 participation incentive. These results provide evidence that energy efficiency programs, dynamic rates and load control programs can be used concurrently and effectively in the small business sector, and that communicating thermostats are a reliable tool for providing air-conditioning load shed and enhancing the ability

  13. Cumulus Microphysics and Climate Sensitivity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    del Genio, Anthony D.; Kovari, William; Yao, Mao-Sung; Jonas, Jeffrey

    2005-07-01

    Precipitation processes in convective storms are potentially a major regulator of cloud feedback. An unresolved issue is how the partitioning of convective condensate between precipitation-size particles that fall out of updrafts and smaller particles that are detrained to form anvil clouds will change as the climate warms. Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) observations of tropical oceanic convective storms indicate higher precipitation efficiency at warmer sea surface temperature (SST) but also suggest that cumulus anvil sizes, albedos, and ice water paths become insensitive to warming at high temperatures. International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) data show that instantaneous cirrus and deep convective cloud fractions are positively correlated and increase with SST except at the highest temperatures, but are sensitive to variations in large-scale vertical velocity. A simple conceptual model based on a Marshall-Palmer drop size distribution, empirical terminal velocity-particle size relationships, and assumed cumulus updraft speeds reproduces the observed tendency for detrained condensate to approach a limiting value at high SST. These results suggest that the climatic behavior of observed tropical convective clouds is intermediate between the extremes required to support the thermostat and adaptive iris hypotheses.

  14. Impact of thermostatically controlled loads' demand response activation on aggregated power: A field experiment

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lakshmanan, Venkatachalam; Marinelli, Mattia; Kosek, Anna Magdalena

    2015-01-01

    activation. The outcome of this experimental study quantifies the actual flexibility of household TCLs and the consequence for the different parties with respect to power behaviour. Each DR activation method adopts different scenarios to meet the power reduction, and has different impacts on the parameters......This paper describes the impacts of different types of DR (demand response) activation on TCLs' (thermostatically controlled loads) aggregated power. The different parties: power system operators, DR service providers (or aggregators) and consumers, have different objectives in relation to DR....... The experiments are conducted with real domestic refrigerators representing TCL. Activating refrigerators for DR with a delay reduces the ISE (integral square error) in power limitation by 28.46%, overshoot by 7.69%. The delay in refrigerator activation causes reduction in power ramp down rate by 39.90%, ramp up...

  15. When Organizational Identification Elicits Moral Decision-Making: A Matter of the Right Climate

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    S. van Gils (Suzanne); M.A. Hogg (Michael A.); N. van Quaquebeke (Niels); D.L. van Knippenberg (Daan)

    2017-01-01

    textabstractTo advance current knowledge on ethical decision-making in organizations, we integrate two perspectives that have thus far developed independently: the organizational identification perspective and the ethical climate perspective. We illustrate the interaction between these perspectives

  16. Adaptation pathways: ecoregion and land ownership influences on climate adaptation decision-making in forest management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Todd A. Ontl; Chris Swanston; Leslie A. Brandt; Patricia R. Butler; Anthony W. D’Amato; Stephen D. Handler; Maria K. Janowiak; P. Danielle Shannon

    2018-01-01

    Climate adaptation planning and implementation are likely to increase rapidly within the forest sector not only as climate continues to change but also as we intentionally learn from real-world examples. We sought to better understand how adaptation is being incorporated in land management decision-making across diverse land ownership types in the Midwest by evaluating...

  17. Making sense of global warming: Norwegians appropriating knowledge of anthropogenic climate change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ryghaug, Marianne; Sørensen, Knut Holtan; Naess, Robert

    2011-11-01

    This paper studies how people reason about and make sense of human-made global warming, based on ten focus group interviews with Norwegian citizens. It shows that the domestication of climate science knowledge was shaped through five sense-making devices: news media coverage of changes in nature, particularly the weather, the coverage of presumed experts' disagreement about global warming, critical attitudes towards media, observations of political inaction, and considerations with respect to everyday life. These sense-making devices allowed for ambiguous outcomes, and the paper argues four main outcomes with respect to the domestication processes: the acceptors, the tempered acceptors, the uncertain and the sceptics.

  18. Development and analysis of a variable position thermostat for smart cooling system of a light duty diesel vehicles and engine emissions assessment during NEDC

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mohamed, Eid S.

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • A new concept of the variable position electromagnetic thermostat in MCS is proposed. • A series of experiments were conducted on a light duty diesel vehicle operated over the NEDC test. • A comparative study was done on emission characteristics of the MCS and the conventional cooling system. • Engine cold start and steady-state coolant flow rate and emissions are presented. • The effect of MCS on engine accumulation FC and emissions over NEDC are evaluated. - Graphical Abstract: Display Omitted - Abstract: Smart cooling control systems for IC engines can better regulate the combustion process and heat, a variable position thermostat and electric coolant pumps (EWP) for IC engines are under development by a number of researchers. However, the aim of this study is to assess the performance of a variable position electromagnetic thermostat (VPEMT) to provide more flexible control of the engine temperature and coolant mass flow rate of modification cooling system (MCS). The measurement procedure was applied to two phases under new European drive cycle (NEDC) on a chassis dynamometer, with conventional cooling system (baseline engine) and MCS of a light duty diesel engine. The experimental results revealed that MCS using a VPEMT and EWP contributed to a reduction of engine warm-up period. As a consequence, important reduces in coolant flow rate and most exhaust emission compounds (THC, CO_2, CO and smoke opacity) were obtained. In contrast, NOx emission was observed to increase in these conditions. Comparative results are given for various engine speeds during a cold start and engine fully warm-up tests when the engine was equipped by conventional cooling system and MCS operation under NEDC, revealing the effect of MCS on engine fuel consumption and exhaust emissions.

  19. Managing for climate change on protected areas: An adaptive management decision making framework.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tanner-McAllister, Sherri L; Rhodes, Jonathan; Hockings, Marc

    2017-12-15

    Current protected area management is becoming more challenging with advancing climate change and current park management techniques may not be adequate to adapt for effective management into the future. The framework presented here provides an adaptive management decision making process to assist protected area managers with adapting on-park management to climate change. The framework sets out a 4 step process. One, a good understanding of the park's context within climate change. Secondly, a thorough understanding of the park management systems including governance, planning and management systems. Thirdly, a series of management options set out as an accept/prevent change style structure, including a systematic assessment of those options. The adaptive approaches are defined as acceptance of anthropogenic climate change impact and attempt to adapt to a new climatic environment or prevention of change and attempt to maintain current systems under new climatic variations. Last, implementation and monitoring of long term trends in response to ecological responses to management interventions and assessing management effectiveness. The framework addresses many issues currently with park management in dealing with climate change including the considerable amount of research focussing on 'off-reserve' strategies, and threats and stress focused in situ park management. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Climate change and animal diseases: making the case for adaptation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cáceres, Sigfrido Burgos

    2012-12-01

    The exponential expansion of the human population has led to overexploitation of resources and overproduction of items that have caused a series of potentially devastating effects, including ocean acidification, ozone depletion, biodiversity loss, the spread of invasive flora and fauna and climatic changes - along with the emergence of new diseases in animals and humans. Climate change occurs as a result of imbalances between incoming and outgoing radiation in the atmosphere. This process generates heat. As concentrations of atmospheric gases reach record levels, global temperatures are expected to increase significantly. The hydrologic cycle will be altered, since warmer air can retain more moisture than cooler air. This means that some geographic areas will have more rainfall, whereas others have more drought and severe weather. The potential consequences of significant and permanent climatic changes are altered patterns of diseases in animal and human populations, including the emergence of new disease syndromes and changes in the prevalence of existing diseases. A wider geographic distribution of known vectors and the recruitment of new strains to the vector pool could result in infections spreading to more and potentially new species of hosts. If these predictions turn out to be accurate, there will be a need for policymakers to consider alternatives, such as adaptation. This review explores the linkages between climate change and animal diseases, and examines interrelated issues that arise from altered biological dynamics. Its aim is to consider various risks and vulnerabilities and to make the case for policies favoring adaptation.

  1. Summer Center for Climate, Energy, and Environmental Decision Making (SUCCEED)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klima, K.; Hoss, F.; Welle, P.; Larkin, S.

    2013-12-01

    Science, Technology, and Math (STEM) fields are responsible for more than half of our sustained economic expansion, and over the past 25 years the science and engineering workforce has remained at over 5% of all U.S. jobs. However, America lags behind other nations when it comes to STEM education; globally, American students rank 23th in math and 31st in science. While our youngest students show an interest in STEM subjects, roughly 40% of college students planning to major in STEM switch to other subjects. Women and minorities, 50% and 43% of school-age children, are disproportionally underrepresented in STEM fields (25% and 15%, respectively). Studies show that improved teacher curriculum combined with annual student-centered learning summer programs can promote and sustain student interest in STEM fields. Many STEM fields appear superficially simple, and yet can be truly complex and controversial topics. Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Climate and Energy Decision Making focuses on two such STEM fields: climate and energy. In 2011, we created SUCCEED: the Summer Center for Climate, Energy, and Environmental Decision Making. SUCCEED consisted of two pilot programs: a 2-day workshop for K-12 teacher professional development and a free 5-day summer school targeted at an age gap in the university's outreach, students entering 10th grade. In addition to teaching lessons climate, energy, and environment, the program aimed to highlight different STEM careers so students could better understand the breadth of choices available. SUCCEED, repeated in 2012, was wildly successful. A pre/post test demonstrated a significant increase in understanding of STEM topics. Furthermore, SUCCEED raised excitement for STEM; teachers were enthusiastic about accurate student-centered learning plans and students wanted to know more. To grow these efforts, an additional component has been added to the SUCCEED 2013 effort: online publicly available curricula. Using the curricula form

  2. Using billing and weather data to separate thermostat from insulation effects

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fels, M F; Goldberg, M L

    1984-05-01

    A simple methodology, which uses aggregate utility sales data to measure and decompose residential conservation trends, is demonstrated. The data base is the aggregate natural gas consumption of the nearly one million houses in New Jersey which use gas for heating. The conservation index resulting from the analysis is normalized annual consumption, which adjusts per-household consumption to typical weather conditions. To smooth erratic year-to-year changes, four-year composite analyses are moved forward in time over the period 1970-82. Dramatic decreases in consumption, totaling 26% since the oil embargo, are evident. A decomposition of the results for the four years following the embargo suggests that over half of this conservation effect is due to changes in interior temperatures, with the policy implication that thermostat setbacks have played a far greater conservation role than have either structural change through retrofitting or modifications in appliance usage. In more recent years, for which the overall reduction in energy usage is lower, the dominant conservation role appears to have shifted to reductions in temperature-independent, base-level consumption by water heaters and appliances, while the effects of retrofitting remain relatively small.

  3. Can Climate Information be relevant to decision making for Agriculture on the 1-10 year timescale? Case studies from southern Africa

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fujisawa, Mariko

    2016-04-01

    Climate forecasts have been developed to assist decision making in sectors averse to, and affected by, climate risks, and agriculture is one of those. In agriculture and food security, climate information is now used on a range of timescales, from days (weather), months (seasonal outlooks) to decades (climate change scenarios). Former researchers have shown that when seasonal climate forecast information was provided to farmers prior to decision making, farmers adapted by changing their choice of planting seeds and timing or area planted. However, it is not always clear that the end-users' needs for climate information are met and there might be a large gap between information supplied and needed. It has been pointed out that even when forecasts were available, they were often not utilized by farmers and extension services because of lack of trust in the forecast or the forecasts did not reach the targeted farmers. Many studies have focused on the use of either seasonal forecasts or longer term climate change prediction, but little research has been done on the medium term, that is, 1 to 10 year future climate information. The agriculture and food system sector is one potential user of medium term information, as land use policy and cropping systems selection may fall into this time scale and may affect farmers' decision making process. Assuming that reliable information is provided and it is utilized by farmers for decision making, it might contribute to resilient farming and indeed to longer term food security. To this end, we try to determine the effect of medium term climate information on farmers' strategic decision making process. We explored the end-users' needs for climate information and especially the possible role of medium term information in agricultural system, by conducting interview surveys with farmers and agricultural experts. In this study, the cases of apple production in South Africa, maize production in Malawi and rice production in Tanzania

  4. A framework for modeling adaptive forest management and decision making under climate change

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Yousefpour, Rasoul; Temperli, Christian; Jacobsen, Jette Bredahl; Thorsen, Bo Jellesmark; Meilby, Henrik; Lexer, Manfred J.; Lindner, Marcus; Bugmann, Harald; Borges, Jose G.; Palma, João H.N.; Ray, Duncan; Zimmermann, Niklaus E.; Delzon, Sylvain; Kremer, Antoine; Kramer, Koen; Reyer, Christopher P.O.; Lasch-Born, Petra; Garcia-Gonzalo, Jordi; Hanewinkel, Marc

    2017-01-01

    Adapting the management of forest resources to climate change involves addressing several crucial aspects to provide a valid basis for decision making. These include the knowledge and belief of decision makers, the mapping of management options for the current as well as anticipated future

  5. Agrarian land use decision making in the light of global change and climate change

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Murambadoro, M

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available in Limpopo Province to help land beneficiaries to achieve integrated and coordinated agrarian land use decision making. The second project is ongoing and it seeks to build local resilience to climate change by providing people at local government...

  6. An Interdisciplinary Network Making Progress on Climate Change Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spitzer, W.; Anderson, J. C.; Bales, S.; Fraser, J.; Yoder, J. A.

    2012-12-01

    Public understanding of climate change continues to lag far behind the scientific consensus not merely because the public lacks information, but because there is in fact too much complex and contradictory information available. Fortunately, we can now (1) build on careful empirical cognitive and social science research to understand what people already value, believe, and understand; and then (2) design and test strategies for translating complex science so that people can examine evidence, make well-informed inferences, and embrace science-based solutions. Informal science education institutions can help bridge the gap between climate scientists and the public. In the US, more than 1,500 informal science venues (science centers, museums, aquariums, zoos, nature centers, national parks, etc.) are visited annually by 61% of the population. Extensive research shows that these visitors are receptive to learning about climate change and trust these institutions as reliable sources. Ultimately, we need to take a strategic approach to the way climate change is communicated. An interdisciplinary approach is needed to bring together three key areas of expertise (as recommended by Pidgeon and Fischhoff, 2011): 1. Climate and decision science experts - who can summarize and explain what is known, characterize risks, and describe appropriate mitigation and adaptation strategies; 2. Social scientists - who can bring to bear research, theory, and best practices from cognitive, communication, knowledge acquisition, and social learning theory; and 3. Informal educators and program designers - who bring a practitioner perspective and can exponentially facilitate a learning process for additional interpreters. With support from an NSF CCEP Phase I grant, we have tested this approach, bringing together Interdisciplinary teams of colleagues for a five month "study circles" to develop skills to communicate climate change based on research in the social and cognitive sciences. In 2011

  7. Mainstreaming Low-Carbon Climate-Resilient growth pathways into investment decision-making - lessons from development financial institutions on approaches and tools

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cochran, Ian; Eschalier, Claire; Deheza, Mariana

    2015-01-01

    The integration or 'mainstreaming' of the transition to a low-carbon climate-resilient future as a prism through which to make financial decisions poses a broad number of operational challenges. This background paper for the March 31 event is drawn from the report currently underway by CDC Climat Research supported by the Group Agence Francaise de Developpement and the Group Caisse des depots entitled 'Mainstreaming Low-Carbon Climate-Resilient Growth Pathways into International Finance Institutions' Activities: Identifying standards and tools and a typology for integration into operational decision-making'. Drawing from existing studies of current practice among mainly public development finance institutions (DFIs), this paper presents three families of tools and metrics used by DFIs to integrate climate change into investment decision-making. It presents a number of examples of how institutions have mainstreamed these issues into upstream strategic and downstream assessment processes. This paper also identifies the further challenge of moving from a system of tools and indicators that focus principally on climate finance tracking - important to foster trust and progress on international cooperation - to a means of aligning activities across financial institutions and the entire economy with the transition to a low-carbon climate-resilient economic model necessary to achieve the 2 deg. C commitment. (authors)

  8. Going the Extra Mile: Making Climate Data and Information Usable for Decision Making (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garfin, G. M.

    2013-12-01

    Actionable science, defined as 'data, analysis, and forecasts that are sufficiently predictive, accepted and understandable to support decision-making,' is the holy grail for climate scientists engaged in working with decision makers, to provide the scientific basis for adaptation planning and decisions. The literature on boundary organizations and science translation offers guidelines and best practices for the generation of climate information that is useful and usable for policy and operational decisions. Guidelines emphasize understanding decision contexts and constraints, trust building, development of a shared vision of usable science, co-production of knowledge, iterative and sustained engagement, and the development and leveraging of knowledge networks and communities of practice. Some studies offer the advice that climate change is fraught with irreducible or slowly reducible uncertainties; hence, the adoption of adaptive risk management approaches is more valuable in the near-term than scientific effort to reduce uncertainty or combine data in novel ways. Nevertheless, many water resource managers still seek science that reduces uncertainties, assurance that the range of projections will not change, evidence of cause and effect (e.g., atmospheric circulation patterns linked to regional precipitation anomalies) and information that is as close to deterministic as possible. So, how does the scientific community move forward on initiatives that integrate paleoclimate, observations, and model projections, to inform water resource management? There are no simple answers, because the uses of climate and hydrological data and information are context dependent. Scientists have products -- data and information -- and they need to research characteristics of the consumers of their product. What is the consumer's operating procedure, and world view? How does the consumer handle uncertainty? What is their tolerance for risk? What social and political factors

  9. Co-producing resilient solutions to climate change: Bridging the gap between science and decision-making around nexus issues

    Science.gov (United States)

    Howarth, C.

    2016-12-01

    The nexus represents a multi-dimensional means of scientific enquiry encapsulating the complex and non-linear interactions between water, energy, food, environment with the climate, and wider implications for society. These resources are fundamental for human life but are negatively affected by climate change. Methods of analysis, which are currently used, were not built to represent complex systems and are insufficiently equipped to understand positive and negative externalities generated by interactions among different stakeholders involved in the nexus. In addition misalignment between the science that scientists produce and the evidence decision-makers need leads to a range of complexities within the science-policy interface. Adopting a bottom-up, participative approach, the results of five themed workshops organized in the UK (focusing on: shocks and hazards, infrastructure, local economy, governance and governments, finance and insurance) featuring 80 stakeholders from academia, government and industry allow us to map perceptions of opportunities and challenges of better informing decision making on climate change when there is a strong disconnect between the evidence scientists provide and the actions decision makers take. The research identified key areas where gaps could be bridged between science and action and explores how a knowledge co-production approach can help identify opportunities for building a more effective and legitimate policy agenda to face climate risks. Concerns, barriers and opportunities to better inform decision making centred on four themes: communication and collaboration, decision making processes, social and cultural dimensions, and the nature of responses to nexus shocks. In so doing, this analysis provides an assessment of good practice on climate decision-making and highlights opportunities for improvement to bridge gaps in the science-policy interface

  10. Economic development, climate and values: making policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stern, Nicholas

    2015-08-07

    The two defining challenges of this century are overcoming poverty and managing the risks of climate change. Over the past 10 years, we have learned much about how to tackle them together from ideas on economic development and public policy. My own work in these areas over four decades as an academic and as a policy adviser in universities and international financial institutions has focused on how the investment environment and the empowerment of people can change lives and livelihoods. The application of insights from economic development and public policy to climate change requires rigorous analysis of issues such as discounting, modelling the risks of unmanaged climate change, climate policy targets and estimates of the costs of mitigation. The latest research and results show that the case for avoiding the risks of dangerous climate change through the transition to low-carbon economic development and growth is still stronger than when the Stern Review was published. This is partly because of evidence that some of the impacts of climate change are happening more quickly than originally expected, and because of remarkable advances in technologies, such as solar power. Nevertheless, significant hurdles remain in securing the international cooperation required to avoid dangerous climate change, not least because of disagreements and misunderstandings about key issues, such as ethics and equity. © 2015 The Author(s).

  11. A Robust Decision-Making Technique for Water Management under Decadal Scale Climate Variability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Callihan, L.; Zagona, E. A.; Rajagopalan, B.

    2013-12-01

    Robust decision making, a flexible and dynamic approach to managing water resources in light of deep uncertainties associated with climate variability at inter-annual to decadal time scales, is an analytical framework that detects when a system is in or approaching a vulnerable state. It provides decision makers the opportunity to implement strategies that both address the vulnerabilities and perform well over a wide range of plausible future scenarios. A strategy that performs acceptably over a wide range of possible future states is not likely to be optimal with respect to the actual future state. The degree of success--the ability to avoid vulnerable states and operate efficiently--thus depends on the skill in projecting future states and the ability to select the most efficient strategies to address vulnerabilities. This research develops a robust decision making framework that incorporates new methods of decadal scale projections with selection of efficient strategies. Previous approaches to water resources planning under inter-annual climate variability combining skillful seasonal flow forecasts with climatology for subsequent years are not skillful for medium term (i.e. decadal scale) projections as decision makers are not able to plan adequately to avoid vulnerabilities. We address this need by integrating skillful decadal scale streamflow projections into the robust decision making framework and making the probability distribution of this projection available to the decision making logic. The range of possible future hydrologic scenarios can be defined using a variety of nonparametric methods. Once defined, an ensemble projection of decadal flow scenarios are generated from a wavelet-based spectral K-nearest-neighbor resampling approach using historical and paleo-reconstructed data. This method has been shown to generate skillful medium term projections with a rich variety of natural variability. The current state of the system in combination with the

  12. Making better maize plants for sustainable grain production in a changing climate.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gong, Fangping; Wu, Xiaolin; Zhang, Huiyong; Chen, Yanhui; Wang, Wei

    2015-01-01

    Achieving grain supply security with limited arable land is a major challenge in the twenty-first century, owing to the changing climate and increasing global population. Maize plays an increasingly vital role in global grain production. As a C4 plant, maize has a high yield potential. Maize is predicted to become the number one cereal in the world by 2020. However, maize production has plateaued in many countries, and hybrid and production technologies have been fully exploited. Thus, there is an urgent need to shape maize traits and architectures for increased stress tolerance and higher yield in a changing climate. Recent achievements in genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics have provided an unprecedented opportunity to make better maize. In this paper, we discuss the current challenges and potential of maize production, particularly in China. We also highlight the need for enhancing maize tolerance to drought and heat waves, summarize the elite shoot and root traits and phenotypes, and propose an ideotype for sustainable maize production in a changing climate. This will facilitate targeted maize improvement through a conventional breeding program combined with molecular techniques.

  13. Decision-Making under Uncertainty for Water Sustainability and Urban Climate Change Adaptation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kelli L. Larson

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Complexities and uncertainties surrounding urbanization and climate change complicate water resource sustainability. Although research has examined various aspects of complex water systems, including uncertainties, relatively few attempts have been made to synthesize research findings in particular contexts. We fill this gap by examining the complexities, uncertainties, and decision processes for water sustainability and urban adaptation to climate change in the case study region of Phoenix, Arizona. In doing so, we integrate over a decade of research conducted by Arizona State University’s Decision Center for a Desert City (DCDC. DCDC is a boundary organization that conducts research in collaboration with policy makers, with the goal of informing decision-making under uncertainty. Our results highlight: the counterintuitive, non-linear, and competing relationships in human–environment dynamics; the myriad uncertainties in climatic, scientific, political, and other domains of knowledge and practice; and, the social learning that has occurred across science and policy spheres. Finally, we reflect on how our interdisciplinary research and boundary organization has evolved over time to enhance adaptive and sustainable governance in the face of complex system dynamics.

  14. A tool for design decision making - zero energy residential buildings in hot humid climates

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Attia, S.G.

    2012-01-01

    In this thesis, the development and evaluation of a simulation-based decision aid for Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEBs) design, ZEBO, was explored. The thesis investigates the ability to achieve informed decision making for NZEB design, in hot climate. Four main questions were posed. Firstly, how to

  15. Integrated climate and land change research to improve decision-making and resource management in Southern Africa: The SASSCAL approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Helmschrot, J.; Olwoch, J. M.

    2017-12-01

    The ability of countries in southern Africa to jointly respond to climate challenges with scientifically informed and evidence-based actions and policy decisions remains low due to limited scientific research capacity and infrastructure. The Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL; www.sasscal.org) addresses this gap by implementing a high-level framework to guide research and innovation investments in climate change and adaptive land management interventions in Southern Africa. With a strong climate service component as cross-cutting topic, SASSCAL's focus is to improve the understanding of climate and land management change impacts on the natural and socio-economic environment in Southern Africa. The paper presents a variety of SASSCAL driven activities which contribute to better understand climate and long-term environmental change dynamics at various temporal and spatial scales in Southern Afrika and how these activities are linked to support research and decision-making to optimize agricultural practices as well as sustainable environmental and water resources management. To provide consistent and reliable climate information for Southern Africa, SASSCAL offers various climate services ranging from real-time climate observation across the region utilizing the SASSCAL WeatherNet to regional climate change analysis and modelling efforts at seasonal-to-decadal timescales using climate data from various sources. SASSCAL also offers the current state of the environment in terms of recent data on changes in the environment that are necessary for setting appropriate adaptation strategies . The paper will further demonstrate how these services are utilized for interdisciplinary research on the impact of climate change on natural resources and socio-economic development in the SASSCAL countries and how this knowledge can be effectively used to mitigate and adapt to climate change by informed decision-making from

  16. Comfort in High-Performance Homes in a Hot-Humid Climate

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Poerschke, A. [IBACOS, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA (United States); Beach, R. [IBACOS, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA (United States)

    2016-01-01

    IBACOS monitored 37 homes during the late summer and early fall of 2014 in a hot and humid climate to better understand indoor comfort conditions. These homes were constructed in the last several years by four home builders that offered a comfort and performance guarantee for the homes. The homes were located in one of four cities: Tampa, Florida; Orlando, Florida; Houston, Texas; and San Antonio, Texas. Temperature and humidity data were collected from the thermostat and each room of the house using small, battery-powered data loggers. To understand system runtime and its impact on comfort, supply air temperature also was measured on a 1-minute interval. Overall, the group of homes only exceeded a room-to-room temperature difference of 6 degrees Fahrenheit for 5% of the time.

  17. Participatory approaches to environmental policy-making. The European Commission Climate Policy Process as a case study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van den Hove, S.

    2000-01-01

    The paper investigates the relevance of participatory approaches to environmental policy-making when sustainable development is taken as the encompassing normative basis for environmental governance. In the first section, we illustrate the frequent references to participatory approaches in environmental decision-making. We then look at environmental issue attributes as determinants of the problem-solving requirements for environmental decision-making. We conclude the section by investigating whether and how participatory approaches could answer some of these requirements. In the second section, an illustration is proposed with the presentation of a participatory process that took place in 1997, during the last phase of the international negotiations that led to the Kyoto Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and in 1998 in the preparation of the post-Kyoto phase. The process, organised by the European Commission, consisted of a series of workshops whose objective was to furnish timely inputs responding to the European Commission's information needs for climate policy formation in the pre- and post-Kyoto periods. This was to be achieved through the establishment of interfaces between: (1) the research community; (2) the EC Climate negotiation team and through it the EU Member States representatives; (3) other Commission interests (the 'inside stakeholders'); (4) a range of 'outside' stakeholders including industry, finance and commerce, employment, environment, consumer and citizen interests. We reflect on the participatory nature of the process and show how the process met some of the decision-making requirements identified in the first section. 27 refs

  18. ‘BRS MAGNA’ – a novel grape cultivar for juice making, with wide climatic adaptation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patricia Ritschel

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available ‘BRS Magna’ is a-novel cultivar to make grape juice, which presents intermediate productive cycle and wide climatic adaptation, released as an alternative to improve the color, the sweetness and the flavor of grape juice in Brazil.

  19. The Europeanization of German energy and climate policies. New forms of policy-making and EU multi-level-governance

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fischer, Severin

    2015-01-01

    The Energy Transition (''Energiewende'') is one of the hot topics of the political debate in Germany for some years. As a consequence of ongoing European integration, EU level politics have gained growing importance. The focus of this study is on the interaction of German and EU energy and climate policies. How have German actors influenced EU policy-making processes and in how far are EU policies relevant for national policy-making in Germany? Three case studies look at processes in the fields of electricity market regulation, renewable energy policy and climate protection between 2007 and 2013.

  20. Equivalent electricity storage capacity of domestic thermostatically controlled loads

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sossan, Fabrizio

    2017-01-01

    A method to quantify the equivalent storage capacity inherent the operation of thermostatically controlled loads (TCLs) is developed. Equivalent storage capacity is defined as the amount of power and electricity consumption which can be deferred or anticipated in time with respect to the baseline consumption (i.e. when no demand side event occurs) without violating temperature limits. The analysis is carried out for 4 common domestic TCLs: an electric space heating system, freezer, fridge, and electric water heater. They are simulated by applying grey-box thermal models identified from measurements. They describe the heat transfer of the considered TCLs as a function of the electric power consumption and environment conditions. To represent typical TCLs operating conditions, Monte Carlo simulations are developed, where models inputs and parameters are sampled from relevant statistical distributions. The analysis provides a way to compare flexible demand against competitive storage technologies. It is intended as a tool for system planners to assess the TCLs potential to support electrical grid operation. In the paper, a comparison of the storage capacity per unit of capital investment cost is performed considering the selected TCLs and two grid-connected battery storage systems (a 720 kVA/500 kWh lithium-ion unit and 15 kVA/120 kWh Vanadium flow redox) is performed. - Highlights: • The equivalent storage capacity of domestic TCLs is quantified • A comparison with battery-based storage technologies is performed • We derive metrics for system planners to plan storage in power system networks • Rule-of-thumb cost indicators for flexible demand and battery-based storage

  1. Learning Agent for a Heat-Pump Thermostat with a Set-Back Strategy Using Model-Free Reinforcement Learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Frederik Ruelens

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available The conventional control paradigm for a heat pump with a less efficient auxiliary heating element is to keep its temperature set point constant during the day. This constant temperature set point ensures that the heat pump operates in its more efficient heat-pump mode and minimizes the risk of activating the less efficient auxiliary heating element. As an alternative to a constant set-point strategy, this paper proposes a learning agent for a thermostat with a set-back strategy. This set-back strategy relaxes the set-point temperature during convenient moments, e.g., when the occupants are not at home. Finding an optimal set-back strategy requires solving a sequential decision-making process under uncertainty, which presents two challenges. The first challenge is that for most residential buildings, a description of the thermal characteristics of the building is unavailable and challenging to obtain. The second challenge is that the relevant information on the state, i.e., the building envelope, cannot be measured by the learning agent. In order to overcome these two challenges, our paper proposes an auto-encoder coupled with a batch reinforcement learning technique. The proposed approach is validated for two building types with different thermal characteristics for heating in the winter and cooling in the summer. The simulation results indicate that the proposed learning agent can reduce the energy consumption by 4%–9% during 100 winter days and by 9%–11% during 80 summer days compared to the conventional constant set-point strategy.

  2. Lens on Climate Change: Making Climate Meaningful through Student-Produced Videos

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gold, Anne U.; Oonk, David J.; Smith, Lesley; Boykoff, Maxwell T.; Osnes, Beth; Sullivan, Susan B.

    2015-01-01

    Learning about climate change is tangible when it addresses impacts that can be observed close to home. In this program, sixty-four diverse middle and high school students produced videos about locally relevant climate change topics. Graduate and undergraduate students provided mentorship. The program engaged students in research and learning…

  3. Is climate change-centrism an optimal policy making strategy to set national electricity mixes?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vázquez-Rowe, Ian; Reyna, Janet L.; García-Torres, Samy; Kahhat, Ramzy

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • The impact of climate-centric policies on other environmental impacts is uncertain. • Analysis of changing electricity grids of Peru and Spain in the period 1989–2013. • Life Cycle Assessment was the selected sustainability method to conduct the study. • Policies targeting GHG reductions also reduce air pollution and toxicity. • Resource usage, especially water, does not show the same trends as GHG emissions. - Abstract: In order to combat the threat of climate change, countries have begun to implement policies which restrict GHG emissions in the electricity sector. However, the development of national electricity mixes should also be sensitive to resource availability, geo-political forces, human health impacts, and social equity concerns. Policy focused on GHG goals could potentially lead to adverse consequences in other areas. To explore the impact of “climate-centric” policy making on long-term electricity mix changes, we develop two cases for Peru and Spain analyzing their changing electricity grids in the period 1989–2013. We perform a Life Cycle Assessment of annual electricity production to catalogue the improvements in GHG emissions relative to other environmental impacts. We conclude that policies targeting GHG reductions might have the co-benefit of also reducing air pollution and toxicity at the expense of other important environmental performance indicators such as water depletion. Moreover, as of 2013, both countries generate approximately equal GHG emissions per kWh, and relatively low emission rates of other pollutants compared to nations of similar development levels. Although climate-centric policy can lead to some positive environmental outcomes in certain areas, energy policy-making should be holistic and include other aspects of sustainability and vulnerability.

  4. Robust Decision Making to Support Water Quality Climate Adaptation: a Case Study in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fischbach, J. R.; Lempert, R. J.; Molina-Perez, E.

    2017-12-01

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), together with state and local partners, develops watershed implementation plans designed to meet water quality standards. Climate uncertainty, along with uncertainty about future land use changes or the performance of water quality best management practices (BMPs), may make it difficult for these implementation plans to meet water quality goals. In this effort, we explored how decision making under deep uncertainty (DMDU) methods such as Robust Decision Making (RDM) could help USEPA and its partners develop implementation plans that are more robust to future uncertainty. The study focuses on one part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the Patuxent River, which is 2,479 sq km in area, highly urbanized, and has a rapidly growing population. We simulated the contribution of stormwater contaminants from the Patuxent to the overall Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for the Chesapeake Bay under multiple scenarios reflecting climate and other uncertainties. Contaminants considered included nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment loads. The assessment included a large set of scenario simulations using the USEPA Chesapeake Bay Program's Phase V watershed model. Uncertainties represented in the analysis included 18 downscaled climate projections (based on 6 general circulation models and 3 emissions pathways), 12 land use scenarios with different population projections and development patterns, and alternative assumptions about BMP performance standards and efficiencies associated with different suites of stormwater BMPs. Finally, we developed cost estimates for each of the performance standards and compared cost to TMDL performance as a key tradeoff for future water quality management decisions. In this talk, we describe how this research can help inform climate-related decision support at USEPA's Chesapeake Bay Program, and more generally how RDM and other DMDU methods can support improved water quality management under climate

  5. Climate forecasts for corn producer decision making

    Science.gov (United States)

    Corn is the most widely grown crop in the Americas, with annual production in the United States of approximately 332 million metric tons. Improved climate forecasts, together with climate-related decision tools for corn producers based on these improved forecasts, could substantially reduce uncertai...

  6. Making sense of climate change

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2002-01-01

    Climate change has always occurred naturally but at a pace to which the earth has adapted well. Now, due to human activities like energy utilization and waste disposal, the earth is heating up much faster than earlier. Ecosystems, water resources, food sources, health, and human settlements are getting adversely affected. Floods and droughts are increasing, glaciers are melting, and disease is spreading. The problem is serious and it is time to act. Global consensus has been agreements; mitigation initiatives have been undertaken; hopes are up. The aim of this book is to raise the awareness of secondary school students about climate change and its impacts while enhancing their understanding of global responses. It includes a chapter specific to Indian conditions. Lucidly written and illustrated with anecdotes and visuals, this handbook will catalyse young minds into greater awareness, concern, and, hopefully, remedial action on this global threat

  7. When Organizational Identification Elicits Moral Decision-Making:A Matter of the Right Climate

    OpenAIRE

    Gils, Suzanne Van; A HOGG, Michael; Van Quaquebeke, N; Van Knippenberg, Daniel L

    2015-01-01

    textabstractTo advance current knowledge on ethical decision-making in organizations, we integrate two perspectives that have thus far developed independently: the organizational identification perspective and the ethical climate perspective. We illustrate the interaction between these perspectives in two studies (Study 1, N = 144, US sample; and Study 2, N = 356, UK sample), in which we presented participants with moral business dilemmas. Specifically, we found that organizational identifica...

  8. Does climate policy make the EU economy more resilient to oil price rises? A CGE analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maisonnave, Hélène; Pycroft, Jonathan; Saveyn, Bert; Ciscar, Juan-Carlos

    2012-01-01

    The European Union has committed itself to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 20% in 2020 compared with 1990 levels. This paper investigates whether this policy has an additional benefit in terms of economic resilience by protecting the EU from the macroeconomic consequences due to an oil price rise. We use the GEM-E3 computable general equilibrium model to analyse the results of three scenarios. The first one refers to the impact of an increase in the oil price. The second scenario analyses the European climate policy and the third scenario analyses the oil price rise when the European climate policy is implemented. Unilateral EU climate policy implies a cost on the EU of around 1.0% of GDP. An oil price rise in the presence of EU climate policy does imply an additional cost on the EU of 1.5% of GDP (making a total loss of 2.5% of GDP), but this is less than the 2.2% of GDP that the EU would lose from the oil price rise in the absence of climate policy. This is evidence that even unilateral climate policy does offer some economic protection for the EU.

  9. Fostering Synergies Among Organizations to put Climate in Context for Use in Decision Making

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garfin, G. M.; Parris, A.; Dow, K.; Meyer, R.; Close, S.

    2016-12-01

    Making science usable for decision making requires a knowledge of the social and institutional contexts of decision making, an ability to develop or tap into networks for sharing information and developing knowledge, a capacity for innovating or providing services, and a program for social learning to inform decisions and improve the processes of engagement and collaboration (i.e., mechanisms for feedback, evaluation, and changes in policy or practices). Active participation by and partnerships between researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers provides a foundation for making progress in each of the aforementioned areas of endeavor. In twenty years of incubating experimental climate services, the NOAA Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments program offers not a few ideas and examples of practices to foster synergies among organizations, that result in tangible benefits to decision-makers. Strategies include (a) designing explicit mutual learning through temporary institutions, such as workshop series, in order to develop social capital and knowledge networks (e.g., to co-develop and disseminate experimental forecasts); (b) articulating ground rules, roles, and responsibilities in managing the boundary between scientists and practitioners (e.g., in multi-partner climate adaptation planning processes); and (c) cross-training between scientists and practitioners, by embedding team members in other organizations or recruiting members from those organizations (e.g., Cooperative Extension). A promising strategy is boundary chaining, pioneered by the Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments, in which science information and service providers partner with other boundary organizations, to leverage networks, expertise, resources, and to reduce transaction costs. Partners with complementary strengths and roles can then, work iteratively and synergize to mediate the co-production of a combination of services for decision making, such as data and information

  10. Exploring the science–policy interface on climate change: The role of the IPCC in informing local decision-making in the UK

    OpenAIRE

    Candice Howarth; James Painter

    2016-01-01

    Building on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) review of\\ud how to make its Assessment Reports (ARs) more accessible in the future, the research\\ud reported here assesses the extent to which the ARs are a useful tool through which scientific\\ud advice informs local decision-making on climate change in the United Kingdom. Results from\\ud interviews with local policy representatives and three workshops with UK academics, practitioners\\ud and local decision makers are present...

  11. Quick Guide on Making School Climate Improvements. School Climate Improvement Resource Package

    Science.gov (United States)

    National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments, 2016

    2016-01-01

    Students learn best when they are in environments in which they feel safe, supported, challenged, and accepted. In addition, environments that have strong school climates foster the social, emotional, and academic well-being of all students. Research shows that when schools and districts effectively focus on improving school climate, students are…

  12. Electrodeposition of nickel onto steel, using a thermostatic cell and movable anode by a variable current.; Electrodeposicion de niquel sobre acero al carbon, empleando una celda termostatizada y un anodo movil, por medio de una corriente pulsada rectangular.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vega G, J D

    1994-12-31

    In this work, metallic coatings of nickel was made over carbon steel using two different electrolytic solutions: The Watts`s bath and the nickel sulfamate bath, using a pulse variable current. The method use was the traditional method, its means a thermostatic cell and one movable anode, which is a few know technique nowadays, it allow realize depositions away from any laboratory or special workshop, it has the advantage to be a portable dispositive. At last of all the electro depositions the coatings quality was valuable by them physical properties like: adhesion, hardness, wrinkled and thickness. The best results was obtain by the Nickel sulfamate bath and movable anode, less in the thickness, which has higher on the thermostatic cell. The variable current was obtain by a Pulse Generator and a Cathodic galvanometer. (Author).

  13. Constraints of using thermostatic expansion valves to operate air-cooled chillers at lower condensing temperatures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yu, F.W.; Chan, K.T.; Chu, H.Y.

    2006-01-01

    Thermostatic expansion valves (TXVs) have long been used in air-cooled chillers to implement head pressure control under which the condensing temperature is kept high at around 50 o C by staging condenser fans as few as possible. This paper considers how TXVs prevent the chillers from operating with an increased COP at lower condensing temperatures when the chiller load or outdoor temperature drops. An analysis on an existing air-cooled reciprocating chiller showed that the range of differential pressures across TXVs restricts the maximum heat rejection airflow required to increase the chiller COP, though the set point of condensing temperature is reduced to 22 o C from a high level of 45 o C. It is possible to use electronic expansion valves to meet the differential pressure requirements for maximum chiller COP. There is a maximum of 28.7% increase in the chiller COP when the heat rejection airflow is able to be maximized in various operating conditions. The results of this paper emphasize criteria for lowering the condensing temperature to enhance the performance of air-cooled chillers

  14. Creating Dynamically Downscaled Seasonal Climate Forecast and Climate Change Projection Information for the North American Monsoon Region Suitable for Decision Making Purposes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Castro, C. L.; Dominguez, F.; Chang, H.

    2010-12-01

    Current seasonal climate forecasts and climate change projections of the North American monsoon are based on the use of course-scale information from a general circulation model. The global models, however, have substantial difficulty in resolving the regional scale forcing mechanisms of precipitation. This is especially true during the period of the North American Monsoon in the warm season. Precipitation is driven primarily due to the diurnal cycle of convection, and this process cannot be resolve in coarse-resolution global models that have a relatively poor representation of terrain. Though statistical downscaling may offer a relatively expedient method to generate information more appropriate for the regional scale, and is already being used in the resource decision making processes in the Southwest U.S., its main drawback is that it cannot account for a non-stationary climate. Here we demonstrate the use of a regional climate model, specifically the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model, for dynamical downscaling of the North American Monsoon. To drive the WRF simulations, we use retrospective reforecasts from the Climate Forecast System (CFS) model, the operational model used at the U.S. National Center for Environmental Prediction, and three select “well performing” IPCC AR 4 models for the A2 emission scenario. Though relatively computationally expensive, the use of WRF as a regional climate model in this way adds substantial value in the representation of the North American Monsoon. In both cases, the regional climate model captures a fairly realistic and reasonable monsoon, where none exists in the driving global model, and captures the dominant modes of precipitation anomalies associated with ENSO and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). Long-term precipitation variability and trends in these simulations is considered via the standardized precipitation index (SPI), a commonly used metric to characterize long-term drought. Dynamically

  15. How normative interpretations of climate risk assessment affect local decision-making: an exploratory study at the city scale in Cork, Ireland

    Science.gov (United States)

    McDermott, T. K. J.; Surminski, S.

    2018-06-01

    Urban areas already suffer substantial losses in both economic and human terms from climate-related disasters. These losses are anticipated to grow substantially, in part as a result of the impacts of climate change. In this paper, we investigate the process of translating climate risk data into action for the city level. We apply a commonly used decision-framework as our backdrop and explore where in this process climate risk assessment and normative political judgements intersect. We use the case of flood risk management in Cork city in Ireland to investigate what is needed for translating risk assessment into action at the local city level. Evidence presented is based on focus group discussions at two stakeholder workshops, and a series of individual meetings and phone-discussions with stakeholders involved in local decision-making related to flood risk management and adaptation to climate change, in Ireland. Respondents were chosen on the basis of their expertise or involvement in the decision-making processes locally and nationally. Representatives of groups affected by flood risk and flood risk management and climate adaptation efforts were also included. The Cork example highlights that, despite ever more accurate data and an increasing range of theoretical approaches available to local decision-makers, it is the normative interpretation of this information that determines what action is taken. The use of risk assessments for decision-making is a process that requires normative decisions, such as setting `acceptable risk levels' and identifying `adequate' protection levels, which will not succeed without broader buy-in and stakeholder participation. Identifying and embracing those normative views up-front could strengthen the urban adaptation process-this may, in fact, turn out to be the biggest advantage of climate risk assessment: it offers an opportunity to create a shared understanding of the problem and enables an informed evaluation and discussion of

  16. How normative interpretations of climate risk assessment affect local decision-making: an exploratory study at the city scale in Cork, Ireland.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McDermott, T K J; Surminski, S

    2018-06-13

    Urban areas already suffer substantial losses in both economic and human terms from climate-related disasters. These losses are anticipated to grow substantially, in part as a result of the impacts of climate change. In this paper, we investigate the process of translating climate risk data into action for the city level. We apply a commonly used decision-framework as our backdrop and explore where in this process climate risk assessment and normative political judgements intersect. We use the case of flood risk management in Cork city in Ireland to investigate what is needed for translating risk assessment into action at the local city level. Evidence presented is based on focus group discussions at two stakeholder workshops, and a series of individual meetings and phone-discussions with stakeholders involved in local decision-making related to flood risk management and adaptation to climate change, in Ireland. Respondents were chosen on the basis of their expertise or involvement in the decision-making processes locally and nationally. Representatives of groups affected by flood risk and flood risk management and climate adaptation efforts were also included. The Cork example highlights that, despite ever more accurate data and an increasing range of theoretical approaches available to local decision-makers, it is the normative interpretation of this information that determines what action is taken. The use of risk assessments for decision-making is a process that requires normative decisions, such as setting 'acceptable risk levels' and identifying 'adequate' protection levels, which will not succeed without broader buy-in and stakeholder participation. Identifying and embracing those normative views up-front could strengthen the urban adaptation process-this may, in fact, turn out to be the biggest advantage of climate risk assessment: it offers an opportunity to create a shared understanding of the problem and enables an informed evaluation and discussion of

  17. Experimental analysis of flexibility change with different levels of power reduction by demand response activation on thermostat controlled loads

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lakshmanan, Venkatachalam; Marinelli, Mattia; Hu, Junjie

    2017-01-01

    This paper studies the flexibility available with thermostatically controlled loads (TCLs) to provide power system services by demand response (DR) activation. Although the DR activation on TCLs can provide power system ancillary services, it is important to know how long such services can...... be provided for when different levels of power reduction are imposed. The flexibility change with different levels of power reduction is tested experimentally with domestic fridges used by real customers with unknown user interaction. The investigation quantifies the flexibility of household fridges...... and the impact of DR activation in terms of deviation in the average temperature. The maximum possible power reduction with the cluster of refrigerators is 67% and the available flexibility with the cluster of refrigerators is 10%. The resulting deviation in the average temperature is 14%....

  18. Reference Manual on Making School Climate Improvements. School Climate Improvement Resource Package, 2017

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yoder, N.; Darling-Churchill, K.; Colombi, G. D.; Ruddy, S.; Neiman, S.; Chagnon, E.; Mayo, R.

    2017-01-01

    This reference manual identifies five overarching sets of activities for improving school climate, with the goal of improving student outcomes (e.g., achievement, attendance, behaviors, and skills). These sets of activities help to initiate, implement, and sustain school climate improvements. For each activity set, the manual presents a clear…

  19. Climate-agriculture interactions and needs for policy making

    Science.gov (United States)

    Phillips, J. G.

    2010-12-01

    Research exploring climate change interactions with agriculture has evolved from simplistic “delta T” simulation experiments with crop models to work highlighting the importance of climate variability and extreme events, which characterized the negative impacts possible if no adaptation occurred. There soon followed consideration of socioeconomic factors allowing for adaptive strategies that are likely to mitigate the worst case outcomes originally projected. At the same time, improved understanding of biophysical feedbacks has led to a greater recognition of the role that agriculture plays in modifying climate, with a great deal of attention recently paid to strategies to enhance carbon sequestration in agricultural systems. Advances in models of biogeochemical cycling applied to agronomic systems have allowed for new insights into greenhouse gas emissions and sinks associated with current, conventional farming systems. Yet this work is still relatively simplistic in that it seldom addresses interactions between climate dynamics, adoption of mitigation strategies, and feedbacks to the climate system and the surrounding environment. In order for agricultural policy to be developed that provides incentives for appropriate adaptation and mitigation strategies over the next 50 years, a systems approach needs to be utilized that addresses feedbacks and interactions at field, farm and regional scales in a broader environmental context. Interactions between carbon and climate constraints on the one hand, and environmental impacts related to water, nutrient runoff, and pest control all imply a transformation of farming practices that is as of yet not well defined. Little attention has been paid to studying the implications of “alternative” farming strategies such as organic systems, intensive rotational grazing of livestock, or increases in the perennial component of farmscapes, all of which may be necessary responses to energy and other environmental constraints

  20. Planetary climates (princeton primers in climate)

    CERN Document Server

    Ingersoll, Andrew

    2013-01-01

    This concise, sophisticated introduction to planetary climates explains the global physical and chemical processes that determine climate on any planet or major planetary satellite--from Mercury to Neptune and even large moons such as Saturn's Titan. Although the climates of other worlds are extremely diverse, the chemical and physical processes that shape their dynamics are the same. As this book makes clear, the better we can understand how various planetary climates formed and evolved, the better we can understand Earth's climate history and future.

  1. Prioritization of water management under climate change and urbanization using multi-criteria decision making methods

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J.-S. Yang

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper quantifies the transformed effectiveness of alternatives for watershed management caused by climate change and urbanization and prioritizes five options using multi-criteria decision making techniques. The climate change scenarios (A1B and A2 were obtained by using a statistical downscaling model (SDSM, and the urbanization scenario by surveying the existing urban planning. The flow and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD concentration duration curves were derived, and the numbers of days required to satisfy the environmental flow requirement and the target BOD concentration were counted using the Hydrological Simulation Program-Fortran (HSPF model. In addition, five feasible alternatives were prioritized by using multi-criteria decision making techniques, based on the driving force-pressure-state-impact-response (DPSIR framework and cost component. Finally, a sensitivity analysis approach for MCDM methods was conducted to reduce the uncertainty of weights. The result indicates that the most sensitive decision criterion is cost, followed by criteria response, driving force, impact, state and pressure in that order. As it is certain that the importance of cost component is over 0.127, construction of a small wastewater treatment plant will be the most preferred alternative in this application.

  2. Warming to ecocide a thermodynamic diagnosis

    CERN Document Server

    Sangster, Alan J

    2011-01-01

    Suggests a route to avoiding runaway climate change by reinstating the greenhouse thermostat to its full operational capacity Addresses mankind's contribution to climate change from a thermodynamic perspective Describes and illustrates the power of thermodynamics to furnish insights into the thermal behaviour of complex physical systems

  3. Public Demand and Climate Change Policy Making in OECD Countries – From Dynamics of the Demand to Policy Responsiveness

    OpenAIRE

    Bianca Oehl

    2015-01-01

    Climate change is one of today’s major political challenges. The Kyoto Protocol assigned national emission reduction goals for the developed countries however national governments in these countries have implemented policies varying widely in range and ambition over time and across countries to meet their goals. Can this variation in policy making be explained by dierences in the typically taken for granted – but empirically often neglected – influence of public demand for climate protection?...

  4. Coalitions to engineer the climate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moreno-Cruz, J. B.; Ricke, K.; Caldeira, K.

    2012-12-01

    Solar geoengineering is the deliberate reduction of the amount of incoming solar radiation absorbed by Earth's climate system with the aim of reducing impacts of anthropogenic climate change. The international politics of solar geoengineering differ markedly from those of greenhouse-gas emissions reductions. A central question is who will decide whether and how much solar geoengineering will be deployed. It is unlikely that a single small actor could implement and sustain global-scale geoengineering that harms much of the world without intervention from harmed world powers. Thus, in practice, some minimum amount of aggregate power would be needed to successfully impose will upon the rest of the world. Here we formulate a series of games, calibrated with physical and economic models of climate change, to evaluate how international coalitions to implement geoengineering may form. In the scenarios examined, climate models are assumed to correctly predict the future and damage is parameterized in terms of regional temperature and precipitation changes only, and do not consider other, possibly formidable, risks. The coalitions set the "global thermostat" to maximize benefit to coalition members. As a result, non-members would be better off under a global optimum solution, but would be worse off with no geoengineering at all. Nonetheless, it appears unlikely that solar geoengineering could be implemented by actors who are perceived in advance to be harming the interests of a majority of the world's powers.; Comparison of results under a globally optimal versus >50% military-spending power coalition over 6 decades of solar geoengineering implementation. (a) shows how the amount of solar geoengineering (in units of stratospheric aerosol optical depth, AOD) implemented by a Power Proportionate Distribution coalition under a military-spending-weighted power scheme (dotted), compared to the amount that minimizes net global damages (thick grey) (the population and GDP

  5. Increasing the usability of climate science in political decision-making

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emily R. Newsom

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract As climate-science graduate students at the University of Washington, we had the opportunity to engage in a political process focused on implementing legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Washington State. Our insights gained from this rare, first-hand, experience may be particularly relevant to other climate scientists. We argue that inflexible research goals within the United States climate-science community limit the relevance of the knowledge our community creates. The mismatch between climate-science research and the information needs of policy makers, while widely acknowledged in certain domains, has yet to be fully appreciated within many earth science disciplines. Broadening the climate-science training of graduate students to include education on the uses of climate information outside of academic settings would both inform and motivate new research directions, and engender validation of non-traditional research within disciplinary cultures.

  6. Climate

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fellous, J.L.

    2005-02-01

    This book starts with a series of about 20 preconceived ideas about climate and climatic change and analyses each of them in the light of the present day knowledge. Using this approach, it makes a status of the reality of the climatic change, of its causes and of the measures to be implemented to limit its impacts and reduce its most harmful consequences. (J.S.)

  7. On the use and potential use of seasonal to decadal climate predictions for decision-making in Europe

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soares, Marta Bruno; Dessai, Suraje

    2014-05-01

    The need for climate information to help inform decision-making in sectors susceptible to climate events and impacts is widely recognised. In Europe, developments in the science and models underpinning the study of climate variability and change have led to an increased interest in seasonal to decadal climate predictions (S2DCP). While seasonal climate forecasts are now routinely produced operationally by a number of centres around the world, decadal climate predictions are still in its infancy restricted to the realm of research. Contrary to other regions of the world, where the use of these types of forecasts, particularly at seasonal timescales, has been pursued in recent years due to higher levels of predictability, little is known about the uptake and climate information needs of end-users regarding S2DCP in Europe. To fill this gap we conducted in-depth interviews with experts and decision-makers across a range of European sectors, a workshop with European climate services providers, and a systematic literature review on the use of S2DCP in Europe. This study is part of the EUropean Provision Of Regional Impact Assessment on a Seasonal-to-decadal timescale (EUPORIAS) project which aims to develop semi-operational prototypes of impact prediction systems in Europe on seasonal to decadal timescales. We found that the emerging landscape of users and potential users of S2DCP in Europe is complex and heterogeneous. Differences in S2DCP information needs across and within organisations and sectors are largely underpinned by factors such as the institutional and regulatory context of the organisations, the plethora of activities and decision-making processes involved, the level of expertise and capacity of the users, and the availability of resources within the organisations. In addition, although the use of S2DCP across Europe is still fairly limited, particular sectors such as agriculture, health, energy, water, (re)insurance, and transport are taking the lead on

  8. Energy Saving Alignment Strategy: Achieving energy efficiency in urban buildings by matching occupant temperature preferences with a building’s indoor thermal environment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xu, Xiaoqi; Culligan, Patricia J.; Taylor, John E.

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • A novel strategy for energy savings in multi-family buildings is presented. • A household’s thermal preferences are matched with a unit’s thermal environment. • Potential energy savings are examined using public housing as a test case. • 2.1–42.0% primary energy savings are shown, depending on climate location. - Abstract: Existing strategies for residential energy savings through physical renovation or motivating occupant energy conservation behavior can be costly and/or have transitory effects. Focusing on multi-family dwellings, an important subset of the urban residential sector, we propose an Energy Saving Alignment Strategy (ESAS) that has advantageous cost-effectiveness and a long-lasting influence. By aligning the distribution of residents’ thermostat preferences with the indoor temperature, ESAS aims to maximize thermal comfort and, accordingly, energy savings in multi-family buildings where indoor temperatures vary between apartments as a function of apartment orientation and floor level. Using a case study of a 1084-apartment public housing complex in New York, we classify both occupants’ thermostat preferences and apartments’ operative temperatures into five groups, and optimize energy efficiency by assigning each group of occupants to the group of apartments that best aligns with their thermostat preference. We test ESAS in eight cities representing all four U.S. census regions and six climate zones. Simulation results reveal 2.1–42.0% in energy savings compared to random apartment assignments depending on geographic location, with the highest energy reductions occurring in cities with mild climates, where the range of occupant thermostat preferences coincides with the natural indoor temperature range. We conclude by providing suggested guidelines on how ESAS might work in practice, and recommendations for extending ESAS research

  9. Portable Microplate Analyzer with a Thermostatic Chamber Based on a Smartphone for On-site Rapid Detection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wan, Zijian; Zhong, Longjie; Pan, Yuxiang; Li, Hongbo; Zou, Quchao; Su, Kaiqi; Wang, Ping

    2017-01-01

    A microplate method provides an efficient way to use modern detection technology. However, there are some difficulties concerning on-site detection, such as being non-portable and time-consuming. In this work, a novel portable microplate analyzer with a thermostatic chamber based on a smartphone was designed for rapid on-site detection. An analyzer with a wide-angle lens and an optical filter provides a proper environment for the microplate. A smartphone app-iPlate Monitor was used for RGB analyze of image. After a consistency experiment with a microtiter plate reader (MTPR), the normalized calibration curves were y = 0.7276x + 0.0243 (R 2 = 0.9906) and y = 0.3207x + 0.0094 (R 2 = 0.9917) with a BCA protein kit as well as y = 0.182x + 0.0134 (R 2 = 0.994) and y = 0.0674x + 0.0003 (R 2 = 0.9988) with a glucose kit. The times for obtaining the detection requirement were 15 and 10 min for the BCA protein kit and the glucose kit at 37°C; in contrast, it required more than 30 and 20 min at ambient temperature. Meanwhile, it also showed good repeatability for detections.

  10. Making connections to translate climate research into effective action

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evans, K. J.; Niepold, F., III; Pierce, L.

    2016-12-01

    Climate change is strongly apparent at many scales and facets of the Earth system including glacier retreat, increased ocean acidity, altered meteorological patterns, and changing ecosystems. There is general recognition that a more strategic and coordinated response is needed to ameliorate these impacts on communities and to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5°C imposed by the 2015 Paris agreement. However, concrete plans to achieve these goals require actionable and specific guidance from the scientific community that is targeted for specific stakeholder groups within government agencies, industry, and individuals, while also supporting decision-makers plans and policies. This guidance depends on scientific advances that establish quantified predictions and minimize the levels of uncertainty. Although, these advances are ongoing; the decision maker, civil society organizations, and business and investor communities are not waiting for perfection. The urgency of taking action now has brought new approaches to the fore that try to bring the best available science into the business and decision making process. Combining a breadth of expertise, we highlight the specific transmission pathways of information needed for stakeholders, and it spans initial data collection and climate model construction, experimentation, analysis, synthesis of results, education, to government, communities, and business planning to reduce impacts and minimize additional human-caused contributions. We propose a multi-pathway relay along these paths. In one direction we encourage scientists to provide accessible and useable summary results with uncertainties to educators and stakeholders, who in turn need to collate results in a manner that enables interested parties to identify their specific mitigation action. In the other direction, stakeholders and shareholders are already requesting more comprehensive verification, validation, and active linkages to the way in which

  11. Understanding Perceptions of Climate Change, Priorities, and Decision-Making among Municipalities in Lima, Peru to Better Inform Adaptation and Mitigation Planning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siña, Mariella; Wood, Rachel C; Saldarriaga, Enrique; Lawler, Joshua; Zunt, Joseph; Garcia, Patricia; Cárcamo, César

    2016-01-01

    Climate change poses multiple risks to the population of Lima, the largest city and capital of Peru, located on the Pacific coast in a desert ecosystem. These risks include increased water scarcity, increased heat, and the introduction and emergence of vector-borne and other climate sensitive diseases. To respond to these threats, it is necessary for the government, at every level, to adopt more mitigation and adaptation strategies. Here, focus groups were conducted with representatives from five Lima municipalities to determine priorities, perception of climate change, and decision-making processes for implementing projects within each municipality. These factors can affect the ability and desire of a community to implement climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. The results show that climate change and other environmental factors are of relatively low priority, whereas public safety and water and sanitation services are of highest concern. Perhaps most importantly, climate change is not well understood among the municipalities. Participants had trouble distinguishing climate change from other environmental issues and did not fully understand its causes and effects. Greater understanding of what climate change is and why it is important is necessary for it to become a priority for the municipalities. Different aspects of increased climate change awareness seem to be connected to having experienced extreme weather events, whether related or not to climate change, and to higher socioeconomic status.

  12. Making or breaking climate targets : The AMPERE study on staged accession scenarios for climate policy

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kriegler, Elmar; Riahi, Keywan; Bauer, Nico; Schwanitz, Valeria Jana; Petermann, Nils; Bosetti, Valentina; Marcucci, Adriana; Otto, Sander; Paroussos, Leonidas; Rao, Shilpa; Arroyo Currás, Tabaré; Ashina, Shuichi; Bollen, Johannes; Eom, Jiyong; Hamdi-Cherif, Meriem; Longden, Thomas; Kitous, Alban; Méjean, Aurélie; Sano, Fuminori; Schaeffer, Michiel; Wada, Kenichi; Capros, Pantelis; P. van Vuuren, Detlef|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/11522016X; Edenhofer, Ottmar

    2015-01-01

    This study explores a situation of staged accession to a global climate policy regime from the current situation of regionally fragmented and moderate climate action. The analysis is based on scenarios in which a front runner coalition - the EU or the EU and China - embarks on immediate ambitious

  13. Managing the global commons decision making and conflict resolution in response to climate change

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rayner, S. (Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)); Naegeli, W.; Lund, P. (Tennessee Univ., Knoxville, TN (USA))

    1990-07-01

    A workshop was convened to develop a better understanding of decision-making matters concerning management of the global commons and to resolve conflicts in response to climate change. This workshop report does not provide a narrative of the proceedings. The workshop program is included, as are the abstracts of the papers that were presented. Only the introductory paper on social science research by William Riebsame and the closing summary by Richard Rockwell are reprinted here. This brief report focuses instead on the deliberations of the working groups that developed during the workshop. 4 figs., 1 tab.

  14. IPCC. 4. climate assessment report, 2007; GIEC. 4. rapport d'evaluation du climat, 2007

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2007-07-01

    The mission and challenge of the Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC, GIEC in French) is to evaluate, synthesize and make available the sum of scientific and economic information of the complex domain of climatic change, and in addition to make the results of these works accepted by government representatives of 192 states. This document makes a brief synthesis in three parts of the 4. assessment report of the IPCC: 1 - physical scientific bases of climatic change: characteristic of the phenomenon, greenhouse gas emissions trend, already observed effects, forecasts of climate models; 2 - impacts, adaptations and vulnerabilities of climatic change: types of future impacts, impacts per sector, regional impacts, limits of ecosystems adaptation; 3 - mitigation of climatic changes: past emissions and future trends, possible mitigation actions and cost, possible political levers for emissions abatement. A last part introduces the French researchers involved in IPCC's works. (J.S.)

  15. Ethical decision-making climate in the ICU

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Van den Bulcke, Bo; Piers, Ruth; Jensen, Hanne Irene

    2018-01-01

    measurement of seven facets of the extent to which clinicians perceive an EDM climate: self-reflective and empowering leadership by physicians; practice and culture of open interdisciplinary reflection; culture of not avoiding end-of-life decisions; culture of mutual respect within the interdisciplinary team...

  16. Selecting representative climate models for climate change impact studies : An advanced envelope-based selection approach

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lutz, Arthur F.; ter Maat, Herbert W.; Biemans, Hester; Shrestha, Arun B.; Wester, Philippus; Immerzeel, Walter W.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/290472113

    2016-01-01

    Climate change impact studies depend on projections of future climate provided by climate models. The number of climate models is large and increasing, yet limitations in computational capacity make it necessary to compromise the number of climate models that can be included in a climate change

  17. Selecting representative climate models for climate change impact studies: an advanced envelope-based selection approach

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lutz, Arthur F.; Maat, ter Herbert W.; Biemans, Hester; Shrestha, Arun B.; Wester, Philippus; Immerzeel, Walter W.

    2016-01-01

    Climate change impact studies depend on projections of future climate provided by climate models. The number of climate models is large and increasing, yet limitations in computational capacity make it necessary to compromise the number of climate models that can be included in a climate change

  18. Safe protocols for generating power pulses with heterogeneous populations of thermostatically controlled loads

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sinitsyn, Nikolai A.; Kundu, Soumya; Backhaus, Scott

    2013-01-01

    Highlights: ► Algorithms to produce useful load response from a heterogeneous group of TCLs. ► Generation of sharp power pulses without initiating any unwanted oscillation. ► Open-loop methods, not requiring any detailed system modeling. ► One-way, utility-to-consumer, communication. ► Potential use in secondary frequency regulation, generation-load balancing, etc. - Abstract: We explore methods to use thermostatically controlled loads (TCLs), such as water heaters and air conditioners, to provide ancillary services by assisting in balancing generation and load. We show that by adding simple imbedded instructions and a small amount of memory to temperature controllers of TCLs, it is possible to design open-loop control algorithms capable of creating short-term pulses of demand response without unwanted power oscillations associated with temporary synchronization of the TCL dynamics. By moving a small amount of intelligence to each of the end point TCL devices, we are able to leverage our knowledge of the time dynamics of TCLs to shape the demand response pulses for different power system applications. A significant benefit of our open-loop method is the reduction from two-way to one-way broadcast communication which also eliminates many basic consumer privacy issues. In this work, we focus on developing the algorithms to generate a set of fundamental pulse shapes that can subsequently be used to create demand response with arbitrary profiles. Demand response control methods, such as the one developed here, open the door to fast, nonperturbative control of large aggregations of TCLs

  19. An economic analysis of climate negotiations: Deciphering a set of incentives for participating, acting and making commitments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Albertini, Jean-Paul; Perrissin Fabert, Baptiste

    2015-01-01

    Given the complexity of situations, negotiations face the daunting task of motivating 'sovereign' nation-states to cooperate in the fight against climate change. As game theory shows, the interest of rational countries is always to shift the weight of efforts for curbing greenhouse gas emissions onto others so as to profit from climate policies without having to bear the costs. Although it does not account for the full complexity - historical, institutional and ethical - of a country's diplomatic motives for cooperating, the theory does shed light on the conditions for the emergence of solutions based on cooperation. An agreement ultimately comes out of a compromise between economic efficiency, a participation as broad as possible among signatories, and the goals adopted for preserving the climate. Given the shift in paradigms during negotiations at Cancun and the more decentralized approach that has prevailed since then, how credible is a worldwide goal like the 2 deg. C limit set for global warming? These factors force us to reconsider the commitments that countries can reasonably make

  20. Simulation of Optimal Decision-Making Under the Impacts of Climate Change

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Møller, Lea Ravnkilde; Drews, Martin; Larsen, Morten Andreas Dahl

    2017-01-01

    Climate change causes transformations to the conditions of existing agricultural practices appointing farmers to continuously evaluate their agricultural strategies, e.g., towards optimising revenue. In this light, this paper presents a framework for applying Bayesian updating to simulate decision...... crops, irrigated crops and livestock) by a continuous updating of beliefs relative to realised trajectories of climate (change), represented by projections of temperature and precipitation. The climate data is based on combinations of output from three global/regional climate model combinations and two...

  1. Making it work : a Saskatchewan perspective on climate change policy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2002-10-01

    The government of Saskatchewan supports many of the objectives and principles of the Kyoto Protocol and has undertaken several significant actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This report outlines Saskatchewan's expectations for an effective and fair approach to climate change. The Canadian Prime Minister plans to ask Parliament to approve ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by the end of 2002. However, until the Saskatchewan government sees the federal climate change plan, it will not support the Kyoto emissions reduction target and the Kyoto time frame because the impact on the province is not known. Saskatchewan is very vulnerable to the effects of climate change because of its large agriculture and forest sectors, and is looking for a fair, equitable federal climate change plan that will include significant federal funding assistance. The province is committed to taking action on climate change but is not willing to have its citizens and industries pay a disproportionate price compared to other Canadians. The measures taken thus far by Saskatchewan include: the development of public education initiatives, development of new technology to dispose of carbon dioxide, development of strategies to help adapt to climate change, the development of biological sinks for carbon dioxide in agricultural soils and forests, and the implementation of energy conservation and renewable energy projects. This paper outlines 19 features that Saskatchewan feels should be included in the national plan to address climate change. Among the suggestions is the national plan should respect provincial jurisdictions, and it should also recognize the fact that eventually Canada will need to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to levels well below those required by Kyoto. The plan should also enable Canadians to achieve both environmental and economic benefits

  2. Building the Capacity for Climate Services: Thoughts on Training Next Generation Climate Science Integrators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garfin, G. M.; Brugger, J.; Gordon, E. S.; Barsugli, J. J.; Rangwala, I.; Travis, W.

    2015-12-01

    For more than a decade, stakeholder needs assessments and reports, including the recent National Climate Assessment, have pointed out the need for climate "science translators" or "science integrators" who can help bridge the gap between the cultures and contexts of researchers and decision-makers. Integration is important for exchanging and enhancing knowledge, building capacity to use climate information in decision making, and fostering more robust planning for decision-making in the context of climate change. This talk will report on the characteristics of successful climate science integrators, and a variety of models for training the upcoming generation of climate science integrators. Science integration characteristics identified by an experienced vanguard in the U.S. include maintaining credibility in both the scientific and stakeholder communities, a basic respect for stakeholders demonstrated through active listening, and a deep understanding of the decision-making context. Drawing upon the lessons of training programs for Cooperative Extension, public health professionals, and natural resource managers, we offer ideas about training next generation climate science integrators. Our model combines training and development of skills in interpersonal relations, communication of science, project implementation, education techniques and practices - integrated with a strong foundation in disciplinary knowledge.

  3. Robust design method and thermostatic experiment for multiple piezoelectric vibration absorber system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nambu, Yohsuke; Takashima, Toshihide; Inagaki, Akiya

    2015-01-01

    This paper examines the effects of connecting multiplexing shunt circuits composed of inductors and resistors to piezoelectric transducers so as to improve the robustness of a piezoelectric vibration absorber (PVA). PVAs are well known to be effective at suppressing the vibration of an adaptive structure; their weakness is low robustness to changes in the dynamic parameters of the system, including the main structure and the absorber. In the application to space structures, the temperature-dependency of capacitance of piezoelectric ceramics is the factor that causes performance reduction. To improve robustness to the temperature-dependency of the capacitance, this paper proposes a multiple-PVA system that is composed of distributed piezoelectric transducers and several shunt circuits. The optimization problems that determine both the frequencies and the damping ratios of the PVAs are multi-objective problems, which are solved using a real-coded genetic algorithm in this paper. A clamped aluminum beam with four groups of piezoelectric ceramics attached was considered in simulations and experiments. Numerical simulations revealed that the PVA systems designed using the proposed method had tolerance to changes in the capacitances. Furthermore, experiments using a thermostatic bath were conducted to reveal the effectiveness and robustness of the PVA systems. The maximum peaks of the transfer functions of the beam with the open circuit, the single-PVA system, the double-PVA system, and the quadruple-PVA system at 20 °C were 14.3 dB, −6.91 dB, −7.47 dB, and −8.51 dB, respectively. The experimental results also showed that the multiple-PVA system is more robust than a single PVA in a variable temperature environment from −10 °C to 50 °C. In conclusion, the use of multiple PVAs results in an effective, robust vibration control method for adaptive structures. (paper)

  4. Play, Make, Know, Keep up, Watch, Dream, and Teach: A Kids-eye View of Climate Change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fisher, D. K.; Leon, N.; Fitzpatrick, A. J.; Jackson, R.; Greene, M. P.

    2012-12-01

    No matter the subject, the best way of dealing with doubters or deniers is to present the scientific evidence in a clear, concise, non-threatening, and compelling way. NASA's Climate Kids website--written for upper-elementary age kids and their teachers and parent--explains the basic science behind the evidence that Earth's climate is changing much more rapidly than can be accounted for by natural cycles, and that human activity is responsible. Climate science is complex, and most non-scientists are in what, for some, is the uncomfortable position of accepting scientists at their word. For young children, this is not the best approach to learning. They need to learn to think critically and evaluate the evidence for themselves. Climate Kids debuted in January 2011. It was redesigned and reorganized this year. From the beginning, educator feedback has been very positive. Teachers are grateful to have these difficult concepts simplified, yet still comprehensively covered to present the compelling evidence for anthropogenic global warming and its current and predicted effects. Climate Kids explains the "big questions" of climate science simply and clearly, giving teachers a valuable resource to supplement the science units they normally teach. The site extends science lessons in a very specific way, presenting understandable, real-world examples of scientific evidence of the changes happening on our planet. The new site design organizes content by topic and by type of presentation. Topics are shown in a left-side menu. They are Weather & Climate, Air, Ocean, Fresh Water, Carbon Travels (carbon cycle), Energy, Plants & Animals, and Technology. Presentation types are shown in a top menu. They are Play games, Make stuff (hands-on activities), Know your world (answers to big questions), Catch the latest (climate-related news), Watch videos, Dream of a career (profiles of individuals in green careers), and Teach climate science (resources for educators and parents). So, for

  5. A decision analysis approach to climate adaptation: comparing multiple pathways for multi-decadal decision making

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, B. B.; Little, L.

    2013-12-01

    Policy planners around the world are required to consider the implications of adapting to climatic change across spatial contexts and decadal timeframes. However, local level information for planning is often poorly defined, even though climate adaptation decision-making is made at this scale. This is especially true when considering sea level rise and coastal impacts of climate change. We present a simple approach using sea level rise simulations paired with adaptation scenarios to assess a range of adaptation options available to local councils dealing with issues of beach recession under present and future sea level rise and storm surge. Erosion and beach recession pose a large socioeconomic risk to coastal communities because of the loss of key coastal infrastructure. We examine the well-known adaptation technique of beach nourishment and assess various timings and amounts of beach nourishment at decadal time spans in relation to beach recession impacts. The objective was to identify an adaptation strategy that would allow for a low frequency of management interventions, the maintenance of beach width, and the ability to minimize variation in beach width over the 2010 to 2100 simulation period. 1000 replications of each adaptation option were produced against the 90 year simulation in order to model the ability each adaptation option to achieve the three key objectives. Three sets of adaptation scenarios were identified. Within each scenario, a number of adaptation options were tested. The three scenarios were: 1) Fixed periodic beach replenishment of specific amounts at 20 and 50 year intervals, 2) Beach replenishment to the initial beach width based on trigger levels of recession (5m, 10m, 20m), and 3) Fixed period beach replenishment of a variable amount at decadal intervals (every 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years). For each adaptation option, we show the effectiveness of each beach replenishment scenario to maintain beach width and consider the implications of more

  6. IPCC. 4. climate assessment report, 2007

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2007-01-01

    The mission and challenge of the Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC, GIEC in French) is to evaluate, synthesize and make available the sum of scientific and economic information of the complex domain of climatic change, and in addition to make the results of these works accepted by government representatives of 192 states. This document makes a brief synthesis in three parts of the 4. assessment report of the IPCC: 1 - physical scientific bases of climatic change: characteristic of the phenomenon, greenhouse gas emissions trend, already observed effects, forecasts of climate models; 2 - impacts, adaptations and vulnerabilities of climatic change: types of future impacts, impacts per sector, regional impacts, limits of ecosystems adaptation; 3 - mitigation of climatic changes: past emissions and future trends, possible mitigation actions and cost, possible political levers for emissions abatement. A last part introduces the French researchers involved in IPCC's works. (J.S.)

  7. Geoengineering: re-making climate for profit or humanitarian intervention?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buck, Holly Jean

    2012-01-01

    Climate engineering, or geoengineering, refers to large-scale climate interventions to lower the earth's temperature, either by blocking incoming sunlight or removing carbon dioxide from the biosphere. Regarded as ‘technofixes’ by critics, these strategies have evoked concern that they would extend the shelf life of fossil-fuel driven socio-ecological systems for far longer than they otherwise would, or should, endure. A critical reading views geoengineering as a class project that is designed to keep the climate system stable enough for existing production systems to continue operating. This article first examines these concerns, and then goes on to envision a regime driven by humanitarian agendas and concern for vulnerable populations, implemented through international development and aid institutions. The motivations of those who fund research and implement geoengineering techniques are important, as the rationale for developing geoengineering strategies will determine which techniques are pursued, and hence which ecologies are produced. The logic that shapes the geoengineering research process could potentially influence social ecologies centuries from now.

  8. Global Climate Change for Kids: Making Difficult Ideas Accessible and Exciting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fisher, D. K.; Leon, N.; Greene, M. P.

    2009-12-01

    NASA has recently launched its Global Climate Change web site (http://climate.nasa.gov), and it has been very well received. It has now also launched in preliminary form an associated site for children and educators, with a plan for completion in the near future. The goals of the NASA Global Climate Change Education site are: To increase awareness and understanding of climate change science in upper-elementary and middle-school students, reinforcing and building upon basic concepts introduced in the formal science education curriculum for these grades; To present, insofar as possible, a holistic picture of climate change science and current evidence of climate change, describing Earth as a system of interconnected processes; To be entertaining and motivating; To be clear and easy to understand; To be easy to navigate; To address multiple learning styles; To describe and promote "green" careers; To increase awareness of NASA's contributions to climate change science; To provide valuable resources for educators; To be compliant with Section 508 of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The site incorporates research findings not only on climate change, but also on effective web design for children. It is envisioned that most of the content of the site will ultimately be presented in multimedia forms. These will include illustrated and narrated "slide shows," animated expositions, interactive concept-rich games and demonstrations, videos, animated fictionalized stories, and printable picture galleries. In recognition of the attention span of the audience, content is presented in short, modular form, with a suggested, but not mandatory order of access. Empathetic animal and human cartoon personalities are used to explain concepts and tell stories. Expository, fiction, game, video, text, and image modules are interlinked for reinforcement of similar ideas. NASA's Global Climate Change Education web site addresses the vital need to impart and emphasize Earth system science

  9. A New Tool for Climatic Analysis Using the Koppen Climate Classification

    Science.gov (United States)

    Larson, Paul R.; Lohrengel, C. Frederick, II

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of climate classification is to help make order of the seemingly endless spatial distribution of climates. The Koppen classification system in a modified format is the most widely applied system in use today. This system may not be the best nor most complete climate classification that can be conceived, but it has gained widespread…

  10. A benchmarking framework to evaluate business climate change risks: A practical tool suitable for investors decision-making process

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nikolaos Demertzidis

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available A fundamental concern for the investor community is to identify techniques which would allow them to evaluate and highlight the most probable financial risks that could affect the value of their asset portfolio. Traditional techniques primarily focus on estimating certain conventional social-economic factors and many fail to cover an array of climate change risks. A limited number of institutional documents present, to a somewhat limited extent, some general-defined types of business climate change risks, which are deemed most likely to influence the value of an investors’ portfolio. However, it is crucial that stakeholders of businesses and scholars consider a wider range of information so as to assist investors in their decision making. This paper aims at establishing a new framework to operationalize and quantify an array of business climate change risks to provide more comprehensive and tangible information on non-traditional risks. This framework relies on the benchmarking – scoring systems and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI guidelines, and is applied to various Greek businesses that are certified by Environmental Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS.

  11. 'I don't get this climate stuff!' Making sense of climate change among the corporate middle class in Lagos.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Asiyanbi, Adeniyi P

    2015-11-01

    Public engagement continues to be central to wider efforts to address climate change. This study contributes to public engagement debates by investigating engagement with climate change among an often overlooked group, the corporate middle class in Africa's second largest megacity, Lagos. Combining survey and interviews, I focus analysis on three aspects: awareness, knowledge and concern; role of scientific and social frames in shaping general attitude; and spatial attribution of causes and consequences. The study reveals a universal awareness and high concern about climate change among the respondents, although understanding and perceptions of climate change are significantly socially framed. Social situatedness, more than scientific facts, is the most important definer of overall engagement with climate change. This study thus underscores a nuanced constructionist stance, showing how corporate professionals' 'ways of knowing' climate change is underpinned by a certain co-production between scientific and socio-experiential frames. I highlight implications for research and public engagement with climate change. © The Author(s) 2015.

  12. Climate Science for Decision-Making in the New York Metropolitan Region. Chapter 3

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horton, Radley; Rosenzweig, Cynthia; Solecki, William; Bader, Daniel; Sohl, Linda

    2016-01-01

    New York City is one of the world's most vulnerable cities to coastal flooding, due to a high concentration of population and assets near a coastline exposed to warm-season tropical storms and cold -season Nor'easter storms. Among U.S. cities, New York City is second only to New Orleans in population living less than 4 ft above the local high tide. By the 2050s, average annual losses due to coastal flooding alone could exceed $2 billion for the combined New York City-Newark region. Perhaps the most iconic example of a vulnerable New York City asset is the financial district located at the southern tip of Manhattan, however low-lying coastal assets include the full complement of major highways, subways and tunnels, hospitals, schools, wastewater treatment plants, food distribution centers, and people's homes. Given the magnitude of the assets at risk, a compelling case can be made that long-term adaptation makes economic sense for New York City. Given New York's access to economic, human, and technological resources for resilience measures, the City may be able to achieve this resilience. The city's political environment-New York City is a place where climate science is generally not a partisan issue-and the city's experience with uncertainty and overall risk framing (e.g., financing of bond issues for multi-billion dollar infrastructure with multidecade expected lifetimes), encourage climate risk framing.

  13. Making the COP21 work. From international to national scope: the impact of climate negotiations on public action

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lefebvre, Coline; Delory, Linda; Guibert, Geraud

    2015-12-01

    How to appreciate, when the time comes, the results of the COP21? What are the elements that can make it truly useful? La Fabrique Ecologique and CliMates, on the basis of an exclusive and meticulous international survey underline them: the important part of an efficient climate action does not always rely on what we believe. The most influential aspect will be the commitment to future objectives and steps, strong principles of transparency and the extent of real domestic commitments for a new development strategy. A few weeks ahead of the COP21, what can we really expect? It is very likely that, as for the previous COPs, there will be an agreement, but we still need to see if it will be satisfactory. Facing the extent of the climate challenge and the complex negotiation, it remains urgent to have a clear and precise vision of what this international conference could bring. To measure it, La Fabrique Ecologique and CliMates have led an exclusive survey on the impact in recent years of the annual meetings of the COPs on climate policies of 16 States and 5 local authorities. This survey shows several paradoxes: the legally binding character proved to be not so binding after all; the sense of failure sometimes hid real successes; the negotiation itself having a strong impact on its results. It enables to identify the most important factors which have already led to action: the creation of shared knowledge and transparency standards, the obligation of setting an example for countries willing to be included in the negotiation, the search of economic and social co-benefits of climate action with a view to a new development strategy, the emergence of a global climate civil society. Far too often, the COP21 is presented as a deadline, a final date to solve the most complex and global challenge Man has ever faced: climate deregulation. Presented as the umpteenth 'last-ditch conference', the Paris negotiation might generate many 'climate resigned people

  14. Climate and society: passed climates, man era, future climate: essential reference marks; Climat et societe: Climats passes, passage de l'homme, climat futur: reperes essentiels

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Melieres, M.A.; Marechal, Ch.

    2010-07-01

    This teaching book takes stock of the climate change question which has moved beyond the simple scientific framework. Man will play a key role in the changes to come and the choices he is going to make will have a major impact on our environment and on our societies. The aim of this book is to draw out the essential marks from the multiple disciplines involved in the study of climate change in order to get a global overview of the question. Starting from simple mechanisms showing up the driving components of the climate equilibrium (like the greenhouse effect), the authors analyse the climates of the past, and describe the different causes of the actual climate change and its possible evolution in the future. The global nature of the climate warming in progress is demonstrated and some of its actual impacts on the environment are shown up. The importance of the anthropic influence in this change is underlined as well as the stakes of the mastery of our greenhouse gas emissions. (J.S.)

  15. Successful Massive Open Online Climate Course on Climate Science and Psychology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nuccitelli, D. A.; Cook, J.

    2015-12-01

    In 2015, the University of Queensland and edX launched a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), 'Making Sense of Climate Science Denial.' The MOOC debunked approximately 50 common climate myths using elements of both physical science and psychology. Students learned how to recognise the social and psychological drivers of climate science denial, how to better understand climate change, how to identify the techniques and fallacies that climate myths employ to distort climate science, and how to effectively debunk climate misinformation. Contributors to the website Skeptical Science delivered the lectures, which were reinforced via interviews with climate science and psychology experts. Over 15,000 students from 167 countries enrolled in the course, and student feedback was overwhelmingly positive. This MOOC provides a model for effective climate science education.

  16. Water security and adaptive capacity for climate: Learning lessons from drought decision making in U.S. urban contexts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dilling, L.

    2017-12-01

    Cities in the U.S. have been adapting to drought for many years, implementing a combination of mechanisms to cope with climate and water variability and increasing population. Cities are also at the frontline for making decisions about adaptation to climate change. Are decisions made to cope with drought helping cities to build the adaptive capacity necessary for adapting to climate change? We examined this question by conducting interviews with practitioners involved in drought management at urban water utilities across the U.S. to understand responses to drought and perceptions of their effectiveness. We then drew on established criteria for evaluating successful adaptation (effectiveness, efficiency, equity and legitimacy) to analyze whether these drought policies would build adaptive capacity for climate change. We find that drought responses overall are seen as successful in helping cities balance the demand and supply of water, and maintain system reliability as well as improve water awareness, but can have unintended consequences and shift vulnerability in unexpected ways. For example, even though cities are successful at reducing water use when needed, some are concerned with the increasing difficulty of finding new water savings during a future drought. Secondly, water conservation can affect revenue, impacting the ability of cities to plan for maintenance and capital costs. Third, the social acceptability of policy options is critical and depends on perceived fairness and other factors. Water managers are also challenged by "no fail" expectations that make it difficult to experiment. Moreover some measures can shift vulnerability from one risk, such as running out of water, to another risk, such as water becoming too expensive, lowering quality, or not meeting other key infrastructure design requirements. These findings demonstrate that adaptation measures that seek to reduce exposure to water scarcity can impact aspects of adaptive capacity, and shift

  17. Bird banding and climate change: can we make a difference?

    Science.gov (United States)

    C. John Ralph; Jared D. Wolfe

    2014-01-01

    So how does your banding effort fit into the new paradigm of climate science? A little background: many bird populations underwent mass declines during the 19th century from a variety of causes including hunting and habitat change. Current human-induced climate change represents a new and fast-acting pressure that is inherently more difficult to curtail and may drive...

  18. Team climate for innovation: what difference does it make in general practice?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Proudfoot, Judith; Jayasinghe, Upali W; Holton, Chris; Grimm, Jane; Bubner, Tanya; Amoroso, Cheryl; Beilby, Justin; Harris, Mark F

    2007-06-01

    Teamwork in primary healthcare is associated with patient care processes and staff outcomes. The ability of teams to be innovative is a hypothesized mechanism. We examined the characteristics of general practices with good team climate for innovation, and assessed the impact of climate on chronically ill patients' assessment of their care and on the job satisfaction of the staff. Large cross-sectional study. Australian general practices. A total of 654 general practitioners and staff and 7505 chronically ill patients from 93 general practices in 6 Australian states and territories. The Team Climate Inventory and the Overall Job Satisfaction Scale, customized for use with general practices, were administered to general practitioners and practice staff, and the General Practice Assessment Survey was administered to patients. Practice characteristics were collected by survey from the principal doctor or practice manager. Mean scores of team climate in Australian general practices were similar to those reported in the UK, except that in our study there was no association between the number of doctors in a practice and their team climate. Better team climate was found in practices with fewer non-clinical staff. Team climate predicted the job satisfaction of the general practitioners and staff, irrespective of the number of practice staff. Better team climate was associated with greater satisfaction by patients with their care. Team climate is important for patient and staff satisfaction. In large general practices, separate sub-cultures may exist between administrative and clinical staff, which has implications for designing effective team interventions.

  19. Serious Simulation Role-Playing Games for Transformative Climate Change Education: "World Climate" and "Future Climate"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rooney-Varga, J. N.; Sterman, J.; Sawin, E.; Jones, A.; Merhi, H.; Hunt, C.

    2012-12-01

    Climate change, its mitigation, and adaption to its impacts are among the greatest challenges of our times. Despite the importance of societal decisions in determining climate change outcomes, flawed mental models about climate change remain widespread, are often deeply entrenched, and present significant barriers to understanding and decision-making around climate change. Here, we describe two simulation role-playing games that combine active, affective, and analytical learning to enable shifts of deeply held conceptions about climate change. The games, World Climate and Future Climate, use a state-of-the-art decision support simulation, C-ROADS (Climate Rapid Overview and Decision Support) to provide users with immediate feedback on the outcomes of their mitigation strategies at the national level, including global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and concentrations, mean temperature changes, sea level rise, and ocean acidification. C-ROADS outcomes are consistent with the atmosphere-ocean general circulation models (AOGCMS), such as those used by the IPCC, but runs in less than one second on ordinary laptops, providing immediate feedback to participants on the consequences of their proposed policies. Both World Climate and Future Climate role-playing games provide immersive, situated learning experiences that motivate active engagement with climate science and policy. In World Climate, participants play the role of United Nations climate treaty negotiators. Participant emissions reductions proposals are continually assessed through interactive exploration of the best available science through C-ROADS. Future Climate focuses on time delays in the climate and energy systems. Participants play the roles of three generations: today's policymakers, today's youth, and 'just born.' The game unfolds in three rounds 25 simulated years apart. In the first round, only today's policymakers make decisions; In the next round, the young become the policymakers and inherit the

  20. Make way for the climate. National adaptation strategy. The interdepartmental memorandum

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2007-11-01

    This memorandum describes the outline of a national strategy for adaptation to the consequences of climate change. The memorandum is the first report of the Adapting Spatial Planning to Climate Change programme (ARK). [mk] [nl

  1. Analysis of Swedish Forest Owners' Information and Knowledge-Sharing Networks for Decision-Making: Insights for Climate Change Communication and Adaptation

    Science.gov (United States)

    André, Karin; Baird, Julia; Gerger Swartling, Åsa; Vulturius, Gregor; Plummer, Ryan

    2017-06-01

    To further the understanding of climate change adaptation processes, more attention needs to be paid to the various contextual factors that shape whether and how climate-related knowledge and information is received and acted upon by actors involved. This study sets out to examine the characteristics of forest owners' in Sweden, the information and knowledge-sharing networks they draw upon for decision-making, and their perceptions of climate risks, their forests' resilience, the need for adaptation, and perceived adaptive capacity. By applying the concept of ego-network analysis, the empirical data was generated by a quantitative survey distributed to 3000 private forest owners' in Sweden in 2014 with a response rate of 31%. The results show that there is a positive correlation, even though it is generally weak, between forest owner climate perceptions and (i) network features, i.e. network size and heterogeneity, and (ii) presence of certain alter groups (i.e. network members or actors). Results indicate that forest owners' social networks currently serve only a minimal function of sharing knowledge of climate change and adaptation. Moreover, considering the fairly infrequent contact between respondents and alter groups, the timing of knowledge sharing is important. In conclusion we suggest those actors that forest owners' most frequently communicate with, especially forestry experts providing advisory services (e.g. forest owner associations, companies, and authorities) have a clear role to communicate both the risks of climate change and opportunities for adaptation. Peers are valuable in connecting information about climate risks and adaptation to the actual forest property.

  2. Making Grasslands Sustainable in Mongolia: Herders' Livelihoods and Climate Change

    OpenAIRE

    Asian Development Bank (ADB)

    2014-01-01

    The threats posed by climate change have significant impacts on Mongolia’s grassland ecosystems and herders’ livelihoods. This publication discusses the auses of climate change and its impacts on livelihoods and ecosystems for herders and the general public. It explains how good pasture management and livestock roductivity are important for increasing incomes and provides information on adaptation practices. It also identifies sustainable management practices that can increase communities’ re...

  3. An integrated crop model and GIS decision support system for assisting agronomic decision making under climate change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kadiyala, M D M; Nedumaran, S; Singh, Piara; S, Chukka; Irshad, Mohammad A; Bantilan, M C S

    2015-07-15

    The semi-arid tropical (SAT) regions of India are suffering from low productivity which may be further aggravated by anticipated climate change. The present study analyzes the spatial variability of climate change impacts on groundnut yields in the Anantapur district of India and examines the relative contribution of adaptation strategies. For this purpose, a web based decision support tool that integrates crop simulation model and Geographical Information System (GIS) was developed to assist agronomic decision making and this tool can be scalable to any location and crop. The climate change projections of five global climate models (GCMs) relative to the 1980-2010 baseline for Anantapur district indicates an increase in rainfall activity to the tune of 10.6 to 25% during Mid-century period (2040-69) with RCP 8.5. The GCMs also predict warming exceeding 1.4 to 2.4°C by 2069 in the study region. The spatial crop responses to the projected climate indicate a decrease in groundnut yields with four GCMs (MPI-ESM-MR, MIROC5, CCSM4 and HadGEM2-ES) and a contrasting 6.3% increase with the GCM, GFDL-ESM2M. The simulation studies using CROPGRO-Peanut model reveals that groundnut yields can be increased on average by 1.0%, 5.0%, 14.4%, and 20.2%, by adopting adaptation options of heat tolerance, drought tolerant cultivars, supplemental irrigation and a combination of drought tolerance cultivar and supplemental irrigation respectively. The spatial patterns of relative benefits of adaptation options were geographically different and the greatest benefits can be achieved by adopting new cultivars having drought tolerance and with the application of one supplemental irrigation at 60days after sowing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  4. Estimating Non-Market Impacts of Climate Change and Climate Policy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rothman, D.S.; Amelung, B.; Polome, P.

    2003-01-01

    A number of studies over the past few decades have attempted to estimate the potential impacts of climate change and climate policy. For reasons related to, inter alia, our incomplete understanding of the workings of many natural and social systems, the tremendous spatial and temporal variability in these systems, and the long time frames over which the issue of climate change will play out, there are large degrees of uncertainty in these estimates. Some of the most rancorous debates, however, have focused on those studies that have attempted to place economic values on these impacts. This should not be surprising as the outcomes of these studies have played an important role in the debates over climate policy. Rightly or wrongly, the estimates presented in these studies are often held up against similar estimates of the costs of mitigating against climate change. The process of economic valuation of environmental and social issues is still relatively young, much less its application to the potential impacts of climate change and climate policy. Issues such as climate change push existing techniques to their limits, and possibly beyond. Among the topics that have raised the most concern are the choice of the proper baseline against which to make comparisons, the treatment of uncertainty in human and natural systems, incomplete accounting, the actual valuation of specific impacts, and the aggregation of impacts over time and across widely differing societies. Some of the more recent studies have tried to address these issues, albeit not always satisfactorily. One aspect that makes the economic valuation of environmental and social issues difficult is that it requires addressing impacts that are not typically associated with economic markets, so called nonmarket impacts. In addition to not being traded in markets, many of these impacts affect goods and services that have the characteristic of being public goods, i.e. it is not possible to restrict their use to a

  5. Climate and society: passed climates, man era, future climate: essential reference marks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Melieres, M.A.; Marechal, Ch.

    2010-01-01

    This teaching book takes stock of the climate change question which has moved beyond the simple scientific framework. Man will play a key role in the changes to come and the choices he is going to make will have a major impact on our environment and on our societies. The aim of this book is to draw out the essential marks from the multiple disciplines involved in the study of climate change in order to get a global overview of the question. Starting from simple mechanisms showing up the driving components of the climate equilibrium (like the greenhouse effect), the authors analyse the climates of the past, and describe the different causes of the actual climate change and its possible evolution in the future. The global nature of the climate warming in progress is demonstrated and some of its actual impacts on the environment are shown up. The importance of the anthropic influence in this change is underlined as well as the stakes of the mastery of our greenhouse gas emissions. (J.S.)

  6. Workshop summary: 'Integrating air quality and climate mitigation - is there a need for new metrics to support decision making?'

    Science.gov (United States)

    von Schneidemesser, E.; Schmale, J.; Van Aardenne, J.

    2013-12-01

    Air pollution and climate change are often treated at national and international level as separate problems under different regulatory or thematic frameworks and different policy departments. With air pollution and climate change being strongly linked with regard to their causes, effects and mitigation options, the integration of policies that steer air pollutant and greenhouse gas emission reductions might result in cost-efficient, more effective and thus more sustainable tackling of the two problems. To support informed decision making and to work towards an integrated air quality and climate change mitigation policy requires the identification, quantification and communication of present-day and potential future co-benefits and trade-offs. The identification of co-benefits and trade-offs requires the application of appropriate metrics that are well rooted in science, easy to understand and reflect the needs of policy, industry and the public for informed decision making. For the purpose of this workshop, metrics were loosely defined as a quantified measure of effect or impact used to inform decision-making and to evaluate mitigation measures. The workshop held on October 9 and 10 and co-organized between the European Environment Agency and the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies brought together representatives from science, policy, NGOs, and industry to discuss whether current available metrics are 'fit for purpose' or whether there is a need to develop alternative metrics or reassess the way current metrics are used and communicated. Based on the workshop outcome the presentation will (a) summarize the informational needs and current application of metrics by the end-users, who, depending on their field and area of operation might require health, policy, and/or economically relevant parameters at different scales, (b) provide an overview of the state of the science of currently used and newly developed metrics, and the scientific validity of these

  7. Deltas on the move. Making deltas cope with the effects of climate change

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reker, J.; Van Winden, A.; Braakhekke, W.; Vermaat, J.; Eleveld, M.; Janssen, R.; De Reus, N.; Omzigt, N.

    2006-01-01

    This scoping study is the first phase of a study aimed at: (a) providing knowledge on the potential of a system-based approach to deal with the effects of climate change as an alternative for the more traditional technical measures such as dams, dikes and surge barriers. This should be shown for both rich and poor countries and should address hydrological, ecological as well as socio-economic aspects; and (b) identifying the potential to market these results worldwide. To reach these objectives four research steps are defined: (1) to make an inventory of deltas: their vulnerability to the effects of climate change; (2) development of indicators for successful use of a system-based approach; (3) to provide an overview of the potential of soft measures for these deltas; (4) to select a number of deltas with potential for marketing system-based measures and the development of strategies to link economic and ecological objectives. This scoping study addresses step 1 only. The results from step 1 will be used as a starting point for steps 2 and 3. The outputs of this scoping study are threefold: a background report (this report); a flyer with a brief description of the findings; a website with information on delta's and how these may be affected by climate change. The scoping study will roughly outline which deltas are still functioning in a more or less natural manner - or could be (re)developed in that direction - and thus would be good candidates for a system-based approach. Chapter 2 gives a description of the geomorphological and ecological processes in a delta. In addition, those aspects of climate change that can have an effect on deltas are described. The third chapter deals with human interventions in deltas and whether or not they fit within a system-based approach. In a system-based approach, as presented in Chapter 4, natural processes are given free reign where possible. Chapter 5 shows how available data on deltas could be used in such a system

  8. Making the Grade? Classroom Climate for LGBTQ Students across Gender Conformity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garvey, Jason C.; Rankin, Susan R.

    2015-01-01

    Using data from the "2010 State of Higher Education for LGBT People" (Rankin, Weber, Blumenfeld, & Frazer), this study examines campus climate perceptions for LGBTQ undergraduate students across gender conformity and the extent to which relevant variables influence perceptions of classroom climate. Findings reveal more positive…

  9. Climate - Our future?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schotterer, U.

    1992-01-01

    The aim of this picture-based book is to make climate change understandable to a wider public. Images tell the story, figure captions enhance the essentials. Text passages tie and highlight the story, rather than provide long explanations of complex scientific reasoning. Brief summaries at the end of each chapter review knowledge of which everybody should be aware. They are based on the scientific assessments of the 1990 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report. The climate story is explored from six different angles: the physical system, past changes, how climate affects cultures, how people affect climate, the importance of research and how to view the future

  10. Gender Perspectives on Climate Change & Human Security in India: An Analysis of National Missions on Climate Change

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jyoti K Parikh

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available Women play a crucial role in many activities essential for coping with climate change. Indian women appear to be more vulnerable than men to differential impacts of climate change because they share most of the household managing responsibilities but have limited access to participation in decision making and governance. Most of the policies for climate change adaptation and mitigation do not specifically address the vulnerability of women. The National Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC, formulated to shape future discourse of climate change adaptation and development, recognizes the differential impacts of climate change on society, but incorporates merely a few gender specific measures. The paper suggests gender specific measures for each mission of the NAPCC to make the adaptation and development process more inclusive and sustainable in India.

  11. Developing Climate Resilience Toolkit Decision Support Training Sectio

    Science.gov (United States)

    Livezey, M. M.; Herring, D.; Keck, J.; Meyers, J. C.

    2014-12-01

    The Climate Resilience Toolkit (CRT) is a Federal government effort to address the U.S. President's Climate Action Plan and Executive Order for Climate Preparedness. The toolkit will provide access to tools and products useful for climate-sensitive decision making. To optimize the user experience, the toolkit will also provide access to training materials. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has been building a climate training capability for 15 years. The target audience for the training has historically been mainly NOAA staff with some modified training programs for external users and stakeholders. NOAA is now using this climate training capacity for the CRT. To organize the CRT training section, we collaborated with the Association of Climate Change Officers to determine the best strategy and identified four additional complimentary skills needed for successful decision making: climate literacy, environmental literacy, risk assessment and management, and strategic execution and monitoring. Developing the climate literacy skills requires knowledge of climate variability and change, as well as an introduction to the suite of available products and services. For the development of an environmental literacy category, specific topics needed include knowledge of climate impacts on specific environmental systems. Climate risk assessment and management introduces a process for decision making and provides knowledge on communication of climate information and integration of climate information in planning processes. The strategic execution and monitoring category provides information on use of NOAA climate products, services, and partnership opportunities for decision making. In order to use the existing training modules, it was necessary to assess their level of complexity, catalog them, and develop guidance for users on a curriculum to take advantage of the training resources to enhance their learning experience. With the development of this CRT

  12. Images of climate change - a pilot study of young people's perceptions of ICT-based climate visualization

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ballantyne, Anne Gammelgaard; Wibeck, Victoria; Neset, Tina-Simone

    2016-01-01

    to add interactive elements should be further explored, as interaction has the potential to influence meaning-making processes. In addition, audiences’ preconceptions of climate change influence their interpretations of climate messages, which may function as a constraint to climate communication....

  13. Application of stakeholder-based and modelling approaches for supporting robust adaptation decision making under future climatic uncertainty and changing urban-agricultural water demand

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhave, Ajay; Dessai, Suraje; Conway, Declan; Stainforth, David

    2016-04-01

    Deep uncertainty in future climate change and socio-economic conditions necessitates the use of assess-risk-of-policy approaches over predict-then-act approaches for adaptation decision making. Robust Decision Making (RDM) approaches embody this principle and help evaluate the ability of adaptation options to satisfy stakeholder preferences under wide-ranging future conditions. This study involves the simultaneous application of two RDM approaches; qualitative and quantitative, in the Cauvery River Basin in Karnataka (population ~23 million), India. The study aims to (a) determine robust water resources adaptation options for the 2030s and 2050s and (b) compare the usefulness of a qualitative stakeholder-driven approach with a quantitative modelling approach. For developing a large set of future scenarios a combination of climate narratives and socio-economic narratives was used. Using structured expert elicitation with a group of climate experts in the Indian Summer Monsoon, climatic narratives were developed. Socio-economic narratives were developed to reflect potential future urban and agricultural water demand. In the qualitative RDM approach, a stakeholder workshop helped elicit key vulnerabilities, water resources adaptation options and performance criteria for evaluating options. During a second workshop, stakeholders discussed and evaluated adaptation options against the performance criteria for a large number of scenarios of climatic and socio-economic change in the basin. In the quantitative RDM approach, a Water Evaluation And Planning (WEAP) model was forced by precipitation and evapotranspiration data, coherent with the climatic narratives, together with water demand data based on socio-economic narratives. We find that compared to business-as-usual conditions options addressing urban water demand satisfy performance criteria across scenarios and provide co-benefits like energy savings and reduction in groundwater depletion, while options reducing

  14. Making the climate part of the human world: Why addressing beliefs and biases is necessary part of effective climate change education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Donner, S. D.

    2009-12-01

    Efforts to raise public awareness and understanding of the social, cultural and economic consequences of climate change often encounter skepticism. The primary causes of this skepticism, whether in the form of a mild rejection of proposed policy responses or an outright rejection of the basic scientific findings, is often cited to be the poor framing of issues by the scientific community, the quality of science education or public science literacy, disinformation campaigns by representatives of the coal and gas industry, individual resistance to behavioral change, and the hyperactive nature of the modern information culture. However, the root cause may be that the weather and climate, and by association climate change, is viewed as independent of the sphere of human influence in ancient and modern societies. In this presentation, I will outline how long-standing human beliefs in the separation between the earth and the sky and the modern framing of climate change as an “environmental” issue are limiting efforts to education the public about the causes, effects and possible response to climate change. First, sociological research in the Pacific Islands (Fiji, Kiribati, Tuvalu) finds strong evidence that beliefs in divine control of the weather and climate limit public acceptance of human-induced climate change. Second, media analysis and polling data from North America supports the role of belief and provides further evidence that climate change is viewed as a threat to an “other” labeled “the environment”, rather than a threat to people or society. The consequences of these mental models of the climate can be an outright reject of scientific theory related to climate change, a milder distrust of climate change predictions, a lack of urgency about mitigation, and an underestimate of the effort required to adapt to climate change. In order to be effective, public education about climate change needs to directly address the two, critical beliefs held by

  15. Economic development, climate and values: making policy

    OpenAIRE

    Stern, Nicholas

    2015-01-01

    The two defining challenges of this century are overcoming poverty and managing the risks of climate change. Over the past 10 years, we have learned much about how to tackle them together from ideas on economic development and public policy. My own work in these areas over four decades as an academic and as a policy adviser in universities and international financial institutions has focused on how the investment environment and the empowerment of people can change lives and livelihoods. The ...

  16. Lixiviation of heavy metals of hazardous industrial wastes by means of thermostatized columns and design of a pilot plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vite T, J.; Leon, C.C. de; Vite T, M.; Soto T, J.L.

    2006-01-01

    The purpose of this work was to evaluate the efficiency of lixiviation of heavy metals, using thermostatized columns and hazardous industrial residual wastes: those by the volume with which are generated and its high toxicity, its represent a great problem for it treatment and disposition, in this work a diagram of a pilot plant for extraction of heavy metals is included. The process and equipment were patented in United States and in Mexico. For the development of this study four thermostated columns were used that were coupled. The waste were finely milled and suspended in an aqueous pulp adding of 10 - 40gL -1 of mineral acid or sodium hydroxide until reaching an interval of pH of 2,5,7 and 10. Its were used of 4-10 gL -1 of a reducer agent and of 0.3-1.5 g of a surfactant agent. In some cases with this method was possible to remove until 100% of heavy metals. It was used Plasma Emission Spectroscopy to determine the concentrations of the cations in the lixiviation liquors. For studying the metallic alloys the X-ray diffraction technique was used. (Author)

  17. How to make progress post-Kyoto

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2003-07-01

    This document provides papers presented during the workshop on ''how to make progress post-Kyoto'', hold at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) in Paris on march 19, 2003. The following topics were presented: reflections on Kyoto, guidance for the future, how to make progress post-kyoto, the lessons from the past; the Bonn voyage; US climate policy after Kyoto, elements of success; preparing for widening and deepening the kyoto protocol; capping emissions and costs; absolute versus intensity-based emissions caps; intensity targets in perspective; negotiating commitments for further emission reductions; exploring new tools; defining meaningful participation of developing countries in climate change mitigation; economic and environmental effectiveness of a technology-based climate regime; US participation in the linkage between research and development and climate cooperation; designing a technology strategy; ''greening'' economic development; some critical comments post-Kyoto; the foreign policy perspective of climate negotiations; Kyoto and the double spiral; burden-sharing rules for stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations and their equity implications. (A.L.B.)

  18. Remote Sensing of Aerosols from Satellites: Why Has It Been Do Difficult to Quantify Aerosol-Cloud Interactions for Climate Assessment, and How Can We Make Progress?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kahn, Ralph A.

    2015-01-01

    The organizers of the National Academy of Sciences Arthur M. Sackler Colloquia Series on Improving Our Fundamental Understanding of the Role of Aerosol-Cloud Interactions in the Climate System would like to post Ralph Kahn's presentation entitled Remote Sensing of Aerosols from Satellites: Why has it been so difficult to quantify aerosol-cloud interactions for climate assessment, and how can we make progress? to their public website.

  19. The Climate is A-Changin': Teaching Civic Competence for a Sustainable Climate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harris, Carolyn A.; Kharecha, Pushker; Goble, Pam; Goble, Ryan

    2016-01-01

    A central aim of social studies curriculum is to prepare young people for making "informed and reasoned decisions for the public good" concerning consequential problems like global climate change. By developing students' "vision of a good society" and exploring what actions and policies move our society in this direction, social studies teachers have an important role in preparing students for a world undergoing enormous environmental change. This article discusses elementary curriculum connections between building students' knowledge and understanding about "their community, nation and world" and global climate change. It also suggests ideas for building civic competency and climate literacy while creating opportunities for students to practice high-value skills like "data collection and analysis, collaboration, decision-making and problem-solving."

  20. Climate: some aspects of sceptical criticism; Climat: quelques elements de critique sceptique

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Muller, Ch.

    2008-07-01

    The author discusses some reasons to be sceptical about the media-supported idea of an actual climate change, and more particularly about the critical role assigned to carbon dioxide in global warming, about the ability to make the distinction between natural and man-induced climate variations, about the quality of models and simulations, about the knowledge on climate physics, about the interpretation of the recently observed warming (since 1997)

  1. Evolving the US Climate Resilience Toolkit to Support a Climate-Smart Nation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tilmes, C.; Niepold, F., III; Fox, J. F.; Herring, D.; Dahlman, L. E.; Hall, N.; Gardiner, N.

    2015-12-01

    Communities, businesses, resource managers, and decision-makers at all levels of government need information to understand and ameliorate climate-related risks. Likewise, climate information can expose latent opportunities. Moving from climate science to social and economic decisions raises complex questions about how to communicate the causes and impacts of climate variability and change; how to characterize and quantify vulnerabilities, risks, and opportunities faced by communities and businesses; and how to make and implement "win-win" adaptation plans at local, regional, and national scales. A broad coalition of federal agencies launched the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit (toolkit.climate.gov) in November 2014 to help our nation build resilience to climate-related extreme events. The site's primary audience is planners and decision makers in business, resource management, and government (at all levels) who seek science-based climate information and tools to help them in their near- and long-term planning. The Executive Office of the President assembled a task force of dozens of subject experts from across the 13 agencies of the U.S. Global Change Research Program to guide the site's development. The site's ongoing evolution is driven by feedback from the target audience. For example, based on feedback, climate projections will soon play a more prominent role in the site's "Climate Explorer" tool and case studies. The site's five-step adaptation planning process is being improved to better facilitate people getting started and to provide clear benchmarks for evaluating progress along the way. In this session, we will share lessons learned from a series of user engagements around the nation and evidence that the Toolkit couples climate information with actionable decision-making processes in ways that are helping Americans build resilience to climate-related stressors.

  2. #ClimateEdCommunity : Field Workshops Bring Together Teachers and Researchers to Make Meaning of Science and Classroom Integration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bartholow, S.; Warburton, J.; Wood, J. H.; Steiner, S. M.

    2015-12-01

    Seeing Understanding and Teaching: Climate Change in Denali is a four-day immersive teacher professional development course held in Denali National Park. Developed through three partner organizations, the course aims to develop teachers' skills for integrating climate change content into their classrooms. This presentation aims to share tangible best practices for linking researchers and teachers in the field, through four years of experience in program delivery and reported through a published external evaluation. This presentation will examine the key aspects of a successful connection between teachers, researchers, science, and classrooms: (1) Inclusion of teacher leaders, (2) dedicated program staff, (3) workshop community culture, and will expose barriers to this type of collaboration including (1) differences in learning style, (2) prior teaching experience, (3) existing/scaffolding understanding of climate change science, and (4) accessibility of enrollment and accommodations for the extended learning experience. Presentation Content Examples:Participants overwhelmingly value the deep commitment this course has to linking their field experience to the classroom attributing to the role of a teacher-leader; an expert science teacher with first-hand field research experience in the polar regions. The goal of including a teacher-leader is to enhance translatability between fieldwork and the classroom. Additionally, qualitative aspects of the report touches on the intangible successes of the workshop such as: (1) the creation of a non-judgmental learning atmosphere, (2) addressing accessibility to science learning tools in rural and under-served communities, (3) defining successful collaboration as making meaning together through exploratory questioning while in the field (4) discussed the social and cultural implications of climate change, and the difficulty of navigating these topics in educational and/or multicultural spaces. Next Steps? Create a #Climate

  3. Climate Change in China : Exploring Informants' Perceptions of Climate Change through a Qualitative Approach

    OpenAIRE

    Lipin, Tan

    2016-01-01

    Climate change is not only a natural phenomenon, but also a global social issue. Many studies try to explore the mechanisms behind climate change and the consequences of climate change, and provide information for developing the measures to mitigate or adapt to it. For example, the IPCC reviews and assesses climate-change-related scientific information produced worldwide, thus aiming to support decision-making from a scientific perspective. However, though various international and regional c...

  4. Fast-track knowledge transfer from climate studies to user's decision-making process

    Science.gov (United States)

    Côté, Hélène; de Elía, Ramón; Larrivée, Caroline; Chaumont, Diane

    2017-04-01

    Over the last decade, many countries implemented various initiatives to bring their scientific community to develop more research projects addressing end-user needs. This shift in priorities gave rise to new expressions such as « actionable science », « co-production of knowledge » etc. This phenomenon is noteworthy in climate and climate change related research due to the pressing needs for societies to both adapt to climate change and quickly reduce greenhouse gases emissions. Although the attempt to include users into their projects made perfect sense, academic and even governmental researchers have often been overwhelmed by the "language barrier", the variety of needs, and the magnitude of the viewpoint change required to provide salient, credible and legitimate information to decision makers. In addition, many researchers worry that their growing involvement with users might jeopardize the progress of their own scientific interests and slowdown their academic careers. Useŕs needs are not necessarily well defined nor solely driven by scientific issues. They are a more or less complex mixture of short-term obligations like the sudden realization that an imminent decision needs to take climate change into account, long-term concerns about their risks and vulnerabilities, and knowledge gaps involving interdisciplinary inputs and communication challenges. In this context, the emergence of boundary organizations is a convincing approach to build the interface between science and end users. Since a single individual or even a single organization is rarely able to completely fulfill useŕs expectations, this presentation will show how strong and productive links between academia, boundary organization and users can stimulate knowledge transfer among all parties. To that purpose, examples will be taken from the 15-year existence of Ouranos Consortium on Regional Climatology and Adaptation to Climate Change (Montreal, Canada). We will see how Ouranoś staff -with

  5. Sustained Large-Scale Collective Climate Action Supported by Effective Climate Change Education Practice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niepold, F., III; Crim, H.; Fiorile, G.; Eldadah, S.

    2017-12-01

    Since 2012, the Climate and Energy Literacy community have realized that as cities, nations and the international community seek solutions to global climate change over the coming decades, a more comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to climate literacy—one that includes economic and social considerations—will play a vital role in knowledgeable planning, decision-making, and governance. City, county and state leaders are now leading the American response to a changing climate by incubating social innovation to prevail in the face of unprecedented change. Cities are beginning to realize the importance of critical investments to support the policies and strategies that will foster the climate literacy necessary for citizens to understand the urgency of climate actions and to succeed in a resilient post-carbon economy and develop the related workforce. Over decade of federal and non-profit Climate Change Education effective methods have been developed that can support municipality's significant educational capabilities for the purpose of strengthening and scaling city, state, business, and education actions designed to sustain and effectively address this significant social change. Looking to foster the effective and innovative strategies that will enable their communities several networks have collaborated to identify recommendations for effective education and communication practices when working with different types of audiences. U.S. National Science Foundation funded Climate Change Education Partnership (CCEP) Alliance, the National Wildlife Federation, NOAA Climate Program Office, Tri-Agency Climate Change Education Collaborative and the Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN) are working to develop a new web portal that will highlight "effective" practices that includes the acquisition and use of climate change knowledge to inform decision-making. The purpose of the web portal is to transfer effective practice to support communities to be

  6. The CLEAN Workshop Series: Promoting Effective Pedagogy for Teaching Undergraduate Climate Science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kirk, K. B.; Bruckner, M. Z.; Manduca, C. A.; Buhr, S. M.

    2012-12-01

    approach that fosters systems thinking. Workshop participants heard presentations from top climate scientists about topics such as the role of carbon dioxide in regulating Earth's climate, the silicate-weathering thermostat hypothesis, effects of water vapor in the climate system, and albedo effects from the loss of Artic sea ice. Demonstrations of classroom techniques allowed participants to use a jigsaw approach to understand poleward heat transport, plot atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, and use a mass balance model to explore the role of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere. A hallmark of the CLEAN workshops is that participants are actively engaged in team projects to create new teaching materials. In the Communicating Climate workshop, John Cook led a demonstration of techniques featured in his Debunking Handbook and workshop participants created examples of how to respond to common climate myths in the classroom. In the Climate Complexities workshop, participants used existing elements within the CLEAN reviewed collection to create a comprehensive sequence of activities that can be used to teach elements of Earth's climate system. Activities from the workshop are archived on the CLEAN website, including screen cast recordings of all the presentations and materials created at each workshop. For more information, visit the workshop website at the URL below.

  7. Climate change and climate policy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alfsen, Knut H.; Kolshus, Hans H.; Torvanger, Asbjoern

    2000-08-01

    The climate issue is a great political and scientific challenge for several reasons: (1) There are many uncertain aspects of the climate problem, such as future emission of climate gases, the response of the climate system upon these gases, and the effects of climate changes. (2) It is probable, however, that anthropogenic emission of climate gases, deforestation etc. will cause noticeable climate changes in the future. This might be observed as increased frequency of extreme weather situations. This appears to be a greater threat than a gradual increase of temperature and precipitation. (3) Since the climate system is large and react only relatively slowly on changes in for instance the emission of climate gases, the climate problem can only be solved by means of long-term measures. (4) The climate changes may be irreversible. A rational short-term strategy is to ensure maximum flexibility, which can be done by ''slowing down'' (curtailing emissions) and by avoiding irreversible actions as much as possible. The long-term challenge is to develop an economically responsible alternative to the present fossil-based energy system that permits carbon-efficient technologies to compete on price with coal and unconventional oil and gas. Norway is in a special position by being a large exporter of fossil fuel and at the same time wanting to appear responsible in environmental matters. This combination may incur considerable expenses upon Norway and it is therefore important that environmental commitments like the Kyoto agreement can be honoured to the lowest possible cost. The costs can be minimized by: (1) minimizing the measure costs in Norway, (2) working to make the international quota price as low as possible, and (3) reducing the loss of petroleum income as much as possible. This report describes the earth's climate history, the forces behind climatic changes and what the prospects for the future look like. It also reviews what is being done to curtail the emission of

  8. How to make progress post-Kyoto

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2003-07-01

    This document provides papers presented during the workshop on ''how to make progress post-Kyoto'', hold at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) in Paris on march 19, 2003. The following topics were presented: reflections on Kyoto, guidance for the future, how to make progress post-kyoto, the lessons from the past; the Bonn voyage; US climate policy after Kyoto, elements of success; preparing for widening and deepening the kyoto protocol; capping emissions and costs; absolute versus intensity-based emissions caps; intensity targets in perspective; negotiating commitments for further emission reductions; exploring new tools; defining meaningful participation of developing countries in climate change mitigation; economic and environmental effectiveness of a technology-based climate regime; US participation in the linkage between research and development and climate cooperation; designing a technology strategy; ''greening'' economic development; some critical comments post-Kyoto; the foreign policy perspective of climate negotiations; Kyoto and the double spiral; burden-sharing rules for stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations and their equity implications. (A.L.B.)

  9. Climate information for public health: the role of the IRI climate data library in an integrated knowledge system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    del Corral, John; Blumenthal, M Benno; Mantilla, Gilma; Ceccato, Pietro; Connor, Stephen J; Thomson, Madeleine C

    2012-09-01

    Public health professionals are increasingly concerned about the potential impact of climate variability and change on health outcomes. Protecting public health from the vagaries of climate requires new working relationships between the public health sector and the providers of climate data and information. The Climate Information for Public Health Action initiative at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) is designed to increase the public health community's capacity to understand, use and demand appropriate climate data and climate information to mitigate the public health impacts of the climate. Significant challenges to building the capacity of health professionals to use climate information in research and decision-making include the difficulties experienced by many in accessing relevant and timely quality controlled data and information in formats that can be readily incorporated into specific analysis with other data sources. We present here the capacities of the IRI climate data library and show how we have used it to build an integrated knowledge system in the support of the use of climate and environmental information in climate-sensitive decision-making with respect to health. Initiated as an aid facilitating exploratory data analysis for climate scientists, the IRI climate data library has emerged as a powerful tool for interdisciplinary researchers focused on topics related to climate impacts on society, including health.

  10. Mitigation incentives with climate finance and treaty options

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Strand, Jon

    2016-01-01

    Future greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation action of current non-climate-policy (NP) countries is considered to take two alternative forms: 1) “climate finance” payments received in return for future reductions in its GHG emissions below a defined “baseline”; and 2) join a “climate treaty” whereby the required emissions reductions are formally binding. It is assumed that baselines defining climate finance payments, and required emissions reductions under a treaty, depend positively on current emissions. It is then shown that making such future options available reduces current GHG mitigation in NP countries, leading to higher emissions in the short run. This effect is stronger when future climate finance payments are higher; the required relative emissions reductions under a treaty are greater; when commitments under a treaty are longer-lasting; and mitigation targets depend more on current emissions. Such short-run increases in emissions can (sometimes, more than) fully eliminate the effect of the subsequent policy. When climate finance and treaties are both future alternatives, more generous climate finance can make it harder and more expensive to induce the country to join a climate treaty. - Highlights: • A good future climate finance arrangement can increase GHG emissions today. • The same can be the case with a future and restrictive climate treaty. • These can be problems when costs under such solutions are reduced by higher emissions today. • Better climate finance also tends to make joining a climate treaty less attractive.

  11. Struggle against climate change

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2009-01-01

    This document first proposes a presentation of the cross-cutting policy defined for the struggle against climate change. It notably presents its various programs. It describes the implemented strategy which aims at reducing on a short term greenhouse gas emissions with the available technologies, at making the climate challenge a driver for economic competitiveness, at developing the knowledge on climatic change and at preparing the necessary adaptation measures, and at stating on the international scene the French commitment and its dynamic role in front of the climate challenge

  12. Climate Change and Poverty Reduction

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Anderson, Simon

    2011-08-15

    Climate change will make it increasingly difficult to achieve and sustain development goals. This is largely because climate effects on poverty remain poorly understood, and poverty reduction strategies do not adequately support climate resilience. Ensuring effective development in the face of climate change requires action on six fronts: investing in a stronger climate and poverty evidence base; applying the learning about development effectiveness to how we address adaptation needs; supporting nationally derived, integrated policies and programmes; including the climate-vulnerable poor in developing strategies; and identifying how mitigation strategies can also reduce poverty and enable adaptation.

  13. Regional climate services: A regional partnership between NOAA and USDA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Climate services in the Midwest and Northern Plains regions have been enhanced by a recent addition of the USDA Climate Hubs to NOAA’s existing network of partners. This new partnership stems from the intrinsic variability of intra and inter-annual climatic conditions, which makes decision-making fo...

  14. Climate Change and Transportation

    OpenAIRE

    Yevdokimov, Yuri

    2010-01-01

    As stated at the beginning of this chapter, the relationship between transportation and climate is two-directional. Based on our statistical analysis performed for Canada, we can make some general conclusions about this relationship. On the one hand, transportation is one of the largest contributors to GHG emissions which, in turn, cause various changes in climate. On the other hand, these climate changes negatively affect transportation in terms of its infrastructure and operations. Therefor...

  15. Integrated Drought Monitoring and Forecasts for Decision Making in Water and Agricultural Sectors over the Southeastern US under Changing Climate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arumugam, S.; Mazrooei, A.; Ward, R.

    2017-12-01

    Changing climate arising from structured oscillations such as ENSO and rising temperature poses challenging issues in meeting the increasing water demand (due to population growth) for public supply and agriculture over the Southeast US. This together with infrastructural (e.g., most reservoirs being within-year systems) and operational (e.g., static rule curves) constraints requires an integrated approach that seamlessly monitors and forecasts water and soil moisture conditions to support adaptive decision making in water and agricultural sectors. In this talk, we discuss the utility of an integrated drought management portal that both monitors and forecasts streamflow and soil moisture over the southeast US. The forecasts are continuously developed and updated by forcing monthly-to-seasonal climate forecasts with a land surface model for various target basins. The portal also houses a reservoir allocation model that allows water managers to explore different release policies in meeting the system constraints and target storages conditioned on the forecasts. The talk will also demonstrate how past events (e.g., 2007-2008 drought) could be proactively monitored and managed to improve decision making in water and agricultural sectors over the Southeast US. Challenges in utilizing the portal information from institutional and operational perspectives will also be presented.

  16. Climate change and energy options. Decision making in the midst of uncertainty

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Steinfeld, J.I.

    2001-01-01

    Understanding the world's natural systems, and how our own activities may be affecting those systems, are crucial for the long-term well-being of our society and of all the inhabitants of this world. One of the most complex of these is the global climate system. The nature and extent of significant alterations to the global climate system due to increasing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), resulting from human activity such as energy production and manufacturing processes, is still the subject of considerable uncertainty and, indeed, controversy. However, the possible consequent effects on ecological systems and human society may be of such profound gravity, that continuing research into the causes and effects of climate change, and development of viable technology solutions for mitigation of these effects, are essential. Understanding the global climate system, determining how our activities may be influencing it, and taking responsible actions to protect it for future generations, may be among the greatest challenges that humanity has ever faced

  17. Research on climate effects. Effects of climate changes. Proceedings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fischer, W.; Stein, G.

    1991-01-01

    Global changes affecting the earth are at the forefront of public interest, possibly caused by climate alterations amongst other things. The public expects appropriate measures from politics to successfully adapt to unavoidable climate changes. As well as an investigation into the causes of climatic changes and the corollaries between the different scientific phenomena, the effects on the economy and society must also be examined. The Federal Minister for Research and Technology aims to make a valuable German contribution to international Global Change Research with the focal point ''Effects of Climate Changes on the Ecological and Civil System''. The aim of the workshop was to give an outline of current scientific knowledge, sketch out research requirements and give recommendations on the focal point with regard to the BMFT. (orig.) [de

  18. Economics of climate policy and collective decision making

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Buergenmeier, B.; Ferrier, C.; Ingold, K.; Perret, S.; Baranzini, A.; Germond-Duret, C.; Kypreos, S.; Wokaun, A.; Rafaj, P.

    2006-01-01

    This paper explores the reasons why economic instruments of climate change are reluctantly applied and stresses the need for interdisciplinary research linking economic theory and empirical testing to deliberative political procedures. It is divided in three parts. The first one recalls the main issues in implementing Cost-Benefit Analysis such as information problems, uncertainties, discounting the future and irreversibilities. The second part shows how these issues can be treated in integrated assessment and techno-economic models and presents a case study, which shows that (1) The chosen scenario tends to stabilize atmospheric CO2 concentration at around 550 ppm in the long run; (2) Exclusion of possibility to trade CO2 emission permits under a cap regime would increase the cost of emission abatement for OECD countries; and (3) Combining different flexibility instruments might lead to significant gains in the overall cost of climate policy. The third part presents results of a survey conducted among the main economic and environmental associations in Switzerland. The survey reveals conflicting views on economic instruments. It shows how the social acceptability of these instruments can be improved in taking explicitly into account these opposing views of special interest groups. Therefore, policy scenarios should be selected in combining techno-economic models with empirical studies about their political and normative context

  19. Climate economics in progress 2011; Climate economics in progress 2011

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    De Perthuis, Christian [Paris-Dauphine University (France); Jouvet, Pierre-Andre [Paris-Ouest University (France); Trotignon, Raphael; Simonet, Gabriela; Boutueil, Virginie [Climate Economics Chair, Paris-Dauphine University (France)

    2011-10-01

    Climate Economics in Progress offers a global overview of the present status of action on climate change. Drawing on the most recent data, it analyzes the development of carbon markets in Europe and other parts of the world. It also examines the conditions for including major players such as China and new sectors such as agriculture, forestry and transport in the fight against global warming. The book is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand current advances in climate control, which could pave the way for a new form of economic growth. The book brings together a group of researchers whose goal is to make the link between academic research on the economics of climate change and the implementation of operational tools, thereby allowing the climate issue to be integrated into the functioning of the real economy

  20. Science and climate policy: A history lesson

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Herrick, C.N.

    1992-01-01

    As a nation, the authors are engaged in a great deal of soul searching about the consequences of possible global climate change, aware that the authors must make choices but unsure when to make them or what they should be. Contrary to popular belief, this is not the first time that the nation will have to make major policy decisions based on the possibility of human-induced climate change. More than 100 years ago, the US government encouraged wide-scale settlement and development of the West, partly because of a scientifically grounded belief that early Western pioneers had caused the climate to become moister. Today, the US Global Climate Research Program has embarked on the task of resolving the many scientific uncertainties. As Powell learned a century ago, however, such information is critical but not sufficient to determining how a nation might respond to risk. If global climate research and assessment are to be driven by social relevance rather than scientific curiosity, these studies must reflect sociocultural as well as physical factors

  1. Using climate information for fuels management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kolden, Crystal A.; Brown, Timothy J.

    2008-01-01

    the relationships between climate and wildfire (e.g., Swetnam and Betancourt 1990), and 2) prescribed fire policy has many regulations that potentially inhibited the use of climate information for decision-making. It was also determined that because fire use is a human decision, it would be more informative to ask fire managers themselves how climate impacts fire use through their decision-making processes, and whether or not they use climate information for prescribed fire. The first task for this project was to complete a regional survey of prescribed fire managers in California and Nevada. During the second phase of the project, additional prescribed fire managers were surveyed across the country. During the third year a second survey of WFU managers was completed. The goals of these inquiries were to determine: 1) If fire managers use climate information for fuels management; 2) The perspective fire managers have towards climate affecting fuels management; 3) Determine any obstacles that make it difficult to use climate information for fuels management; and 4) Determine climate information managers need to help them make better decisions for fire use.

  2. Fair adaptation to climate change

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Paavola, Jouni; Adger, W. Neil

    2006-01-01

    This article identifies social justice dilemmas associated with the necessity to adapt to climate change, examines how they are currently addressed by the climate change regime, and proposes solutions to overcome prevailing gaps and ambiguities. We argue that the key justice dilemmas of adaptation include responsibility for climate change impacts, the level and burden sharing of assistance to vulnerable countries for adaptation, distribution of assistance between recipient countries and adaptation measures, and fair participation in planning and making decisions on adaptation. We demonstrate how the climate change regime largely omits responsibility but makes a general commitment to assistance. However, the regime has so far failed to operationalise assistance and has made only minor progress towards eliminating obstacles for fair participation. We propose the adoption of four principles for fair adaptation in the climate change regime. These include avoiding dangerous climate change, forward-looking responsibility, putting the most vulnerable first and equal participation of all. We argue that a safe maximum standard of 400-500 ppm of CO 2 concentrations in the atmosphere and a carbon tax of $20-50 per carbon equivalent ton could provide the initial instruments for operationalising the principles. (author)

  3. The climate bishop

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Browning, Bishop George

    2006-01-01

    Climate change is not a choice between economics and the environment. It is important for the politicians of every nation to invest in saving the environment, invest in developing the technology that will prevent the climate change. We need to change, the change at the end of the day will not affect our lifestyle substantially, but it will make a huge difference to the future generation

  4. Natural versus anthropogenic climate change: Swedish farmers' joint construction of climate perceptions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Asplund, Therese

    2016-07-01

    While previous research into understandings of climate change has usually examined general public perceptions, this study offers an audience-specific departure point. This article analyses how Swedish farmers perceive climate change and how they jointly shape their understandings. The agricultural sector is of special interest because it both contributes to and is directly affected by climate change. Through focus group discussions with Swedish farmers, this study finds that (1) farmers relate to and understand climate change through their own experiences, (2) climate change is understood either as a natural process subject to little or no human influence or as anthropogenic and (3) various communication tools contribute to the formation of natural and anthropogenic climate change frames. The article ends by discussing frame resonance and frame clash in public understanding of climate change and by comparing potential similarities and differences in how various segments of the public make sense of climate change. © The Author(s) 2014.

  5. ClimateNet: A Machine Learning dataset for Climate Science Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prabhat, M.; Biard, J.; Ganguly, S.; Ames, S.; Kashinath, K.; Kim, S. K.; Kahou, S.; Maharaj, T.; Beckham, C.; O'Brien, T. A.; Wehner, M. F.; Williams, D. N.; Kunkel, K.; Collins, W. D.

    2017-12-01

    Deep Learning techniques have revolutionized commercial applications in Computer vision, speech recognition and control systems. The key for all of these developments was the creation of a curated, labeled dataset ImageNet, for enabling multiple research groups around the world to develop methods, benchmark performance and compete with each other. The success of Deep Learning can be largely attributed to the broad availability of this dataset. Our empirical investigations have revealed that Deep Learning is similarly poised to benefit the task of pattern detection in climate science. Unfortunately, labeled datasets, a key pre-requisite for training, are hard to find. Individual research groups are typically interested in specialized weather patterns, making it hard to unify, and share datasets across groups and institutions. In this work, we are proposing ClimateNet: a labeled dataset that provides labeled instances of extreme weather patterns, as well as associated raw fields in model and observational output. We develop a schema in NetCDF to enumerate weather pattern classes/types, store bounding boxes, and pixel-masks. We are also working on a TensorFlow implementation to natively import such NetCDF datasets, and are providing a reference convolutional architecture for binary classification tasks. Our hope is that researchers in Climate Science, as well as ML/DL, will be able to use (and extend) ClimateNet to make rapid progress in the application of Deep Learning for Climate Science research.

  6. Climate change and the ethics of discounting

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Davidson, M.D.

    2015-01-01

    Climate policy-making requires a balancing, however rudimentary, of the costs of reducing greenhouse gas emissions against the benefits of reduced risks of climate change. Since those creating and those facing the risks of climate change belong to different generations, striking the balance is

  7. The Climate Services Partnership (CSP): Working Together to Improve Climate Services Worldwide

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zebiak, S.; Brasseur, G.; Members of the CSP Coordinating Group

    2012-04-01

    Throughout the world, climate services are required to address urgent needs for climate-informed decision-making, policy and planning. These needs were explored in detail at the first International Conference on Climate Services (ICCS), held in New York in October 2011. After lengthy discussions of needs and capabilities, the conference culminated in the creation of the Climate Services Partnership (CSP). The CSP is an informal interdisciplinary network of climate information users, providers, donors and researchers interested in improving the provision and development of climate services worldwide. Members of the Climate Services Partnership work together to share knowledge, accelerate learning, develop new capacities, and establish good practices. These collaborative efforts will inform and support the evolution and implementation of the Global Framework for Climate Services. The Climate Services Partnership focuses its efforts on three levels. These include: 1. encouraging and sustaining connections between climate information providers, users, donors, and researchers 2. gathering, synthesizing and disseminating current knowledge on climate services by way of an online knowledge management platform 3. generating new knowledge on critical topics in climate service development and provision, through the creation of focused working groups on specific topics To date, the Climate Services Partnership has made progress on all three fronts. Connections have been fostered through outreach at major international conferences and professional societies. The CSP also maintains a website and a monthly newsletter, which serves as a resource for those interested in climate services. The second International Conference on Climate Services (ICCS2) will be held in Berlin in September. The CSP has also created a knowledge capture system that gathers and disseminates a wide range of information related to the development and provision of climate services. This includes an online

  8. Mainstreaming Low-Carbon Climate-Resilient growth pathways into Development Finance Institutions' activities. A research program on the standards, tools and metrics to support transition to the low-carbon climate-resilient development models. Paper 2 - Lessons from the use of climate-related decision-making standards and tools by DFIs to facilitate the transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient future

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cochran, Ian; Eschalier, Claire; Deheza, Mariana

    2015-10-01

    The integration or 'mainstreaming' of climate change into development finance decisions poses a broad number of operational challenges. Drawing from the current practice of Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), this paper first identifies three families of tools and metrics used by DFIs to integrate both mitigation and adaptation objectives into investment decision making. Based on this analysis, it then establishes a framework for integrating carbon standards and tools into the upstream strategic and downstream assessment stages of investment decision making. It principally considers the integration into the assessment of direct project finance and investment, but also looks at budget support, programmatic and indirect interventions. Finally, the paper identifies the next steps to build on existing tools and indicators that currently focus on climate finance tracking to those that foster the alignment of long-term development with the 2 deg. C climate objective. This alignment implies moving from 'static' assessment tools - that identify whether or not emissions are reduced or resiliency is increased by an action - to a 'dynamic' process within which the 'transition impact' is assessed. (authors)

  9. Climate change: against despair

    OpenAIRE

    McKinnon, Catriona

    2014-01-01

    In the face of accelerating climate change and the parlous state of its politics, despair is tempting. This paper analyses two manifestations of despair about climate change related to (1) the inefficacy of personal emissions reductions, and (2) the inability to make a difference to climate change through personal emissions reductions. On the back of an analysis of despair as a loss of hope, the paper argues that the judgements grounding each form of despair are unsound. The paper concludes w...

  10. Making the Connection between Environmental Science and Decision Making

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woodhouse, C. A.; Crimmins, M.; Ferguson, D. B.; Garfin, G. M.; Scott, C. A.

    2011-12-01

    As society is confronted with population growth, limited resources, and the impacts of climate variability and change, it is vital that institutions of higher education promote the development of professionals who can work with decision-makers to incorporate scientific information into environmental planning and management. Skills for the communication of science are essential, but equally important is the ability to understand decision-making contexts and engage with resource managers and policy makers. It is increasingly being recognized that people who understand the linkages between science and decision making are crucial if science is to better support planning and policy. A new graduate-level seminar, "Making the Connection between Environmental Science and Decision Making," is a core course for a new post-baccalaureate certificate program, Connecting Environmental Science and Decision Making at the University of Arizona. The goal of the course is to provide students with a basic understanding of the dynamics between scientists and decision makers that result in scientific information being incorporated into environmental planning, policy, and management decisions. Through readings from the environmental and social sciences, policy, and planning literature, the course explores concepts including scientific information supply and demand, boundary organizations, co-production of knowledge, platforms for engagement, and knowledge networks. Visiting speakers help students understand some of the challenges of incorporating scientific information into planning and decision making within institutional and political contexts. The course also includes practical aspects of two-way communication via written, oral, and graphical presentations as well as through the interview process to facilitate the transfer of scientific information to decision makers as well as to broader audiences. We aspire to help students develop techniques that improve communication and

  11. MECCA coordinated research program: analysis of climate models uncertainties used for climatic changes study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Caneill, J.Y.; Hakkarinen, C.

    1992-01-01

    An international consortium, called MECCA, (Model Evaluation Consortium for Climate Assessment) has been created in 1991 by different partners including electric utilities, government and academic groups to make available to the international scientific community, a super-computer facility for climate evolution studies. The first phase of the program consists to assess uncertainties of climate model simulations in the framework of global climate change studies. Fourteen scientific projects have been accepted on an international basis in this first phase. The second phase of the program will consist in the evaluation of a set of long climate simulations realized with coupled ocean/atmosphere models, in order to study the transient aspects of climate changes and the associated uncertainties. A particular attention will be devoted, on the consequences of these assessments on climate impact studies, and on the regional aspects of climate changes

  12. Variability in Measured Space Temperatures in 60 Homes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Roberts, D.; Lay, K.

    2013-03-01

    This report discusses the observed variability in indoor space temperature in a set of 60 homes located in Florida, New York, Oregon, and Washington. Temperature data were collected at 15-minute intervals for an entire year, including living room, master bedroom, and outdoor air temperature (Arena, et. al). The data were examined to establish the average living room temperature for the set of homes for the heating and cooling seasons, the variability of living room temperature depending on climate, and the variability of indoor space temperature within the homes. The accuracy of software-based energy analysis depends on the accuracy of input values. Thermostat set point is one of the most influential inputs for building energy simulation. Several industry standards exist that recommend differing default thermostat settings for heating and cooling seasons. These standards were compared to the values calculated for this analysis. The data examined for this report show that there is a definite difference between the climates and that the data do not agree well with any particular standard.

  13. Policy Directions Addressing the Public Health Impact of Climate Change in South Korea: The Climate-change Health Adaptation and Mitigation Program.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shin, Yong Seung; Ha, Jongsik

    2012-01-01

    Climate change, caused by global warming, is increasingly recognized as a major threat to mankind's survival. Climate change concurrently has both direct and modifying influences on environmental, social, and public health systems undermining human health as a whole. Environmental health policy-makers need to make use of political and technological alternatives to address these ramifying effects. The objective of this paper is to review public health policy in Korea, as well as internationally, particularly as it relates to climate change health adaptation and mitigation programs (such as C-CHAMP of Korea), in order to assess and elicit directions for a robust environmental health policy that is adaptive to the health impacts of climate change. In Korea, comprehensive measures to prevent or mitigate overall health effects are limited, and the diffusion of responsibility among various government departments makes consistency in policy execution very difficult. This paper proposes integration, synergy, and utilization as the three core principles of policy direction for the assessment and adaptation to the health impacts of climate change. For specific action plans, we suggest policy making based on scientifically integrated health impact assessments and the prioritization of environmental factors in climate change; the development of practical and technological tools that support policy decisions by making their political implementation more efficient; and customized policy development that deals with the vulnerability of local communities.

  14. Policy Directions Addressing the Public Health Impact of Climate Change in South Korea: The Climate-change Health Adaptation and Mitigation Program

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shin, Yong Seung

    2012-01-01

    Climate change, caused by global warming, is increasingly recognized as a major threat to mankind's survival. Climate change concurrently has both direct and modifying influences on environmental, social, and public health systems undermining human health as a whole. Environmental health policy-makers need to make use of political and technological alternatives to address these ramifying effects. The objective of this paper is to review public health policy in Korea, as well as internationally, particularly as it relates to climate change health adaptation and mitigation programs (such as C-CHAMP of Korea), in order to assess and elicit directions for a robust environmental health policy that is adaptive to the health impacts of climate change. In Korea, comprehensive measures to prevent or mitigate overall health effects are limited, and the diffusion of responsibility among various government departments makes consistency in policy execution very difficult. This paper proposes integration, synergy, and utilization as the three core principles of policy direction for the assessment and adaptation to the health impacts of climate change. For specific action plans, we suggest policy making based on scientifically integrated health impact assessments and the prioritization of environmental factors in climate change; the development of practical and technological tools that support policy decisions by making their political implementation more efficient; and customized policy development that deals with the vulnerability of local communities. PMID:23256088

  15. Using Weather Data and Climate Model Output in Economic Analyses of Climate Change

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Auffhammer, M.; Hsiang, S. M.; Schlenker, W.; Sobel, A.

    2013-06-28

    Economists are increasingly using weather data and climate model output in analyses of the economic impacts of climate change. This article introduces a set of weather data sets and climate models that are frequently used, discusses the most common mistakes economists make in using these products, and identifies ways to avoid these pitfalls. We first provide an introduction to weather data, including a summary of the types of datasets available, and then discuss five common pitfalls that empirical researchers should be aware of when using historical weather data as explanatory variables in econometric applications. We then provide a brief overview of climate models and discuss two common and significant errors often made by economists when climate model output is used to simulate the future impacts of climate change on an economic outcome of interest.

  16. Coupled Ethical-Epistemic Analysis of Climate Change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vezer, M.

    2015-12-01

    Are there inherent limitations to what we can know about how the climate will change in the years ahead? How can we use what is known about the future climate in a way that promotes ethical decision-making? These questions call for urgent attention because important policy decisions need to be made in order to prepare for climate change in North America and around the world. While the science of climate change is central to this line of inquiry, the fields of epistemology, moral, political and environmental philosophy may provide insights on how these issues should be addressed. Detailing the relationship between evidential and ethical dimensions of climate change, this research aims to improve our understanding of the interconnections among several lines of inquiry and to develop solutions to problems of decision-making under conditions of scientific uncertainty.

  17. The Costs of Climate Change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, Jason

    2018-03-01

    This research paper talks about the economic costs of climate change, as well as the costs involved in responding to climate change with alternative fuels. This paper seeks to show that climate change, although seemingly costly in the short run, will both save future generations trillions of dollars and serve as a good economic opportunity. Scientists have long argued that the fate of humanity depends on a shift towards renewable energy. However, this paper will make clear that there is also an economic struggle. By embracing alternative fuels, we will not only lessen the danger and the frequency of these natural disasters but also strengthen the world’s financial state. Although a common argument against responding to climate change is that it is too expensive to make the switch, this research shows that in the future, it will save millions of lives and trillions of dollars. The only question left for policymakers is whether they will grasp this energy source shift.

  18. Sustainable Water Resources for Communities under Climate Change: Can State-of-the-Art Forecasting Inform Decision-Making in Data Sparse Regions?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mayer, A.; Vivoni, E.; Halvorsen, K.; Robles-Morua, A.; Dana, K.; Che, D.; Mirchi, A.; Kossak, D.; Casteneda, M.

    2013-05-01

    In this project, we are studying decision-making for water resources management in anticipation of climate change in the Sonora River Basin, Mexico as a case study for the broader arid and semiarid southwestern North America. The goal of the proposed project is to determine whether water resources systems modeling, developed within a participatory framework, can contribute to the building of management strategies in a context of water scarcity, conflicting water uses and highly variable and changing climate conditions. The participatory modeling approach will be conducted through a series of three workshops, designed to encourage substantive participation from a broad range of actors, including representatives from federal and local government agencies, water use sectors, non-governmental organizations, and academics. Participants will guide the design of supply- and demand-side management strategies and selection of climate change and infrastructure management scenarios using state-of-the-art engineering tools. These tools include a water resources systems framework, a spatially-explicit hydrologic model, the use of forecasted climate scenarios under 21st century climate change, and observations obtained from field and satellite sensors. Through the theory of planned behavior, the participatory modeling process will be evaluated to understand if, and to what extent, the engineering tools are useful in the uncertain and politically-complex setting. Pre- and post-workshop surveys will be used in this evaluation. For this contribution, we present the results of the first collaborative modeling workshop that will be held in March 2013, where we will develop the initial modeling framework in collaboration with workshop participants.

  19. Climate Change Adaptation in the Water Sector

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ludwig, F.; Kabat, P.; Schaik, van H.; Valk, van der M.

    2009-01-01

    Today’s climate variability already has a large impact on water supply and protection. Millions of people are affected every year by droughts and floods. Future climate change is likely to make things worse. Many people within the water sector are aware that climate change is affecting water

  20. Multi-level governance in EU climate law

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vedder, Hans; Woerdman, Edwin; Roggenkamp, Martha; Holwerda, Marijn

    2015-01-01

    This chapter analyses the multi-level governance in EU climate law; it connects the international arena, with EU and national decision-making and relates climate change considerations to competitiveness concerns.

  1. Engaging farmers on climate risk through targeted integration of bio-economic modelling and seasonal climate forecasts

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nidumolu, U.B.; Lubbers, M.; Kanellopoulos, A.; Ittersum, van M.K.; Kadiyala, D.M.; Sreenivas, G.

    2016-01-01

    Seasonal climate forecasts (SCFs) can be used to identify appropriate risk management strategies and to reduce the sensitivity of rural industries and communities to climate risk. However, these forecasts have low utility among farmers in agricultural decision making, unless translated into a

  2. The economics of climate change and the change of climate in economics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marechal, Kevin

    2007-01-01

    Economics is an unavoidable decision-making tool in the field of climate policy. At the same time, traditional economics is being challenged both empirically and theoretically by scholars in different fields. Its non-neutrality in dealing with climate-related issues-which is illustrated by the controversy over the 'no-regret potential'-would thus call for an opening of economics to insights from other disciplines. Within that context, we show that an evolutionary-inspired line of thought coupled with a systemic and historical perspective of technological change provides a very insightful alternative to traditional economics. More particularly, it follows from that framework that the picture of the climate challenge ahead looks very different from what traditional economic analyses would suggest. For instance, the lock-in process makes it unlikely that traditional cost-efficient measures (such as carbon taxation or tradable emission rights) will be sufficient to bring about the required radical changes in the field of energy as they fail to address structural barriers highlighted in our approach

  3. Assessing the vulnerability of economic sectors to climate variability to improve the usability of seasonal to decadal climate forecasts in Europe - a preliminary concept

    Science.gov (United States)

    Funk, Daniel

    2015-04-01

    Climate variability poses major challenges for decision-makers in climate-sensitive sectors. Seasonal to decadal (S2D) forecasts provide potential value for management decisions especially in the context of climate change where information from present or past climatology loses significance. However, usable and decision-relevant tailored climate forecasts are still sparse for Europe and successful examples of application require elaborate and individual producer-user interaction. The assessment of sector-specific vulnerabilities to critical climate conditions at specific temporal scale will be a great step forward to increase the usability and efficiency of climate forecasts. A concept for a sector-specific vulnerability assessment (VA) to climate variability is presented. The focus of this VA is on the provision of usable vulnerability information which can be directly incorporated in decision-making processes. This is done by developing sector-specific climate-impact-decision-pathways and the identification of their specific time frames using data from both bottom-up and top-down approaches. The structure of common VA's for climate change related issues is adopted which envisages the determination of exposure, sensitivity and coping capacity. However, the application of the common vulnerability components within the context of climate service application poses some fundamental considerations: Exposure - the effect of climate events on the system of concern may be modified and delayed due to interconnected systems (e.g. catchment). The critical time-frame of a climate event or event sequence is dependent on system-internal thresholds and initial conditions. But also on decision-making processes which require specific lead times of climate information to initiate respective coping measures. Sensitivity - in organizational systems climate may pose only one of many factors relevant for decision making. The scope of "sensitivity" in this concept comprises both the

  4. Towards a climate-proof Netherlands. Summary routeplanner

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van Drunen, M.

    2007-03-01

    There is no doubt about it: the climate is changing and the effects are now tangible and predictable. Scientific research has shown that even if we make significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation), climate change cannot be prevented. Which is why we have to adapt to make the effects of the changing climate acceptable: the Netherlands must be made climate-proof. To stimulate climate-proofing, four ministries and the Climate changes Spatial Planning (CcSP), Living with Water (LmW) and Habiforum research programmes have established a National Programme on Adapting Spatial Planning to Climate Change (ARK). The core research questions examined by ARK are: What is the nature and scale of the observable and expected impacts of climate change for various themes and economic sectors?; What spatial issues do they raise?; How can we tackle these spatial issues?; What dilemmas (technical, administrative, economic, social) will we face when trying to resolve these issues? The Routeplanner is the scientific arm of ARK: the three research programmes, assisted by other research institutes, supply ARK with scientific information and insights on climate-proofing the spatial development of the Netherlands. This brochure summarises the outcome of phase 2 of Routeplanner, which took place in 2006. It consisted of a Climate-proofing Baseline Assessment, a review (Quickscan) of knowledge gaps, formulation of adaptation strategies, a qualitative assessment of adaptation options, a quantitative assessment of adaptation options and identification of case studies. This brochure answers the following questions, as far as current scientific understanding permits: How will climate change affect the Netherlands?; What are the consequences of climate change for the Netherlands?; What must be done?; When must we act?; What examples are there of climate-proof strategies?; What next? The main conclusion of the Routeplanner is that climate change can cause considerable damage in

  5. Climate Literacy and Adaptation Solutions for Society

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sohl, L. E.; Chandler, M. A.

    2011-12-01

    Many climate literacy programs and resources are targeted specifically at children and young adults, as part of the concerted effort to improve STEM education in the U.S. This work is extremely important in building a future society that is well prepared to adopt policies promoting climate change resilience. What these climate literacy efforts seldom do, however, is reach the older adult population that is making economic decisions right now (or not, as the case may be) on matters that can be impacted by climate change. The result is a lack of appreciation of "climate intelligence" - information that could be incorporated into the decision-making process, to maximize opportunities, minimize risk, and create a climate-resilient economy. A National Climate Service, akin to the National Weather Service, would help provide legitimacy to the need for climate intelligence, and would certainly also be the first stop for both governments and private sector concerns seeking climate information for operational purposes. However, broader collaboration between the scientific and business communities is also needed, so that they become co-creators of knowledge that is beneficial and informative to all. The stakeholder-driven research that is the focus of NOAA's RISA (Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments) projects is one example of how such collaborations can be developed.

  6. Climate Justice: A Constitutional Approach to Unify the Lex Specialis Principles of International Climate Law

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Teresa Thorp

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available Legal principles legitimise ubiquitous social values. They make certain social norms lawful and legitimate. Legal principles may act as governing vectors. They may give effect to a unified and legitimate constitutional framework insofar as a constitution unifies the fundamental principles on which a state or competent authority is governed.Concerning international climate law, however, there is a certain shortcoming. The failure to comprehend a unified constitutional framework of lex specialis principles could debilitate intra and inter-regime governance and lead to uncertainties. At one time, uncertainties incite the law-making process. At another time, they constrain it. Such a shortcoming may lead to inconsistencies in interpreting consequential climate norms. It may thwart dispute resolution and it may impede climate negotiations. To traverse this abyss, the inquiry uses instruments of legal philosophy (the philosophy of language, legal systematics (the study of legal systems, and legal hermeneutics (the legal practice of interpretation to delineate, distinguish and unify lex specialis principles that could form the foundations of a universal constitutional framework of international climate law. In doing so, it shows that climate justice is a function of the quality of the legal system.

  7. Building an ensemble of climate scenarios for decision-making in hydrology: benefits, pitfalls and uncertainties

    Science.gov (United States)

    Braun, Marco; Chaumont, Diane

    2013-04-01

    Using climate model output to explore climate change impacts on hydrology requires several considerations, choices and methods in the post treatment of the datasets. In the effort of producing a comprehensive data base of climate change scenarios for over 300 watersheds in the Canadian province of Québec, a selection of state of the art procedures were applied to an ensemble comprising 87 climate simulations. The climate data ensemble is based on global climate simulations from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project - Phase 3 (CMIP3) and regional climate simulations from the North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP) and operational simulations produced at Ouranos. Information on the response of hydrological systems to changing climate conditions can be derived by linking climate simulations with hydrological models. However, the direct use of raw climate model output variables as drivers for hydrological models is limited by issues such as spatial resolution and the calibration of hydro models with observations. Methods for downscaling and bias correcting the data are required to achieve seamless integration of climate simulations with hydro models. The effects on the results of four different approaches to data post processing were explored and compared. We present the lessons learned from building the largest data base yet for multiple stakeholders in the hydro power and water management sector in Québec putting an emphasis on the benefits and pitfalls in choosing simulations, extracting the data, performing bias corrections and documenting the results. A discussion of the sources and significance of uncertainties in the data will also be included. The climatological data base was subsequently used by the state owned hydro power company Hydro-Québec and the Centre d'expertise hydrique du Québec (CEHQ), the provincial water authority, to simulate future stream flows and analyse the impacts on hydrological indicators. While this

  8. Climatic architecture: Situation, principles, establishment of technical policies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brejon, P.

    1994-01-01

    Climatic architecture, despite the efforts of its protagonists, remains nearly marginal. Nevertheless, environmental awareness is gaining ground, whether through concern for the depletion of natural resources, for global warming or for CO 2 emissions. It is only by establishing technical policies, making an effort in terms of training and research and distributing knowledge to all those in the business that the principles of climatic architecture will actually be applied in the field. Resources are available to make climatic architecture a fundamental concern in the design of environmentally friendly buildings. (author). 6 refs, 3 tabs

  9. Measuring Campus Climate for Personal and Social Responsibility

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ryder, Andrew J.; Mitchell, Joshua J.

    2013-01-01

    Understanding institutional climate enhances decision-making capacity when planning new programs and improving learning environments on college campuses. This chapter defines climate, discusses the purpose and advantages of climate assessment, and identifies important factors to consider in planning and conducting a personal and social…

  10. Planning for Desperate Climate Intervention: can it Make Sense?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duncan, Robert

    2014-07-01

    The three National Academies of the United States, working together, authored a comprehensive report in 1992 titled: Policy Implications of Greenhouse Warming: Mitigation, Adaptation, and the Science Base. The authors discussed various possible methods of geoengineering to mitigate the adverse climate effects of the slow, steady buildup of greenhouse gasses in the Earth's atmosphere. Subsequently far less expensive, clever designs were developed by inventors such as Bill Gates and his collaborators, and these have been patented. Many of the techniques in this geoengineering proposition were commonly considered as methods of selectively polluting the upper atmosphere to block the solar luminosity, and hence they met with staunch resistance from the international scientific community. At the time, these geoengineering approaches were proposed as a method of countering the slow steady increase of the earth's temperature that was assumed to be a consequence of the increase in concentration of atmospheric molecules that contain carbon, such as CO2 and CH4. Such intentional intervention in a system as complex as the earth's atmosphere was considered by most scientists, including the authors, as reckless. Within this paper, we propose that the less expensive of these geoengineering plans be reconsidered, but that such a system never be deployed or tested at scale unless a genuine climate runaway condition arises in the future. The more economically compelling approaches should be further tested at the `lab bench' level, and in small laboratory-scale tests, and simulations. A comprehensive plan should be developed to manufacture the required materials at scale and to finalize the design of the necessary system, but no such deployment should be entered into at this time. The many risks of an intense, sudden release of greenhouse gasses, mainly methane and carbon dioxide from geologic sources, are reviewed briefly herein. We consider it only prudent to develop an economical

  11. Headlines: Planet Earth: Improving Climate Literacy with Short Format News Videos

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tenenbaum, L. F.; Kulikov, A.; Jackson, R.

    2012-12-01

    One of the challenges of communicating climate science is the sense that climate change is remote and unconnected to daily life--something that's happening to someone else or in the future. To help face this challenge, NASA's Global Climate Change website http://climate.nasa.gov has launched a new video series, "Headlines: Planet Earth," which focuses on current climate news events. This rapid-response video series uses 3D video visualization technology combined with real-time satellite data and images, to throw a spotlight on real-world events.. The "Headlines: Planet Earth" news video products will be deployed frequently, ensuring timeliness. NASA's Global Climate Change Website makes extensive use of interactive media, immersive visualizations, ground-based and remote images, narrated and time-lapse videos, time-series animations, and real-time scientific data, plus maps and user-friendly graphics that make the scientific content both accessible and engaging to the public. The site has also won two consecutive Webby Awards for Best Science Website. Connecting climate science to current real-world events will contribute to improving climate literacy by making climate science relevant to everyday life.

  12. Use of Climate Information for Decision-Making and Impacts Research: State of Our Understanding

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-03-01

    such as winds, clouds , and pressure levels throughout the atmosphere. Like global models, regional climate models (RCMs) continue to evolve, both by...flooding, and wildfires (Grimm et al. 2013). These and other ongoing changes in climate are expected to influence the spatial ranges occupied by species...West The climate of the Mountain West is heavily influenced by the presence of complex topography over a relatively large geographic area. The

  13. Climate change and the water cycle: A new southwest regional climate hub curriculum unit for 6th-12th grade students

    Science.gov (United States)

    As climate change intensifies, increased temperatures and altered precipitation will make water, a limited resource in the arid southwestern United States, even scarcer in many locations. The USDA Southwest Regional Climate Hub (SWRCH) developed Climate Change and the Water Cycle, an engaging and sc...

  14. Sectoral use of climate information in Europe: A synoptic overview

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marta Bruno Soares

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Society can benefit from usable climate information to better prepare and adapt to the risks and opportunities posed by climate variability and change. An adequate and effective provision of climate information – from historical observations through to seasonal forecasts, and multi-decadal climate change projections – is critical to inform planning and decision-making in climate-sensitive sectors. Central to this are the end-users of climate information and a growing emphasis on tailored climate information and services shaped by user needs. However, knowledge about the use of climate information across European economic sectors is limited. This paper identifies the spectrum of sectoral information requirements across a number of sectors including agriculture, forestry, energy, water, tourism, insurance, health, emergency services and transport sectors, drawing from an online survey (n = 462 and interviews with (potential users of climate information (n = 80. This analysis reveals shared opportunities across sectors including the potential application of decadal climate predictions. In addition, common barriers and enablers to the uptake of climate information were also noted including the format of the information provided, the need for compatibility with existing in-house systems, and the perceived credibility and trust of information providers. This analysis also points towards a perceived increasing fragmentation of available information and the desire amongst end-users for a European body able to centralise and coordinate climate data. We highlight some of the current factors that still need to be adequately addressed in order to enhance the uptake and application of climate information in decision-making across European economic sectors. Keywords: User needs, Climate information, Decision-making, Climate services, Europe

  15. Communicating climate information for decision-makingClimate Risk and Vulnerability: A Handbook for Southern Africa”

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Davis, C

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available The USAID-funded project presented here was designed to build capacity among the SADC member states in understanding information on climate impact and risk in the context of early-warning strategies and planning. The handbook was produced by a team...

  16. Making the link: climate policy and the reform of the UK construction industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sorrell, Steve

    2003-01-01

    This paper explores the barriers to energy efficiency in the construction of non-domestic buildings in the UK. The source of the barriers is argued to lie in the organisation of the construction industry, including the linear design process, the reliance on cost-based competitive tendering and the incentives placed upon different actors. The consequences include oversizing of equipment, reduced quality, neglect of whole life costs and lack of integrated design. Each of these problems can usefully be interpreted using concepts from the new institutional economics. While the barriers are well known to construction industry specialists, they are relatively neglected in the academic literature on energy policy. Furthermore, conventional policy measures such as building regulations leave these barriers largely untouched. The UK construction industry is currently undergoing a series of reforms which aim to change the relationship between different actors and to achieve improvements in product quality and productivity. While these reforms have the potential to address many of the barriers, the reform agenda makes practically no reference to sustainability. This paper argues that climate policy objectives must be integrated into the reform agenda if the UK is to begin the transition to a low carbon built environment

  17. That Special Something: Dennett on the Making of Minds and Selves

    OpenAIRE

    Clark, Andy

    2002-01-01

    Dennett depicts human minds as both deeply different from, yet profoundly continuous with, the minds of other animals and simple agents. His treatments of mind, consciousness, free will and human agency all reflect this distinctive dual perspective. There is, on the one hand, the (in)famous Intentional Stance, relative to which humans, dogs, insects and even the lowly thermostat (e.g. Dennett (1998) p.327) are all pronounced capable of believing and desiring in essentially the same theoret...

  18. Climate: some aspects of sceptical criticism

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Muller, Ch.

    2008-01-01

    The author discusses some reasons to be sceptical about the media-supported idea of an actual climate change, and more particularly about the critical role assigned to carbon dioxide in global warming, about the ability to make the distinction between natural and man-induced climate variations, about the quality of models and simulations, about the knowledge on climate physics, about the interpretation of the recently observed warming (since 1997)

  19. Climate Literacy: Climate.gov Follow-Up Evaluation—A Study of the Four NOAA Audiences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niepold, F., III; Sullivan, S. B.; Gold, A. U.; Lynds, S. E.; Kirk, K.

    2014-12-01

    NOAA Climate.gov provides science and information for a climate-smart nation. Americans' health, security, and economic well-being are closely linked to climate and weather. NOAA Climate.gov's goals are to promote public understanding of climate science and climate-related events, to make our data products and services easy to access and use, to support educators in improving the nations climate literacy, and to serve people making climate-related decisions with tools and resources that help them answer specific questions.The Climate.Gov Follow-Up Study of the four NOAA Audiences (climate interested public, educators, scientists, policy-makers) built upon the previous literature review and evaluation study conducted by Mooney and Phillips in 2010 and 2012, http://tinyurl.com/ma8vo83. The CIRES Education and Outreach team at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at University of Colorado at Boulder and the NOAA Climate.gov team will present results of the new study that used the Quality of Relationship index (awareness, trust, satisfaction, usability, and control mutuality). This index was developed in the previous study and places a new emphasis on the experience of individual users from the four audiences in their regular work or home setting. This new evaluation project used mixed methods, including an online survey, usability studies, phone interviews, and web statistics, providing multiple lines of evidence from which to draw conclusion and recommendations.In the session, we will explore how the NOAA Climate.gov teams used the literature review and new CIRES research to address underlying challenges to achieving the portal's goals. The research in these studies finds that people seek information in ways that are complex and that they do so by consulting a vast array of technologies. Improved and different modes of access to information have, throughout history, been led by technological innovation, but human behavior tends to be

  20. Mainstreaming Climate Change: Recent and Ongoing Efforts to Understand, Improve, and Expand Consideration of Climate Change in Federal Water Resources Planning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferguson, I. M.; McGuire, M.; Broman, D.; Gangopadhyay, S.

    2017-12-01

    The Bureau of Reclamation is a Federal agency tasked with developing and managing water supply and hydropower projects in the Western U.S. Climate and hydrologic variability and change significantly impact management actions and outcomes across Reclamation's programs and initiatives, including water resource planning and operations, infrastructure design and maintenance, hydropower generation, and ecosystem restoration, among others. Planning, design, and implementation of these programs therefore requires consideration of future climate and hydrologic conditions will impact program objectives. Over the past decade, Reclamation and other Federal agencies have adopted new guidelines, directives, and mandates that require consideration of climate change in water resources planning and decision making. Meanwhile, the scientific community has developed a large number of climate projections, along with an array of models, methods, and tools to facilitate consideration of climate projections in planning and decision making. However, water resources engineers, planners, and decision makers continue to face challenges regarding how best to use the available data and tools to support major decisions, including decisions regarding infrastructure investments and long-term operating criteria. This presentation will discuss recent and ongoing research towards understanding, improving, and expanding consideration of climate projections and related uncertainties in Federal water resources planning and decision making. These research efforts address a variety of challenges, including: How to choose between available climate projection datasets and related methods, models, and tools—many of which are considered experimental or research tools? How to select an appropriate decision framework when design or operating alternatives may differ between climate scenarios? How to effectively communicate results of a climate impacts analysis to decision makers? And, how to improve

  1. Climate change, responsibility, and justice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jamieson, Dale

    2010-09-01

    In this paper I make the following claims. In order to see anthropogenic climate change as clearly involving moral wrongs and global injustices, we will have to revise some central concepts in these domains. Moreover, climate change threatens another value ("respect for nature") that cannot easily be taken up by concerns of global justice or moral responsibility.

  2. Tackling Weather and Climate Change Creatively in Science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dale, Murray

    2013-01-01

    In this article, the author offers some practical support for teaching about weather, climate and climate change. In England, weather and climate are traditionally taught within the geography curriculum, although it is actually a very scientific subject, involving skills such as making careful observations and measurements, interpreting data…

  3. Seasonal and decadal information towards climate services: EUPORIAS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buontempo, Carlo; Hewitt, Chris

    2013-04-01

    Societies have always faced challenges and opportunities arising from variations in climate, and have often flourished or collapsed depending on their ability to adapt to such changes. Recent advances in our understanding and ability to forecast climate variability and climate change have meant that skilful predictions are beginning to be routinely made on seasonal to decadal (s2d) timescales. Such forecasts have the potential to be of great value to a wide range of decision-making, where outcomes are strongly influenced by variations in the climate. The European Commission have recently commissioned a major four year long project (EUPORIAS) to develop prototype end-to-end climate impact prediction services operating on a seasonal to decadal timescale, and assess their value in informing decision-making. EUPORIAS commenced on 1 November 2012, coordinated by the UK Met Office leading a consortium of 24 organisations representing world-class European climate research and climate service centres, expertise in impacts assessments and seasonal predictions, two United Nations agencies, specialists in new media, and commercial companies in climate-vulnerable sectors such as energy, water and tourism. The paper describes the setup of the project, its main outcome and some of the very preliminary results.

  4. Combating Climate Change with Energy Efficiency - How to Make It Work

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bukarica, V.

    2016-01-01

    COP21 agreement raised the awareness of the widest international community on an urgent need to act and deliver results that would mitigate adverse consequences of climate change. Energy efficiency is once again declared as the most readily available, rapid and cost-effective way to achieve desired greenhouse gases reductions. However, although significant efforts are made worldwide to put sound energy efficiency policies in place, the desired results in terms of saved kWh, and consequently in terms of reduced tonnes of CO2 emitted, are missing. The paper investigates and explains the reasons behind this energy efficiency policy failure, known as energy efficiency gap, by using examples from current energy efficiency and other policies in Croatia. The first reason is in the lack of understanding of energy efficiency market, the analysis of which needs to be a starting point in policy making. Selection of policy instruments needs to be based on feedback from those that are actually intended to implement them, i.e. participatory approach needs to be mainstreamed in policy making as it will reveal the reality of the implementing environment (existing attitudes, experienced brakes and desired levers). Secondly, there is generally insufficient knowledge about policy instruments impacts (both potential and achieved). Evaluation of expected impacts of a certain policy instrument needs to be realistic taking into account time needed for target group to fully adopt the instrument and utilise it to the highest level envisaged by the policy. And the last, reason for energy efficiency policy failure is to be found in continuously neglecting benefits of improved energy efficiency beyond energy savings. Energy efficiency requires genuine not declarative commitment that will integrate it in all other policy spheres. It is essential to start treating energy efficiency not as an end (i.e. as a policy for itself), but as a means to achieve multiple social, economic and environmental

  5. Climate change and climate policy; Klimaendringer og klimapolitikk

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Alfsen, Knut H.; Kolshus, Hans H.; Torvanger, Asbjoern

    2000-08-01

    The climate issue is a great political and scientific challenge for several reasons: (1) There are many uncertain aspects of the climate problem, such as future emission of climate gases, the response of the climate system upon these gases, and the effects of climate changes. (2) It is probable, however, that anthropogenic emission of climate gases, deforestation etc. will cause noticeable climate changes in the future. This might be observed as increased frequency of extreme weather situations. This appears to be a greater threat than a gradual increase of temperature and precipitation. (3) Since the climate system is large and react only relatively slowly on changes in for instance the emission of climate gases, the climate problem can only be solved by means of long-term measures. (4) The climate changes may be irreversible. A rational short-term strategy is to ensure maximum flexibility, which can be done by ''slowing down'' (curtailing emissions) and by avoiding irreversible actions as much as possible. The long-term challenge is to develop an economically responsible alternative to the present fossil-based energy system that permits carbon-efficient technologies to compete on price with coal and unconventional oil and gas. Norway is in a special position by being a large exporter of fossil fuel and at the same time wanting to appear responsible in environmental matters. This combination may incur considerable expenses upon Norway and it is therefore important that environmental commitments like the Kyoto agreement can be honoured to the lowest possible cost. The costs can be minimized by: (1) minimizing the measure costs in Norway, (2) working to make the international quota price as low as possible, and (3) reducing the loss of petroleum income as much as possible. This report describes the earth's climate history, the forces behind climatic changes and what the prospects for the future look like. It also reviews what is being done

  6. Forest Policies Addressing Climate Change in China

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    2010-01-01

    As a developing country with a large population and a fragile ecological environment, China is particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. Beginning with the Rio Conference of 1992 China has played a progressively enhanced role in combating climate change. A series of policies and measures to address climate change have been taken in the overall context of national sustainable development strategy, making positive contributions to the mitigation and adaptation to climate change, among ...

  7. Climate Resiliency Planning: Making Extreme Event Science Useful for Managers and Planners in Northern Nevada

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCarthy, M.; Kenneston, A.; Wall, T. U.; Brown, T. J.; Redmond, K. T.

    2014-12-01

    Effective climate resiliency planning at the regional level requires extensive interactive dialogue among climate scientists, emergency managers, public health officials, urban planners, social scientists, and policy makers. Engaging federal, tribal, state, local governments and private sector business and infrastructure owners/operators in defining, assessing and characterizing the impacts of extreme events allows communities to understand how different events "break the system" forcing local communities to seek support and resources from state/federal governments and/or the private sector and what actions can be taken proactively to mitigate consequences and accelerate recovery. The Washoe County Regional Resiliency Study was prepared in response to potential climate variability related impacts specific to the Northern Nevada Region. The last several decades have seen dramatic growth in the region, coupled with increased resource demands that have forced local governments to consider how those impacts will affect the region and may, in turn, impact the region's ability to provide essential services. The Western Regional Climate Center of the Desert Research Institute provided a synthesis of climate studies with predictions regarding plausible changes in the local climate of Northern California and Nevada for the next 50 years. In general, these predictions indicate that the region's climate is undergoing a gradual shift, which will primarily affect the frequency, amount, and form of precipitation in the Sierra Nevada and Great Basin. Changes in water availability and other extreme events may have serious and long lasting effects in the Northern Nevada Region, and create a variety of social, environmental and economic concerns. A range of extreme events were considered including Adverse Air Quality, Droughts, Floods, Heat Waves, High Wind, Structure Fires, Wildland Fires, and Major Winter Storms. Due to the complexity of our climate systems, and the difficulty in

  8. Climate finance, climate investors and assets for low emission development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Collins C Ngwakwe

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available This research examines the relationship between climate finance, growth in climate investors and growth in climate assets for low emission development. It also evaluates the effect of climate policy evolution on the growth of climate investors and climate assets. Adopting a positivist paradigm, the paper makes use of a quantitative research approach and applies the causal and correlational research design. The paper made use of secondary data from the World Bank Carbon Finance Unit and from the Carbon Disclosure Project (ADP. The major objective was to examine the combined effect of climate finance and climate policy on the growth of carbon investors and carbon assets for the companies in the Carbon Disclosure Project which includes the 100 JSE companies. Findings from the test reveal that the combined effect of growth in climate finance and climate policy evolution has a significant relationship with growth in climate investors and climate assets. Given this result the paper proceeded to examine if the growth in climate finance has any correlation with South Africa’s emission reduction trend. Results however indicate that South Africa’s GHG emission trend does not correlate with climate finance availability; GHG emissions in South Africa have continued to soar despite a seeming growth in climate finance. The paper reasoned that the global climate finance might not be effectively available to corporates in South Africa at the expected level of financing to initiate the expected level of climate investment to effect a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. This confirms literature assertions that global climate finance might not easily be accessible, at least to entities in developing countries. In conclusion, the paper suggests the establishment of a Southern African Climate Finance pool where the public and private sector can contribute and that such pool should be made easily available to carbon investors at a cheap rate with

  9. Improving Climate Projections Using "Intelligent" Ensembles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baker, Noel C.; Taylor, Patrick C.

    2015-01-01

    Recent changes in the climate system have led to growing concern, especially in communities which are highly vulnerable to resource shortages and weather extremes. There is an urgent need for better climate information to develop solutions and strategies for adapting to a changing climate. Climate models provide excellent tools for studying the current state of climate and making future projections. However, these models are subject to biases created by structural uncertainties. Performance metrics-or the systematic determination of model biases-succinctly quantify aspects of climate model behavior. Efforts to standardize climate model experiments and collect simulation data-such as the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP)-provide the means to directly compare and assess model performance. Performance metrics have been used to show that some models reproduce present-day climate better than others. Simulation data from multiple models are often used to add value to projections by creating a consensus projection from the model ensemble, in which each model is given an equal weight. It has been shown that the ensemble mean generally outperforms any single model. It is possible to use unequal weights to produce ensemble means, in which models are weighted based on performance (called "intelligent" ensembles). Can performance metrics be used to improve climate projections? Previous work introduced a framework for comparing the utility of model performance metrics, showing that the best metrics are related to the variance of top-of-atmosphere outgoing longwave radiation. These metrics improve present-day climate simulations of Earth's energy budget using the "intelligent" ensemble method. The current project identifies several approaches for testing whether performance metrics can be applied to future simulations to create "intelligent" ensemble-mean climate projections. It is shown that certain performance metrics test key climate processes in the models, and

  10. Climate-conscious architecture. Design and wind testing method for climates in change

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kuismanen, K.

    2008-07-01

    The main objective of this research was to develop practical tools with which it is possible to improve the environment, micro-climate and energy economy of buildings and plans in different climate zones, and take the climate change into account. The parts of the study are: State of art study into existing know-how about climate and planning. Study of the effects of climate change on the built environment. Development of simple micro-climate, nature and built environment analysis methods. Defining the criteria of an acceptable micro-climatic environment. Development of the wind test blower. Presenting ways to interpret test results and draw conclusions. Development of planning and design guidelines for different climate zones. An important part of the research is the development of the CASE wind test instrument, different wind simulation techniques, and the methods of observing the results. Bioclimatic planning and architectural design guidelines for different climate zones are produced. The analyse tools developed give a qualitative overall view, which can be deepened towards a quantitative analyse with wind testing measurements and roughness calculations. No mechanical rules are suggested, but complementary viewpoints and practices introduced to a normal planning process as well as improvement of consultative knowledge. The 'method' is that there is no strict mechanical method, but a deeper understanding of bioclimatic matters. Climate-conscious planning with the developed CASE method, make it possible to design a better micro-climate for new or old built-up areas. Winds can be used in to ventilate exhaust fumes and other pollutants, which improves the quality of air and the healthiness of the urban environment. The analyses and scale-model tests make it possible to shield cold windy areas and to diminish the cooling effect of wind on facades. According to studies in Scandinavian countries this will bring energy savings of 5-15 per cent. The method can

  11. The Social Impact of Climate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hsiang, S. M.

    2013-12-01

    Managing climate change requires that we understand the social value of climate-related decisions. Rational decision-making demands that we weigh the potential benefits of climate-related investments against their costs. To date, it has been challenging to quantify the relative social benefit of living under different climatic conditions, so policy debates tend to focus on investment costs without considering their benefits. Here I will discuss challenges and advances in the measurement of climate's impact on society. By linking data and methods across physical and social sciences, we are beginning to understand when, where, and how climatic conditions have a causal impact on human wellbeing. I will present examples from this burgeoning interdisciplinary field that quantify the effect of temperature on macroeconomic performance, the effects of climate on human conflict, and the long-term health and economic impact of tropical cyclones. Each of these examples provide new insight into previously unknown benefits of various climate management strategies. I conclude by describing new efforts to systematically gather and compare findings from across the research community to support informed and rational climate management decisions.

  12. Undergraduate Climate Education: Motivations, Strategies, Successes, and Support

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kirk, Karin B.; Gold, Anne U.; Ledley, Tamara Shapiro; Sullivan, Susan Buhr; Manduca, Cathryn A.; Mogk, David W.; Wiese, Katryn

    2014-01-01

    Climate literacy is an essential component of a strategy to comprehend and confront the grand challenge of global climate change. However, scientific complexity, societal implications, and political associations make climate change a difficult but important topic to teach. In this paper we report on the results of a survey of undergraduate faculty…

  13. Talking About Climate: a simple tool for everyday climate conversations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Twedt, J. R.; White, R. H.; Tigchelaar, M.; Doroschak, K.; Buchanan, R.; Lundquist, D.

    2017-12-01

    Public opinion research from the Yale Climate Opinion Maps shows that more than half of Americans are worried about climate change, yet over 70% of Americans rarely or never discuss it with friends or family. Sociologist Kari Marie Norgaard has written about climate denial and how the subject of climate change kills conversation in her interviews, even among people who feel concerned. At the same time, news reporting on climate is often dense with information or scientific nuance and fails to make people feel personally invested in this global issue. This is problematic, because a fair and civil response to our climate crisis will require not only the personal commitment of many, but also collaborative public discourse. For these reasons, we have developed an app that aims to foster meaningful conversation about climate change. The app draws on a database we constructed of historic climate events and relates these events to people's own lives and experiences. Our database is broad and growing, and includes climate change facts, landmark cases in environmental law, social achievements such as the IPCC earning the Nobel Peace Prize, and the personal account from a 12-year old's blog post about FEMA relocation after Hurricane Katrina. Events are stated in plain language and accompanied by open-ended questions to spark discussion. The goal of ClimateConversations is not to inform or persuade, but to support reflective, open-ended conversation, to encourage personal storytelling about climate-related events, and to foster generative dialogue on an issue that all too often causes discomfort and social division. Here we present the climate science, social science, software, and design considerations that went into developing this app. We will also present early quantitative and qualitative metrics of it's use and effectiveness both in classroom and community settings.

  14. Responsibility and climate change

    OpenAIRE

    Jamieson, Dale

    2015-01-01

    Ibegin by providing some background to conceptions of responsibility. I note the extent of disagreement in this area, the diverse and cross-cutting distinctions that are deployed, and the relative neglect of some important problems. These facts make it difficult to attribute responsibility for climate change, but so do some features of climate change itself which I go on to illuminate. Attributions of responsibility are often contested sites because such attributions are fundamentally pragmat...

  15. Climate politics in the Lower Mekong Basin. National interests and transboundary cooperation on climate change

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Baadsgaard Lange, R.; Moerck Jensen, K.

    2013-09-01

    Climate change is expected to intensify water security concerns in international river basins. UNFCCC and DAC-donors have been important generators of political attention to the climate agenda among governments in the Mekong Basin in relation to regional cooperation, national policy-making and capacity building. However, the formal commitment to climate action is not necessarily reflected in the everyday business of development. In this paper we use a political economy approach to understand when and how climate change becomes a political priority for the governments of Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, and for transboundary cooperation. Uneven distribution of climate hazards and vulnerabilities create different national risk perceptions and commitment to climate action. Donor funding and national development strategies are also strong drivers of climate action and inaction. Climate change is sometimes used as a scapegoat for domestic policy failures and as a tool to acquire donor funding. We recommend prioritizing climate action in the context of immediate development challenges and 'no regrets' interventions that are likely to enhance adaptive capacity and governments' commitment. (Author)

  16. Global vs climate change

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Watson, H.L.; Bach, M.C.; Goklany, I.M.

    1991-01-01

    The various agents of global change that will affect the state of natural resources 50-100 years from now are discussed. These include economic and population growth, technological progress, and climatic change. The importance of climatic change lies in its effects on natural resources and on human activities that depend on those resources. Other factors affecting those resources include the demand on those resources from an increasing population and from a growing economy, and a more efficient use of those resources that comes from technological changes and from the consequences of economic growth itself. It is shown that there is a considerable ability to adapt to climatic change, since humans already have an intrinsic ability to adapt to the wide variations in climates that already exist and since technological developments can make it easier to cope with climatic variability. It appears that agents other than climatic change are more significant to the future state of natural resources than climatic change. Criteria for selecting options for addressing climatic change are outlined. Technological change and economic growth are seen to be key response options, since the vulnerability to climatic change depends on economic resources and technological progress. Specific options to stimulate sustainable economic growth and technological progress are listed. 16 refs., 1 fig., 2 tabs

  17. Mapping climate change in European temperature distributions

    OpenAIRE

    Stainforth, David A.; Chapman, Sandra C.; Watkins, Nicholas W.

    2014-01-01

    Climate change poses challenges for decision makers across society, not just in preparing for the climate of the future but even when planning for the climate of the present day. When making climate sensitive decisions, policy makers and adaptation planners would benefit from information on local scales and for user-specific quantiles (e.g. the hottest/coldest 5% of days) and thresholds (e.g. days above 28 ° C), not just mean changes. Here, we translate observations of weather into observatio...

  18. Mapping climate change in European temperature distributions

    OpenAIRE

    Stainforth, David A; Chapman, Sandra C; Watkins, Nicholas W

    2013-01-01

    Climate change poses challenges for decision makers across society, not just in preparing for the climate of the future but even when planning for the climate of the present day. When making climate sensitive decisions, policy makers and adaptation planners would benefit from information on local scales and for user-specific quantiles (e.g. the hottest/coldest 5% of days) and thresholds (e.g. days above 28 ° C), not just mean changes. Here, we translate observations of weather into observatio...

  19. Cosmic rays, clouds and climate

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Svensmark, Henrik [Danish Space Research Institute, Juliane Maries Vej 30, DK-2100 Copenhagen (Denmark)

    2007-07-01

    Changes in the intensity of galactic cosmic rays seems alter the Earth's cloudiness. A recent experiment has shown how electrons liberated by cosmic rays assist in making aerosols, the building blocks of cloud condensation nuclei, while anomalous climatic trends in Antarctica confirm the role of clouds in helping to drive climate change. Variations in the cosmic-ray influx due to solar magnetic activity account well for climatic fluctuations on decadal, centennial and millennial timescales. Over longer intervals, the changing galactic environment of the Solar System has had dramatic consequences, including Snowball Earth episodes.

  20. Global Climate Change as Environmental Megacrisis

    OpenAIRE

    Endter-Wada, Joanna; Ingram, Helen

    2012-01-01

    The authors analyze global climate change utilizing insights from the governance and crisis management literatures that seek to understand the prospects, nature, characteristics and the effects of cataclysmic events. They argue that global climate change is a mega-crisis hiding in plain sight yet there has been no proportionate mega-crisis response. People are still grappling with how to make sense of climate change, how to bridge multiple ways of knowing it, and how to negotiate collective c...

  1. Improving Decision-Making Activities for Meningitis and Malaria

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ceccato, P.; Trzaska, S.; Perez, C.; Kalashnikova, O. V.; del Corral, J.; Cousin, R.; Blumenthal, M. B.; Connor, S.; Thomson, M. C.

    2012-12-01

    Public health professionals are increasingly concerned about the potential impact that climate variability and change can have on infectious disease. The International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) is developing new products to increase the public health community's capacity to understand, use, and demand the appropriate climate data and climate information to mitigate the public health impacts of climate on infectious disease, in particular Meningitis and Malaria. In this paper we present the new and improved products that have been developed for monitoring dust, temperature, rainfall and vectorial capacity model for monitoring and forecasting risks of Meningitis and Malaria epidemics. We also present how the products have been integrated into a knowledge system (IRI Data Library Map room, SERVIR) to support the use of climate and environmental information in climate-sensitive health decision-making.

  2. The Europeanization of German energy and climate policies. New forms of policy-making and EU multi-level-governance; Die Europaeisierung der deutschen Energie- und Klimapolitik. Neue Formen der Politikgestaltung und Steuerung im EU-Mehrebenensystem

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fischer, Severin

    2015-01-23

    The Energy Transition (''Energiewende'') is one of the hot topics of the political debate in Germany for some years. As a consequence of ongoing European integration, EU level politics have gained growing importance. The focus of this study is on the interaction of German and EU energy and climate policies. How have German actors influenced EU policy-making processes and in how far are EU policies relevant for national policy-making in Germany? Three case studies look at processes in the fields of electricity market regulation, renewable energy policy and climate protection between 2007 and 2013.

  3. The Role of Science in Advising the Decision Making Process: A Pathway for Building Effective Climate Change Mitigation Policies in Mexico at the Local Level.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barraza, Roberto; Velazquez-Angulo, Gilberto; Flores-Tavizón, Edith; Romero-González, Jaime; Huertas-Cardozo, José Ignacio

    2016-04-27

    This study examines a pathway for building urban climate change mitigation policies by presenting a multi-dimensional and transdisciplinary approach in which technical, economic, environmental, social, and political dimensions interact. Now, more than ever, the gap between science and policymaking needs to be bridged; this will enable judicious choices to be made in regarding energy and climate change mitigation strategies, leading to positive social impacts, in particular for the populations at-risk at the local level. Through a case study in Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, we propose a multidimensional and transdisciplinary approach with the role of scientist as policy advisers to improve the role of science in decision-making on mitigation policies at the local level in Mexico.

  4. Climate policy to defeat the green paradox.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fölster, Stefan; Nyström, Johan

    2010-05-01

    Carbon dioxide emissions have accelerated since the signing of the Kyoto Protocol. This discouraging development may partly be blamed on accelerating world growth and on lags in policy instruments. However, it also raises serious question concerning whether policies to reduce CO2 emissions are as effective as generally assumed. In recent years, a considerable number of studies have identified various feedback mechanisms of climate policies that often erode, and occasionally reinforce, their effectiveness. These studies generally focus on a few feedback mechanisms at a time, without capturing the entire effect. Partial accounting of policy feedbacks is common in many climate scenarios. The IPCC, for example, only accounts for direct leakage and rebound effects. This article attempts to map the aggregate effects of different types of climate policy feedback mechanisms in a cohesive framework. Controlling feedback effects is essential if the policy measures are to make any difference on a global level. A general conclusion is that aggregate policy feedback mechanisms tend to make current climate policies much less effective than is generally assumed. In fact, various policy measures involve a definite risk of 'backfiring' and actually increasing CO2 emissions. This risk is particularly pronounced once effects of climate policies on the pace of innovation in climate technology are considered. To stand any chance of controlling carbon emissions, it is imperative that feedback mechanisms are integrated into emission scenarios, targets for emission reduction and implementation of climate policy. In many cases, this will reduce the scope for subsidies to renewable energy sources, but increase the scope for other measures such as schemes to return carbon dioxide to the ground and to mitigate emissions of greenhouse gases from wetlands and oceans. A framework that incorporates policy feedback effects necessitates rethinking the design of the national and regional emission

  5. The Data Platform for Climate Research and Action: Introducing Climate Watch

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hennig, R. J.; Ge, M.; Friedrich, J.; Lebling, K.; Carlock, G.; Arcipowska, A.; Mangan, E.; Biru, H.; Tankou, A.; Chaudhury, M.

    2017-12-01

    The Paris Agreement, adopted through Decision 1/CP.21, brings all nations together to take on ambitious efforts to combat climate change. Open access to climate data supporting climate research, advancing knowledge, and informing decision making is key to encourage and strengthen efforts of stakeholders at all levels to address and respond to effects of climate change. Climate Watch is a robust online data platform developed in response to the urgent needs of knowledge and tools to empower climate research and action, including those of researchers, policy makers, the private sector, civil society, and all other non-state actors. Building on the rapid growing technology of open data and information sharing, Climate Watch is equipped with extensive amount of climate data, informative visualizations, concise yet efficient user interface, and connection to resources users need to gather insightful information on national and global progress towards delivering on the objective of the Convention and the Paris Agreement. Climate Watch brings together hundreds of quantitative and qualitative indicators for easy explore, visualize, compare, download at global, national, and sectoral levels: Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for more than 190 countries over the1850-2014 time period, covering all seven Kyoto Gases following IPCC source/sink categories; Structured information on over 150 NDCs facilitating the clarity, understanding and transparency of countries' contributions to address climate change; Over 6500 identified linkages between climate actions in NDCs across the 169 targets of the sustainable development goals (SDG); Over 200 indicators describing low carbon pathways from models and scenarios by integrated assessment models (IAMs) and national sources; and Data on vulnerability and risk, policies, finance, and many more. Climate Watch platform is developed as part of the broader efforts within the World Resources Institute, the NDC Partnership, and in collaboration

  6. Making workplaces safer: The influence of organisational climate and individual differences on safety behaviour

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michelle Ann Toppazzini

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Current work health and safety practices focus predominately on fostering a safety climate to promote safety behaviours and reduce workplace accidents. Despite the importance of safety climates in accident prevention, recent research has demonstrated that individual factors can also predict work safety behaviour. This study considered the importance of organisational climate together with individual characteristics including differences in personality, impulsiveness, and perceptions of safety within the workplace on safety behaviour. 203 participants consisting of 67 males and 136 females aged 18 to 71 years, completed an online questionnaire. Results revealed that safety behaviour was directly related to safety climate, and conscientiousness. In contrast, neuroticism, and impulsiveness were not significantly related to safety behaviour. The present study findings support previous findings in the literature regarding the importance of safety climate as well as the personality trait of conscientiousness in applying safety behaviours. However, the present study findings did not support previous research in relation to the personality trait of high neuroticism resulting in decreased safety behaviour, nor did not confirm an inverse relationship between high impulsivity and low safety behaviour as theoretical models would suggest. This new finding may warrant further research into the precursors for safety behaviour. Keywords: Psychology, Sociology, Industry

  7. Challenges and solutions for climate change

    CERN Document Server

    Gaast, Wytze

    2012-01-01

    The latest scientific knowledge on climate change indicates that higher greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere through unchecked emissions will provoke severe climate change and ocean acidification threatening environmental structures on which humanity relies. Climate change therefore poses major socio-economic, technical and environmental challenges which will have serious impacts on countries’ pathways towards sustainable development. As a result, climate change and sustainable development have increasingly become interlinked. A changing climate makes achieving Millennium Development Goals more difficult and expensive, so there is every reason to achieve development goals with low greenhouse gas emissions. This leads to the following five challenges discussed by Challenges and Solutions for Climate Change: To place climate negotiations in the wider context of sustainability, equity and social change so that development benefits can be maximised at the same time as decreasing greenhouse gas emissi...

  8. Climate of the Nation. Australians Attitudes to Climate Change and its Solutions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    CLIMATE OF THE NATION AUSTRALIANS ATTITUDES TO CLIMATE CHANGE AND ITS SOLUTIONS

    2007-03-01

    It comes as no surprise that concern about climate change is at an all time high and the vast majority of people no longer doubt that it is real or that it is caused by greenhouse gases created by human activity. Not only is concern at an all time high, but climate change now ranks as more important to people than a wide range of issues including housing affordability and national security. While many people are still unfamiliar with the more detailed science of climate change, this does not detract from their passion to deal with it. Focus group research shows that people see climate change and weather as interchangeable. As such, drought, water supply and management, and climate change are often linked in the minds of the general public. This is backed up by quantitative polling which has water management and climate change topping people's concerns. A common theme in the research is that people are looking for leadership. They accept there may be a price to pay and they are hungry for decisive action.They are also keen to know more about the problem, and importantly they want to be able to take action which will make a real difference. Support for clean energy solutions like solar and wind is very strong and there is a view that Australia's abundant sunshine is not being put to good use. People also feel strongly about cutting energy waste. Themes that emerged strongly through the research were: growing understanding that climate change is already happening; particular concern about water resources and the impact of water restrictions; a view that Australia should lead and is not yet doing so; concern about our children's future (both jobs and environment). People expressed very strong support for a future in which our children are protected from the worst impacts of climate change and are able to be involved in a new economy built around renewable energy sources. Climate change as an issue is a mixture of economic (including households) management and

  9. Policy challenges for wildlife management in a changing climate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mark L. Shaffer

    2014-01-01

    Try as it might, wildlife management cannot make wild living things adapt to climate change. Management can, however, make adaptation more or less likely. Given that policy is a rule set for action, policy will play a critical role in society’s efforts to help wildlife cope with the challenge of climate change. To be effective, policy must provide clear goals and be...

  10. Climate: a planet and men: what human influence on climate warming?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Orsenna, E.; Petit, M.; Chabreuil, A. and others

    2011-01-01

    The authors, all members of the 'Argonauts club', have decided with other scientists, to write this book in order to allow the reader to make his own opinion about the influence of human activities on global warming. The book presents and supplies precise answers to the questions about the climate machine and its complex mechanisms according to the present day state of scientific knowledge. It takes stock of the actual climate situation and of the overall possible means at our disposal to limit the extent of the harmful anthropic impact. (J.S.)

  11. Health Aspects of Climate Change in Cities with Mediterranean Climate, and Local Adaptation Plans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paz, Shlomit; Negev, Maya; Clermont, Alexandra; Green, Manfred S

    2016-04-21

    Cities with a Mediterranean-type climate (Med-cities) are particularly susceptible to health risks from climate change since they are located in biogeographical hot-spots that experience some of the strongest effects of the changing climate. The study aims to highlight health impacts of climate change in Med-cities, analyze local climate adaptation plans and make adaptation policy recommendations for the Med-city level. We identified five Med-cities with a climate change adaptation plan: Adelaide, Barcelona, Cape Town, Los Angeles and Santiago. Beyond their similar Med-climate features (although Santiago's are slightly different), the cities have different socio-economic characteristics in various aspects. We analyzed each plan according to how it addresses climate change-related drivers of health impacts among city dwellers. For each driver, we identified the types of policy adaptation tools that address it in the urban climate adaptation plans. The surveyed cities address most of the fundamental climate change-related drivers of risks to human health, including rising temperatures, flooding and drought, but the policy measures to reduce negative impacts vary across cities. We suggest recommendations for Med-cities in various aspects, depending on their local needs and vulnerability challenges: assessment of health risks, extreme events management and long-term adaptation, among others.

  12. Making decisions based on an imperfect ensemble of climate simulators: strategies and future directions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanderson, B. M.

    2017-12-01

    The CMIP ensembles represent the most comprehensive source of information available to decision-makers for climate adaptation, yet it is clear that there are fundamental limitations in our ability to treat the ensemble as an unbiased sample of possible future climate trajectories. There is considerable evidence that models are not independent, and increasing complexity and resolution combined with computational constraints prevent a thorough exploration of parametric uncertainty or internal variability. Although more data than ever is available for calibration, the optimization of each model is influenced by institutional priorities, historical precedent and available resources. The resulting ensemble thus represents a miscellany of climate simulators which defy traditional statistical interpretation. Models are in some cases interdependent, but are sufficiently complex that the degree of interdependency is conditional on the application. Configurations have been updated using available observations to some degree, but not in a consistent or easily identifiable fashion. This means that the ensemble cannot be viewed as a true posterior distribution updated by available data, but nor can observational data alone be used to assess individual model likelihood. We assess recent literature for combining projections from an imperfect ensemble of climate simulators. Beginning with our published methodology for addressing model interdependency and skill in the weighting scheme for the 4th US National Climate Assessment, we consider strategies for incorporating process-based constraints on future response, perturbed parameter experiments and multi-model output into an integrated framework. We focus on a number of guiding questions: Is the traditional framework of confidence in projections inferred from model agreement leading to biased or misleading conclusions? Can the benefits of upweighting skillful models be reconciled with the increased risk of truth lying outside the

  13. The climate: Earth and men

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Poitou, Jean; Braconnot, Pascale; Masson-Delmotte, Valerie

    2015-01-01

    In this book, the authors first present the climate system as it operates under the influence of the atmosphere and oceans: Earth heated by the Sun, temperatures and movements within the atmosphere, surface and deep circulation in the oceans, exchanges between the atmosphere and the oceans. They present the various actors of climate and their interactions: water cycle, carbon cycle, greenhouse effect, clouds, aerosols, ocean, cryosphere-climate interaction, interaction between continental biosphere and climate, interactions between climate, continents and lithosphere, feedbacks and climate sensitivity. They comment the variety of climates and their variability when considered on a large scale (role of the Sun, ocean-atmosphere oscillations in El Nino and La Nina, North Atlantic oscillation, other examples of oscillations). The next part addresses climate modelling: model fundamentals (parameters and other components, coupling between components), model adjustment (simulation types, multi-model sets, and model assessment), models of intermediate complexity, regional models. The authors discuss the warming phenomenon: history of temperature measurements, clues of global warming, how to make climate change. They propose a presentation and discussion of anthropogenic and natural factors which disturb the climate: CO 2 and other greenhouse gases, changes in soil uses, other possible causes of climate disturbance (aerosol, aircraft wakes, volcanoes, and sun), combination of these disturbances, and identification of anthropogenic disturbances. They discuss past climate evolutions, and finally discuss how the climate could evolve in the future

  14. Fixing Climate: What Past Climate Changes Reveal About the Current Threat-And How to Counter It

    Science.gov (United States)

    McKinley, Galen A.

    2008-10-01

    The Earth's climate is changing due to human activities. Recent polls suggest that the U.S. public generally recognizes this fact, and the efforts that led the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former U.S. vice president Al Gore to win the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize have played no small role in bringing most of the public to realize what scientists have been discussing for years. Yet aside from distorted Hollywood movie accounts such as The Day After Tomorrow, the public knows little about the potential for abrupt change in the climate system. With support from climate science philanthropist Gary Comer, climate scientist Wally Broecker has teamed with science writer Robert Kunzig in this book to bring abrupt climate change into public view. They do this elegantly and convincingly, making the first 12 chapters quite enjoyable.

  15. Improved National Response to Climate Change: Aligning USGCRP reports and the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lipschultz, F.; Dahlman, L. E.; Herring, D.; Fox, J. F.

    2017-12-01

    As part of an effort to coordinate production and distribution of scientific climate information across the U.S. Government, and to spur adaptation actions across the nation, the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) has worked to better integrate the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit (CRT) and its Climate Explorer (CE) tool into USGCRP activities and products. Much of the initial CRT content was based on the Third National Climate Assessment (NCA3). The opportunity to integrate current development of NCA4—scheduled for release in late 2018—with CRT and CE can enhance all three projects and result in a useable and "living" NCA that is part of USGCRP's approach to sustained climate assessment. To coordinate this work, a USGCRP-led science team worked with CRT staff and CE developers to update the set of climate projections displayed in the CE tool. In concert with the USGCRP scenarios effort, the combined team selected the Localized Constructed Analogs (LOCA) dataset for the updated version of CE, based on its capabilities for capturing climate extremes and local climate variations. The team identified 28 variables from the LOCA dataset for display in the CE; many of these variables will also be used in USGCRP reports. In CRT engagements, communities with vulnerable assets have expressed a high value for the ability to integrate climate data available through the CE with data related to non-climate stressors in their locations. Moving forward, the teams intend to serve climate information needs at additional spatial scales by making NCA4 content available via CE's capability for dynamic interaction with climate-relevant datasets. This will permit users to customize the extent of data they access for decision-making, starting with the static NCA4 report. Additionally, NCA4 case studies and other content can be linked to more in-depth content within the CRT site. This capability will enable more frequent content updates than can be managed with quadrennial

  16. OpenClimateGIS - A Web Service Providing Climate Model Data in Commonly Used Geospatial Formats

    Science.gov (United States)

    Erickson, T. A.; Koziol, B. W.; Rood, R. B.

    2011-12-01

    The goal of the OpenClimateGIS project is to make climate model datasets readily available in commonly used, modern geospatial formats used by GIS software, browser-based mapping tools, and virtual globes.The climate modeling community typically stores climate data in multidimensional gridded formats capable of efficiently storing large volumes of data (such as netCDF, grib) while the geospatial community typically uses flexible vector and raster formats that are capable of storing small volumes of data (relative to the multidimensional gridded formats). OpenClimateGIS seeks to address this difference in data formats by clipping climate data to user-specified vector geometries (i.e. areas of interest) and translating the gridded data on-the-fly into multiple vector formats. The OpenClimateGIS system does not store climate data archives locally, but rather works in conjunction with external climate archives that expose climate data via the OPeNDAP protocol. OpenClimateGIS provides a RESTful API web service for accessing climate data resources via HTTP, allowing a wide range of applications to access the climate data.The OpenClimateGIS system has been developed using open source development practices and the source code is publicly available. The project integrates libraries from several other open source projects (including Django, PostGIS, numpy, Shapely, and netcdf4-python).OpenClimateGIS development is supported by a grant from NOAA's Climate Program Office.

  17. Norwegian climate research. An evaluation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2012-06-15

    [English] In early 2011, the Norwegian Research Council (RCN) appointed a committee to review Norwegian climate research. The aim of the evaluation was to provide a critical review of Norwegian climate research in an international perspective and to recommend measures to enhance the quality, efficiency and relevance of future climate research. The Evaluation Committee met three times: in August and December 2011, and March 2012. RCN sent an invitation to 140 research organisations to participate by delivering background information on their climate research. Based on the initial response, 48 research units were invited to submit self-assessments and 37 research units responded. These were invited to hearings during the second meeting of the Evaluation Committee in December. In our judgement, a great majority of the most active research units are covered by this evaluation report. It should be emphasised that the evaluation concerned the Norwegian landscape of climate research rather than individual scientists or research units. Bibliometric analyses and social network analyses provided additional information. We are aware of problems in making comparisons across disciplinary publishing traditions, especially with regard to the differences between the natural and social sciences and the humanities. The Evaluation Committee also reviewed a number of governmental and RCN policy documents and conducted interviews with the chairs of the NORKLIMA Programme Steering Board and the Norwegian IPY Committee, as well as with staff members of RCN. Additional information was received from hearings organised by RCN with the science communities and various stakeholders in January 2012. For the purpose of this evaluation, climate research was divided into three broad thematic areas: 1. The climate system and climate change: research on climate variability and change in order to improve our capability of understanding climate and of projecting climate change for different time

  18. Climate Services to Improve Public Health

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jancloes, Michel; Thomson, Madeleine; Costa, María Máñez; Hewitt, Chris; Corvalan, Carlos; Dinku, Tufa; Lowe, Rachel; Hayden, Mary

    2014-01-01

    A high level expert panel discussed how climate and health services could best collaborate to improve public health. This was on the agenda of the recent Third International Climate Services Conference, held in Montego Bay, Jamaica, 4–6 December 2013. Issues and challenges concerning a demand led approach to serve the health sector needs, were identified and analysed. Important recommendations emerged to ensure that innovative collaboration between climate and health services assist decision-making processes and the management of climate-sensitive health risk. Key recommendations included: a move from risk assessment towards risk management; the engagement of the public health community with both the climate sector and development sectors, whose decisions impact on health, particularly the most vulnerable; to increase operational research on the use of policy-relevant climate information to manage climate- sensitive health risks; and to develop in-country capacities to improve local knowledge (including collection of epidemiological, climate and socio-economic data), along with institutional interaction with policy makers. PMID:24776719

  19. Terrestrial Biosphere Dynamics in the Climate System: Past and Future

    Science.gov (United States)

    Overpeck, J.; Whitlock, C.; Huntley, B.

    2002-12-01

    The paleoenvironmental record makes it clear that climate change as large as is likely to occur in the next two centuries will drive change in the terrestrial biosphere that is both large and difficult to predict, or plan for. Many species, communities and ecosystems could experience rates of climate change, and "destination climates" that are unprecedented in their time on earth. The paleorecord also makes it clear that a wide range of possible climate system behavior, such as decades-long droughts, increases in large storm and flood frequency, and rapid sea level rise, all occurred repeatedly in the past, and for poorly understood reasons. These types of events, if they were to reoccur in the future, could have especially devastating impacts on biodiversity, both because their timing and spatial extent cannot be anticipated, and because the biota's natural defenses have been compromised by land-use, reductions in genetic flexibility, pollution, excess water utilization, invasive species, and other human influences. Vegetation disturbance (e.g., by disease, pests and fire) will undoubtedly be exacerbated by climate change (stress), but could also speed the rate at which terrestrial biosphere change takes place in the future. The paleoenvironmental record makes it clear that major scientific challenges include an improved ability to model regional biospheric change, both past and future. This in turn will be a prerequisite to obtaining realistic estimates of future biogeochemical and biophysical feedbacks, and thus to obtaining better assessments of future climate change. These steps will help generate the improved understanding of climate variability that is needed to manage global biodiversity. However, the most troubling message from the paleoenvironmental record is that unchecked anthropogenic climate change could make the Earth's 6th major mass extinction unavoidable.

  20. Conservation and adaptation to climate change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brooke, Cassandra

    2008-12-01

    The need to adapt to climate change has become increasingly apparent, and many believe the practice of biodiversity conservation will need to alter to face this challenge. Conservation organizations are eager to determine how they should adapt their practices to climate change. This involves asking the fundamental question of what adaptation to climate change means. Most studies on climate change and conservation, if they consider adaptation at all, assume it is equivalent to the ability of species to adapt naturally to climate change as stated in Article 2 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Adaptation, however, can refer to an array of activities that range from natural adaptation, at one end of the spectrum, to sustainability science in coupled human and natural systems at the other. Most conservation organizations deal with complex systems in which adaptation to climate change involves making decisions on priorities for biodiversity conservation in the face of dynamic risks and involving the public in these decisions. Discursive methods such as analytic deliberation are useful for integrating scientific knowledge with public perceptions and values, particularly when large uncertainties and risks are involved. The use of scenarios in conservation planning is a useful way to build shared understanding at the science-policy interface. Similarly, boundary organizations-organizations or institutions that bridge different scales or mediate the relationship between science and policy-could prove useful for managing the transdisciplinary nature of adaptation to climate change, providing communication and brokerage services and helping to build adaptive capacity. The fact that some nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are active across the areas of science, policy, and practice makes them well placed to fulfill this role in integrated assessments of biodiversity conservation and adaptation to climate change.

  1. Climate economics in progress 2011

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    De Perthuis, Christian; Jouvet, Pierre-Andre; Trotignon, Raphael; Simonet, Gabriela; Boutueil, Virginie

    2011-01-01

    Climate Economics in Progress offers a global overview of the present status of action on climate change. Drawing on the most recent data, it analyzes the development of carbon markets in Europe and other parts of the world. It also examines the conditions for including major players such as China and new sectors such as agriculture, forestry and transport in the fight against global warming. The book is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand current advances in climate control, which could pave the way for a new form of economic growth. The book brings together a group of researchers whose goal is to make the link between academic research on the economics of climate change and the implementation of operational tools, thereby allowing the climate issue to be integrated into the functioning of the real economy

  2. Climate Summit in Copenhagen

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Delman, Jørgen

      Together with the United States, China has moved to centre stage in the running up to the Climate Summit in Copenhagen 7-18 December 2009. To make the Summit a success, the two countries have started signalling positive commitment to formulation of quantitative targets and engage constructively...... in elaborating a reasonably ambitious, yet realistic framework for the implementation of a new global post-Kyoto regime that will have to take effect from 2012. China's leadership has already acknowledged that climate change may exacerbate an exceedingly unsustainable development path over the next decades...... if action is not taken to change its course dramatically. The challenges are formidable, yet the window of opportunity to take action is quite narrow. For these reasons and due to international pressure, China's position on climate change has been made gradually clearer as the climate negotiations have...

  3. Norwegian climate research. An evaluation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2012-07-01

    From the executive summary; Based on our evaluation, we make six major recommendations and provide suggestions for how these might be implemented. 1. Establish a clear and coherent national strategy for climate research and its funding. 2. The Research Council of Norway should develop a new integrated long-term climate research programme. 3. Build on strengths and develop capacities in areas where Norway currently lacks sufficient scientific expertise. 4. Ensure societal relevance as well as inter- and transdisciplinarity in research. 5. Emphasise collaboration and cooperation as a basis for successful climate research. 6. Prioritise outreach and stakeholder interaction.(Author)

  4. Integrating Indigenous Knowledge in Climate Risk Management in ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    27 mars 2008 ... Integrating Indigenous Knowledge in Climate Risk Management in support of Community Based Adaptation. Traditionally, African farmers have used indigenous knowledge to understand weather and climate patterns and make decisions about crop and irrigation cycles. However, increased variability ...

  5. High-Resolution Climate Data Visualization through GIS- and Web-based Data Portals

    Science.gov (United States)

    WANG, X.; Huang, G.

    2017-12-01

    Sound decisions on climate change adaptation rely on an in-depth assessment of potential climate change impacts at regional and local scales, which usually requires finer resolution climate projections at both spatial and temporal scales. However, effective downscaling of global climate projections is practically difficult due to the lack of computational resources and/or long-term reference data. Although a large volume of downscaled climate data has been make available to the public, how to understand and interpret the large-volume climate data and how to make use of the data to drive impact assessment and adaptation studies are still challenging for both impact researchers and decision makers. Such difficulties have become major barriers preventing informed climate change adaptation planning at regional scales. Therefore, this research will explore new GIS- and web-based technologies to help visualize the large-volume regional climate data with high spatiotemporal resolutions. A user-friendly public data portal, named Climate Change Data Portal (CCDP, http://ccdp.network), will be established to allow intuitive and open access to high-resolution regional climate projections at local scales. The CCDP offers functions of visual representation through geospatial maps and data downloading for a variety of climate variables (e.g., temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, solar radiation, and wind) at multiple spatial resolutions (i.e., 25 - 50 km) and temporal resolutions (i.e., annual, seasonal, monthly, daily, and hourly). The vast amount of information the CCDP encompasses can provide a crucial basis for assessing impacts of climate change on local communities and ecosystems and for supporting better decision making under a changing climate.

  6. Cluster analysis of Southeastern U.S. climate stations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stooksbury, D. E.; Michaels, P. J.

    1991-09-01

    A two-step cluster analysis of 449 Southeastern climate stations is used to objectively determine general climate clusters (groups of climate stations) for eight southeastern states. The purpose is objectively to define regions of climatic homogeneity that should perform more robustly in subsequent climatic impact models. This type of analysis has been successfully used in many related climate research problems including the determination of corn/climate districts in Iowa (Ortiz-Valdez, 1985) and the classification of synoptic climate types (Davis, 1988). These general climate clusters may be more appropriate for climate research than the standard climate divisions (CD) groupings of climate stations, which are modifications of the agro-economic United States Department of Agriculture crop reporting districts. Unlike the CD's, these objectively determined climate clusters are not restricted by state borders and thus have reduced multicollinearity which makes them more appropriate for the study of the impact of climate and climatic change.

  7. Using social representations theory to make sense of climate change: what scientists and nonscientists in Australia think

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gail Moloney

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available The mass media has ensured that the challenging and complex phenomenon of climate change now has the household familiarity of a brand name. But what is it that is understood by climate change, and by whom? What frame of reference is drawn upon to communicate meaningfully about climate change? Do particular subgroups within our society hold different understandings, or have the debate and the prolific dissemination of information about this issue coalesced around a core perception or image of what climate change is? To answer these questions, we conceptualized climate change within the theory of social representations as emergent socially constructed knowledge. We analyzed word association data collected in Australia from persons identifying as having a scientific, government, or general public background (N = 3300. All respondents were asked to write the first words that came to mind when they thought about climate change. Comparative analyses of the word associations reveal that respondents from different backgrounds define climate change in different ways. The results suggest that there is a common core set of concepts shared by the different groups, but there are also a great many differences in how climate change is framed and conceived by respondents. The results are discussed in relation to what they imply for responses to climate change by these social groups and in relation to interventions designed to encourage climate adaptation.

  8. Solar Climate Engineering and Intellectual Property : Toward a Research Commons

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Reynolds, Jesse|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/363244638; Contreras, Jorge L; Sarnoff, Joshua D

    2017-01-01

    Climate change is one of the greatest challenges confronting society today. Solar climate engineering (SCE) has the potential to reduce climate risks substantially. This controversial technology would make the earth more reflective in order to counteract global warming. The science of SCE is still

  9. Teaching Climate Social Science and Its Practices: A Two-Pronged Approach to Climate Literacy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shwom, R.; Isenhour, C.; McCright, A.; Robinson, J.; Jordan, R.

    2014-12-01

    The Essential Principles of Climate Science Literacy states that a climate-literate individual can: "understand the essential principles of Earth's climate system, assess scientifically credible information about climate change, communicate about climate and climate change in a meaningful way, and make informed and responsible decisions with regard to actions that may affect climate." We argue that further integration of the social science dimensions of climate change will advance the climate literacy goals of communication and responsible actions. The underlying rationale for this argues: 1) teaching the habits of mind and scientific practices that have synergies across the social and natural sciences can strengthen students ability to understand and assess science in general and that 2) understanding the empirical research on the social, political, and economic processes (including climate science itself) that are part of the climate system is an important step for enabling effective action and communication. For example, while climate literacy has often identified the public's faulty mental models of climate processes as a partial explanation of complacency, emerging research suggests that the public's mental models of the social world are equally or more important in leading to informed and responsible climate decisions. Building student's ability to think across the social and natural sciences by understanding "how we know what we know" through the sciences and a scientific understanding of the social world allows us to achieve climate literacy goals more systematically and completely. To enable this integration we first identify the robust social science insights for the climate science literacy principles that involve social systems. We then briefly identify significant social science contributions to climate science literacy that do not clearly fit within the seven climate literacy principles but arguably could advance climate literacy goals. We conclude

  10. The Role of Science in Advising the Decision Making Process: A Pathway for Building Effective Climate Change Mitigation Policies in Mexico at the Local Level

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roberto Barraza

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available This study examines a pathway for building urban climate change mitigation policies by presenting a multi-dimensional and transdisciplinary approach in which technical, economic, environmental, social, and political dimensions interact. Now, more than ever, the gap between science and policymaking needs to be bridged; this will enable judicious choices to be made in regarding energy and climate change mitigation strategies, leading to positive social impacts, in particular for the populations at-risk at the local level. Through a case study in Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, we propose a multidimensional and transdisciplinary approach with the role of scientist as policy advisers to improve the role of science in decision-making on mitigation policies at the local level in Mexico.

  11. Assessing Student Knowledge of Chemistry and Climate Science Concepts Associated with Climate Change: Resources to Inform Teaching and Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Versprille, Ashley; Zabih, Adam; Holme, Thomas A.; McKenzie, Lallie; Mahaffy, Peter; Martin, Brian; Towns, Marcy

    2017-01-01

    Climate change is one of the most critical problems facing citizens today. Chemistry faculty are presented with the problem of making general chemistry content simultaneously relevant and interesting. Using climate science to teach chemistry allows faculty to help students learn chemistry content in a rich context. Concepts related to…

  12. Readying Health Services for Climate Change: A Policy Framework for Regional Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-01-01

    Climate change presents the biggest threat to human health in the 21st century. However, many public health leaders feel ill equipped to face the challenges of climate change and have been unable to make climate change a priority in service development. I explore how to achieve a regionally responsive whole-of-systems approach to climate change in the key operational areas of a health service: service governance and culture, service delivery, workforce development, asset management, and financing. The relative neglect of implementation science means that policymakers need to be proactive about sourcing and developing models and processes to make health services ready for climate change. Health research funding agencies should urgently prioritize applied, regionally responsive health services research for a future of climate change. PMID:21421953

  13. Readying health services for climate change: a policy framework for regional development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bell, Erica

    2011-05-01

    Climate change presents the biggest threat to human health in the 21st century. However, many public health leaders feel ill equipped to face the challenges of climate change and have been unable to make climate change a priority in service development. I explore how to achieve a regionally responsive whole-of-systems approach to climate change in the key operational areas of a health service: service governance and culture, service delivery, workforce development, asset management, and financing. The relative neglect of implementation science means that policymakers need to be proactive about sourcing and developing models and processes to make health services ready for climate change. Health research funding agencies should urgently prioritize applied, regionally responsive health services research for a future of climate change.

  14. Climate, the time for action

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Petit, Michel; Barlier, F.; Bauer, P.; Besancenot, J.P.; Boe, J.; Bonneville, A.; Boucher, O.; Boy, D.; Cazenave, A.; Combarnous, M.; Dandonneau, Y.; Decampsk, H.; Drobrinski, P.; Ducrocq, V.; Durand, B.; Fouquart, Y.; Gautier, C.; Geistdoerfer, P.; Grandjean, A.; Guillou, M.; Labeyrie, L.; Laval, K.; Le Cozannet, G.; Lefebvre, M.; Le Treut, H.; Masson-Delmotte, V.; Merle, J.; Ngo, C.; Pailleux, J.; Painter, J.; Pouyaud, B.; Salas y Melia, D.; Terray, L.; Vautard, R.; Voituriez, B.; Zaharia, R.; Tubiana, Laurence; Orsenna, Erik

    2015-01-01

    The objective of this collective book is to provide the public with elements of information showing that there is an actual risk that climate-related risk severely affects mankind during the next decades. A first part proposes a summary of the most recent works which place the problematic of climate change within its scientific context at different time and space scales. The second part describes the nature and properties of various greenhouse gases. The third part addresses the future evolution of some regional climates which are relevant for impact studies (possible evolutions during this century and beyond, associated uncertainties). The fourth part proposes a rather detailed presentation of possible consequences of local climate changes. The authors assess possible ecological consequences, analyse human and social risks and measures which could make these climate changes more bearable. The fifth part identifies actions to be performed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere, and the possibility to correct modifications we have imposed to the planet climate. The last part analyses the evolution of world awareness of the climate issue

  15. Cognitive and psychological science insights to improve climate change data visualization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harold, Jordan; Lorenzoni, Irene; Shipley, Thomas F.; Coventry, Kenny R.

    2016-12-01

    Visualization of climate data plays an integral role in the communication of climate change findings to both expert and non-expert audiences. The cognitive and psychological sciences can provide valuable insights into how to improve visualization of climate data based on knowledge of how the human brain processes visual and linguistic information. We review four key research areas to demonstrate their potential to make data more accessible to diverse audiences: directing visual attention, visual complexity, making inferences from visuals, and the mapping between visuals and language. We present evidence-informed guidelines to help climate scientists increase the accessibility of graphics to non-experts, and illustrate how the guidelines can work in practice in the context of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change graphics.

  16. Accessing Both Halves of the Brain to Make Climate Decisions: How Community-Sourced Media, Earth Remote Sensing Data, and Creative Placemaking Art Can Cultivate Change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Drapkin, J. K.; Wagner, L.

    2017-12-01

    Decision-making, science tells us, accesses multiple parts of the brain: both logic and data as well as memory and emotion. It is this mix of signals that propels individuals and communities to act. Founded in 2012, ISeeChange is the nation's first community crowdsourced climate and weather journal that empowers users to document environmental changes with others and discuss the impacts over time. Our neighborhood investigation methodology includes residents documenting their personal experiences alongside collected data, Earth remote sensing data, and local artists interpreting community questions and experiences into place-based public art in the neighborhood to inspire a culture of resilience and climate literacy. ISeeChange connects the public with national media, scientists, and data tools that support community dialogue and enable collaborative science and journalism investigations about our changing environment. Our groundbreaking environmental reporting platform—available online and through a mobile app—personalizes and tracks climate change from the perspective of every day experiences, bringing Eearth science home and into the placesspaces people know best and trust most- their own communities Our session will focus on our newest neighborhood pilot program in New Orleans, furthering the climate resilience, green infrastructure, and creative placemaking efforts of the Trust for Public Land, the City of New Orleans, and other resilience community partners.

  17. How to ensure that the results of climate risk analysis make a difference? - Experience from applied research addressing the challenges of climate change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schneiderbauer, Stefan; Zebisch, Marc; Becker, Daniel; Pedoth, Lydia; Renner, Kathrin; Kienberger, Stefan

    2016-04-01

    Changing climate conditions may have beneficial or adverse effects on the social-ecological systems we are living in. In any case, the possible effects result from complex and interlinked physical and social processes embedded in these systems. Traditional research addresses these bio-physical and societal issues in a separate way. Therefore, in general, studies on risks related to climate change are still mono-disciplinary in nature with an increasing amount of work following a multi-disciplinary approach. The quality and usefulness of the results of such research for policy or decision making in practice may further be limited by study designs that do not acknowledge appropriately the significance of integrating or at least mixing qualitative and quantitative information and knowledge. Finally, the acceptance of study results - particularly when containing some kind of assessments - is often endangered by insufficient and / or late involvement of stakeholders and users. The above mentioned limitations have often been brought up in the recent past. However, despite that a certain consensus could be achieved in the last years recognising the need to tackle these issues, little progress has been made in terms of implementation within the context of (research) studies. This paper elaborates in detail on reasons that hamper the application of - interdisciplinary (i.e. natural and social science), - trans-disciplinary (i.e. co-production of knowledge) and - integrative (i.e. combining qualitative and quantitative approaches) work. It is based on the experience gained through a number of applied climate change vulnerability studies carried out within the context of various GIZ-financed development cooperation projects, a consultancy project for the German Environment Agency as well as the workshop series INQUIMUS, which tackles particularly the issues of mixing qualitative and quantitative research approaches. Potentials and constraints of possible attempts for

  18. Show Me The Data! Data Visualizations Make Climate Change & Climate Impacts Real

    Science.gov (United States)

    Turrin, M.; Ryan, W. B. F.; Porter, D. F.

    2016-12-01

    Today's learner is technology proficient. Whether we reference K12, undergraduate, or life long learners we expect that they are not only comfortable interacting with a range of digital media, from computer, to tablet, to a smart phone, but that they expect it. Technology is a central part of how most of us spend large portions of our day; connecting, communicating, recreating and learning. So why would we expect that today's learners would prefer to read about climate change and climate impacts from plain text? As educators we must embrace cutting edge methods and materials to engage our students and learners, meeting them where they are most comfortable. `Polar Explorer: Sea Level' is an app that uses interactive data maps to engage the users in the story of changing sea level. Designed for a general audience this free app (http://www.polarexplorer.org) is a great resource for life-long learners, teachers, students and the curious public. Built around a series of questions that are structured like book chapters, users select from a range of choices like: What is sea level? Why does sea level change? Where is it changing now? What about the polar regions? What about in the past? Who is vulnerable? Each section moves the user through layers of maps that address causes, impacts, future predictions and special vulnerabilities of a rising sea level. Users can select any pathway to build a story that captures their attention as they interact with the data and move through different layers of the app. Each map is interactive and supported by information 'snippits', audio clips and a link to further information. A series of `quests' are available for the app. Each quest is a story with a main science theme at its center that leads a planned excursion through a series of map layers while revealing a story in the data. The combination of physical science in what and where is sea level changing, with human impacts in the `who is vulnerable', builds a series of stories with

  19. Exploring the School Climate--Student Achievement Connection: Making Sense of Why the First Precedes the Second

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, Albert; Shindler, John

    2016-01-01

    Many educators view school climate and student achievement as separate considerations. For some, the idea of promoting a high quality climate can seem like a luxury in the face of the current high stakes assessment climate in which student achievement gains are the paramount consideration. However, the results of this study suggest that climate…

  20. Improving Decision-Making Activities for Meningitis and Malaria

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ceccato, Pietro; Trzaska, Sylwia; Garcia-Pando, Carlos Perez; Kalashnikova, Olga; del Corral, John; Cousin, Remi; Blumenthal, M. Benno; Bell, Michael; Connor, Stephen J.; Thomson, Madeleine C.

    2013-01-01

    Public health professionals are increasingly concerned about the potential impact that climate variability and change can have on infectious disease. The International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) is developing new products to increase the public health community's capacity to understand, use and demand the appropriate climate data and climate information to mitigate the public health impacts of climate on infectious disease, in particular meningitis and malaria. In this paper, we present the new and improved products that have been developed for: (i) estimating dust aerosol for forecasting risks of meningitis and (ii) for monitoring temperature and rainfall and integrating them into a vectorial capacity model for forecasting risks of malaria epidemics. We also present how the products have been integrated into a knowledge system (IRI Data Library Map Room, SERVIR) to support the use of climate and environmental information in climate-sensitive health decision-making.

  1. Climate Change, Climate Justice, and Environmental Health: Implications for the Nursing Profession.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nicholas, Patrice K; Breakey, Suellen

    2017-11-01

    in education, practice, research, and policy-making efforts to address climate change. © 2017 Sigma Theta Tau International.

  2. Toward Collective Impact for Climate Resilience: Maximizing Climate Change Education for Preparedness, Adaptation, and Mitigation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ledley, T. S.; Niepold, F., III; McCaffrey, M.

    2014-12-01

    Increasing the capacity of society to make informed climate decisions based on scientific evidence is imperative. While a wide range of education programs and communication efforts to improve understanding and facilitate responsible effective decision-making have been developed in recent years, these efforts have been largely disconnected. The interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary nature of the problems and potential responses to climate change requires a broad range of expertise and a strategy that overcomes the inherent limitations of isolated programs and efforts. To extend the reach and impact of climate change education and engagement efforts, it is necessary to have a coordination that results in greater collective impact. The Collective Impact model, as described by Kania & Kramer (2011), requires five elements: 1) a common agenda; 2) shared measurement systems; 3) mutually reinforcing activities; 4) continuous communication; and 5) a well-funded backbone support organization. The CLEAN Network has facilitated a series of discussions at six professional meetings from late 2012 through spring 2014 to begin to develop and define the elements of collective impact on climate change education and engagement. These discussions have focused on getting input from the community on a common agenda and what a backbone support organization could do to help extend their reach and impact and enable a longer-term sustainability. These discussions will continue at future meetings, with the focus shifting to developing a common agenda and shared metrics. In this presentation we will summarize the outcomes of these discussions thus far, especially with respect to what activities a backbone support organization might provide to help increase the collective impact of climate change education effort and invite others to join the development of public-private partnership to improve the nations climate literacy. The cumulative input into this evolving discussion on collective

  3. Climatology in support of climate risk management : a progress report.

    OpenAIRE

    McGregor, G.R.

    2015-01-01

    Climate risk management has emerged over the last decade as a distinct area of activity within the wider field of climatology. Its focus is on integrating climate and non-climate information in order to enhance the decision-making process in a wide range of climate-sensitive sectors of society, the economy and the environment. Given the burgeoning pure and applied climate science literature that addresses a range of climate risks, the purpose of this progress report is to provide an overview ...

  4. America's Climate Choices: Cross-Cutting Research Themes to Support Effective Responses to Climate Change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moser, S. C.; America'S Climate Choices Science Panel

    2010-12-01

    The Science Panel of the America’s Climate Choices project concluded that the climate science research enterprise has to make substantial shifts to better meet the needs of the emerging policy and decision landscape in the US. While much scientific attention in the past necessarily and to great success focused on the physical and biogeochemical aspects of understanding the climate-Earth system, much greater focus is now needed in also developing a science of responses to climate change. To that end, the ACC Science report recommended seven cross-cutting themes, three of which will be highlighted in this talk as they touch on topics the physical science community tends to be less familiar with: (1) vulnerability and adaptation analyses of coupled human-environment systems; (2) research on strategies for limiting climate change; and (3) effective information and decision support systems. The presentation will define and sketch out the potential scope of each of these areas and provide examples from various sectors highlighted in the Science panel report.

  5. What Renaissance Literary Theory Tells us about Climate Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guenther, G. J.

    2017-12-01

    Many current debates in climate communication-to convey the consensus or not to convey the consensus; to frighten people or encourage them-seem to center on the question of how to discuss climate science and its ability to predict climate impacts. By examining the Renaissance literary theory that represents poets as better teachers than philosophers and scientists, this paper argues that climate advocates should redefine climate communication to include a variety of artistic discourses that make meaning in order to inspire people into political action.

  6. Exclusive Minilateralism: An Emerging Discourse within International Climate Change Governance?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jeffrey Scott McGee

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available Over the past five years there have been a series of significant international climate change agreements involving only elite state actors. The Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, APEC Sydney Leaders Declaration and US Major Economies Process all displayed a shift towards a model of international climate change governance involving a small group of economically powerful states, to the exclusion of less powerful states and environmental NGOs. The modest result from the UNFCCC COP 15 meeting in Copenhagen in December 2009 and subsequent UNFCCC meetings has strengthened calls for international climate governance to be pared down to smaller decision making forums of key states only. This article argues that these developments evidence an emerging discourse of ‘exclusive minilateralism’ in international climate policy that is challenging the inclusive multilateral discourse that has formed the bedrock of international climate change governance since the inception of UN climate regime in the early 1990s. The exclusive minilateralism discourse offers a significant challenge to both the cosmopolitan and discursive democratic aspirations of international climate change governance. One response to the exclusive minilateral discourse is to reform the UNFCCC consensus-based decision making rule to provide the COP with greater ease of decision making on key issues relating to mitigation and adaptation. Another response is to more formally include the exclusive minilateralism discourse within the UNFCCC COP process. This could be achieved by forming a small peak body of states and key NGO groups to act as an influential advisor to the COP process on key issues requiring expedition and resolution.

  7. Adaptation: Planning for climate change and its effects on federal lands

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marie Oliver; David L. Peterson; Michael J. Furniss

    2012-01-01

    National forest managers are charged with tackling the effects of climate change on the natural resources under their care. The Forest Service National Roadmap for Responding to Climate Change and the Climate Change Performance Scorecard require managers to make significant progress in addressing climate change by 2015. To help land managers meet this challenge,...

  8. Making Homes Part of the Climate Solution: Policy Options To Promote Energy Efficiency

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Brown, Dr. Marilyn Ann [Georgia Institute of Technology; Chandler, Jess [Georgia Institute of Technology; Lapsa, Melissa Voss [ORNL; Ally, Moonis [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)

    2009-06-01

    In the area of energy efficiency, advanced technologies combined with best practices appear to afford not only large, but also cost-effective options to conserve energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions (McKinsey & Company, 2007). In practice, however, the realization of this potential has often proven difficult. Progress appears to require large numbers of individuals to act knowledgeably, and each individual must often act with enabling assistance from others. Even when consumer education is effective and social norms are supportive, the actions of individuals and businesses can be impeded by a broad range of barriers, many of which are non-technical in nature. Title XVI of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 included a mandate to examine barriers to progress and make recommendations in this regard. A detailed report on barriers as well as the National strategy for overcoming barriers met this requirement (Brown et al, 2008; CCCSTI, 2009). Following up on this mandate, the U.S. Climate Change Technology Program (CCTP) chose to focus next on the development of policy options to improve energy efficiency in residential buildings, with supporting analysis of pros and cons, informed in part by behavioral research. While this work is sponsored by CCTP, it has been undertaken in coordination with DOE's Building Technologies Program and Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability.

  9. Climate Model Diagnostic Analyzer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Seungwon; Pan, Lei; Zhai, Chengxing; Tang, Benyang; Kubar, Terry; Zhang, Zia; Wang, Wei

    2015-01-01

    The comprehensive and innovative evaluation of climate models with newly available global observations is critically needed for the improvement of climate model current-state representation and future-state predictability. A climate model diagnostic evaluation process requires physics-based multi-variable analyses that typically involve large-volume and heterogeneous datasets, making them both computation- and data-intensive. With an exploratory nature of climate data analyses and an explosive growth of datasets and service tools, scientists are struggling to keep track of their datasets, tools, and execution/study history, let alone sharing them with others. In response, we have developed a cloud-enabled, provenance-supported, web-service system called Climate Model Diagnostic Analyzer (CMDA). CMDA enables the physics-based, multivariable model performance evaluations and diagnoses through the comprehensive and synergistic use of multiple observational data, reanalysis data, and model outputs. At the same time, CMDA provides a crowd-sourcing space where scientists can organize their work efficiently and share their work with others. CMDA is empowered by many current state-of-the-art software packages in web service, provenance, and semantic search.

  10. Tools for Climate Services

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hartmann, H. C.

    2007-05-01

    Full realization of socio-economic benefits of from public investments in climate services remains incomplete because decision makers have difficulty: 1) interpreting individual products, 2) appropriately judging information credibility, and 3) linking different types of information, both conceptually and practically. Addressing these barriers is as important as improving the science leading to improved information. The challenge is creating flexible climate information products and tools that can accommodate unique user needs; the goal is a systemic change in the nature of information delivery and use. The underlying assumption is not that climate information is good and useful, and simply needs to be communicated effectively. Rather, a number of conditions must be met before decision makers can make informed choices about whether to use particular information in a specific situation. Several case studies, of varying success, illustrate user-centric strategies for developing decision support tools: a forecast evaluation tool, a climate information management system, and a hydrologic alert system. However, tools alone will not bridge the barriers in climate services, with training and other capacity- building activities remaining important activities.

  11. Quality Climate Change Professional Development Translates into Quality Climate Change Education (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holzer, M. A.

    2013-12-01

    Perhaps one of the reasons we have so many climate change deniers in the United States is that to them climate change is not occurring. This is a valid claim about climate change deniers considering that the effects of climate change in the mid-latitudes are quite subtle as compared to those found in low-latitude and high-latitude regions. A mid-latitude classroom teacher is saddled with the challenge of enlightening students about our changing climate and empowering students to assist in making necessary lifestyle changes, all the while the students don't understand the urgency in doing so. Quality climate change data and resources from the Polar Regions and low latitudes, as well as connections to researchers from these regions help to bridge the understanding of our changing climate from the extreme latitudes to the mid-latitudes. Connecting science teachers with data, resources, and researchers is one way of ensuring our mid-latitude students understand the urgency in taking appropriate actions to adapt, mitigate, and show resilience. This presentation will highlight a few of the many impacts of an authentic research experience for teachers that not only provides teachers with data, resources, and researchers, but changes the way a science teacher teaches where the methods they use mirror the methods used by scientists. National projects like PolarTREC connect educators with the science of climate change as well as the reality of impacts of climate change. For example, research expeditions in the Arctic and in Antarctica connect teachers with the content and practices of climate change science preparing them to replicate their experiences with their students. A PolarTREC experience does not end with the close of the expedition. Teachers continue their connections with the program through their educator network, the integration of PolarTREC resources into their curriculums, and communications with their principal investigators either virtually or with school

  12. A climate robust integrated modelling framework for regional impact assessment of climate change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Janssen, Gijs; Bakker, Alexander; van Ek, Remco; Groot, Annemarie; Kroes, Joop; Kuiper, Marijn; Schipper, Peter; van Walsum, Paul; Wamelink, Wieger; Mol, Janet

    2013-04-01

    Decision making towards climate proofing the water management of regional catchments can benefit greatly from the availability of a climate robust integrated modelling framework, capable of a consistent assessment of climate change impacts on the various interests present in the catchments. In the Netherlands, much effort has been devoted to developing state-of-the-art regional dynamic groundwater models with a very high spatial resolution (25x25 m2). Still, these models are not completely satisfactory to decision makers because the modelling concepts do not take into account feedbacks between meteorology, vegetation/crop growth, and hydrology. This introduces uncertainties in forecasting the effects of climate change on groundwater, surface water, agricultural yields, and development of groundwater dependent terrestrial ecosystems. These uncertainties add to the uncertainties about the predictions on climate change itself. In order to create an integrated, climate robust modelling framework, we coupled existing model codes on hydrology, agriculture and nature that are currently in use at the different research institutes in the Netherlands. The modelling framework consists of the model codes MODFLOW (groundwater flow), MetaSWAP (vadose zone), WOFOST (crop growth), SMART2-SUMO2 (soil-vegetation) and NTM3 (nature valuation). MODFLOW, MetaSWAP and WOFOST are coupled online (i.e. exchange information on time step basis). Thus, changes in meteorology and CO2-concentrations affect crop growth and feedbacks between crop growth, vadose zone water movement and groundwater recharge are accounted for. The model chain WOFOST-MetaSWAP-MODFLOW generates hydrological input for the ecological prediction model combination SMART2-SUMO2-NTM3. The modelling framework was used to support the regional water management decision making process in the 267 km2 Baakse Beek-Veengoot catchment in the east of the Netherlands. Computations were performed for regionalized 30-year climate change

  13. A Governing Framework for Climate Change Adaptation in the Built Environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel A. Mazmanian

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Developing an approach to governing adaptation to climate change is severely hampered by the dictatorship of the present when the needs of future generations are inadequately represented in current policy making. We posit this problem as a function of the attributes of adaptation policy making, including deep uncertainty and nonstationarity, where past observations are not reliable predictors of future outcomes. Our research links organizational decision-making attributes with adaptation decision making and identifies cases in which adaptation actions cause spillovers, free riding, and distributional impacts. We develop a governing framework for adaptation that we believe will enable policy, planning, and major long-term development decisions to be made appropriately at all levels of government in the face of the deep uncertainty and nonstationarity caused by climate change. Our framework requires that approval of projects with an expected life span of 30 years or more in the built environment include minimum building standards that integrate forecasted climate change impacts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC intermediate scenario. The intermediate IPCC scenario must be downscaled to include local or regional temperature, water availability, sea level rise, susceptibility to forest fires, and human habitation impacts to minimize climate-change risks to the built environment. The minimum standard is systematically updated every six years to facilitate learning by formal and informal organizations. As a minimum standard, the governance framework allows jurisdictions to take stronger actions to increase their climate resilience and thus maintain system flexibility.

  14. Dynamic energy performance analysis: Case study for energy efficiency retrofits of hospital buildings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Buonomano, Annamaria; Calise, Francesco; Ferruzzi, Gabriele; Palombo, Adolfo

    2014-01-01

    This paper investigates several actions for the energy refurbishment of some buildings of the University Hospital Federico II of Naples. The analysis focuses on a specific lot of 4 buildings, representative of the whole district hospital. For those structures, sustainable energy savings actions are investigated. They regard the installation of: i) roofs thermal insulation; ii) a substation climatic 3-way valve; iii) radiators thermostatic valves; iv) AHU (air handling unit) time-programmable regulation. This paper aims at presenting an investigation methodology, useful for designers and other stakeholders involved in hospital energy refurbishments, based on an integrated approach which combines dynamic energy performance simulations and experimental campaigns. In order to measure all the simulations' missing input parameters, a suitable experimental analysis, including measurements of temperature, humidity, flow rate and density of construction materials, is performed. A thermographic investigation is also performed for investigating the building envelope performance. This analysis showed that significant savings can be achieved especially by adopting radiators thermostatic valves and AHU regulations. Coherently, the installation of a 3-way valve in the substation does not determine significant additional savings when radiators thermostatic valves are already installed. For high-rise buildings, roofs insulation returns only marginal reductions of space heating and cooling demands. - Highlights: • Energy saving measures applied to the largest hospital of South Italy are analyzed. • A new approach combining dynamic simulations and measurements is implemented. • Thermography, temperature and flow measurements are performed. • High savings are achieved by adopting thermostatic valves and AHU control systems. • The simplest energy saving actions resulted to be the most profitable ones

  15. Land Use Pattern, Climate Change, and Its Implication for Food ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    While Ethiopia has always suffered from climatic variability like droughts and consequently food shortage and famine, climate change is set to make the lives of the poorest even harder. Climate change has the potential to adversely affect net farm revenues of small holders with increasing land fragmentation due to ...

  16. Early warning of climate tipping points

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lenton, Timothy M.

    2011-07-01

    A climate 'tipping point' occurs when a small change in forcing triggers a strongly nonlinear response in the internal dynamics of part of the climate system, qualitatively changing its future state. Human-induced climate change could push several large-scale 'tipping elements' past a tipping point. Candidates include irreversible melt of the Greenland ice sheet, dieback of the Amazon rainforest and shift of the West African monsoon. Recent assessments give an increased probability of future tipping events, and the corresponding impacts are estimated to be large, making them significant risks. Recent work shows that early warning of an approaching climate tipping point is possible in principle, and could have considerable value in reducing the risk that they pose.

  17. Forests and climate change adaptation policies in Cameroon

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bele, M.Y.; Somorin, O.A.; Sonwa, D.J.; Nkem, J.N.; Locatelli, B.

    2011-01-01

    Nowadays, adaptation has become a key focus of the scientific and policy-making communities and is a major area of discussion in the multilateral climate change process. As climate change is projected to hit the poorest the hardest, it is especially important for developing countries to pay

  18. Addressing Climate Change Adaptation in Regional Transportation Plans in California: A Guide and Online Visualization Tool for Planners to Incorporate Risks of Climate Change Impacts in Policy and Decision-Making

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tao, W.; Tucker, K.; DeFlorio, J.

    2012-12-01

    The reality of a changing climate means that transportation and planning agencies need to understand the potential effects of changes in storm activity, sea levels, temperature, and precipitation patterns; and develop strategies to ensure the continuing robustness and resilience of transportation infrastructure and services. This is a relatively new challenge for California's regional planning agencies - adding yet one more consideration to an already complex and multifaceted planning process. In that light, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is developing a strategy framework using a module-based process that planning agencies can undertake to incorporating the risks of climate change impacts into their decision-making and long-range transportation plans. The module-based approach was developed using a best practices survey of existing work nationally, along with a set of structured interviews with metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and regional transportation planning agencies (RTPAs) within California. Findings led to the development of a process, as well as a package of foundational geospatial layers (i.e. the Statewide Transportation Asset Geodatabase - STAG), primarily comprising state and Federal transportation assets. These assets are intersected with a set of geospatial layers for the climate stressors of relevance in the state which are placed in the same reference layers as the STAG; thus providing a full set of GIS layers that can be a starting point for MPOs/RTPAs that want to follow the step-by-step module-based approach in its entirety. The fast-paced changes in science and climate change knowledge requires a flexible platform to display continuously evolving information. To this end, the development of the modules are accompanied by a set of geospatial analysis disseminated using an online web portal. In this way, the information can be relayed to MPO/RTPAs in a easy-to-use fashion that can help them follow the modules

  19. Innovative Corporate Initiatives to Reduce Climate Risk: Lessons from East Asia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Edward B. Barbier

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Businesses, investors, and insurers are requiring better quantitative assessments of their exposure to climate risks and their impact on climate change. They are incorporating these assessments in their day-to-day management and long-term investment decisions. Already, there are efforts to develop international guidelines, common policies and legal frameworks for such assessments, as well as the desire to foster climate financing. We examine recent progress in East Asia and the rest of the world in setting targets, pricing policies, and other mechanisms to reduce climate risks. We develop a model that demonstrates how reduced climate risk management may lower the total cost of capital of firms, thus making them more attractive to investors. We discuss the additional policies needed to support improved climate risk management in investment decisions, private investments in climate science, technology and innovation (STI expansion, and more widespread adoption of climate financing and principles. Central banks, financial authorities, and governments can advance this objective by creating financial incentives to support investment decision-making. This would take into account factors such as improving climate performance, establishing better climate risk management and reporting requirements to foster green STI, and developing international guidelines and common policy and legal frameworks to support better climate risk management, assessments and reporting.

  20. Enhancing the Value of the Federal Climate-Relevant Data Through the Climate Data Initiative

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meyer, D. J.; Pinheiro Privette, A. C.; Bugbee, K.

    2016-12-01

    The Climate Data Initiative (CDI), launched by the Obama Administration in March of 2014, is an effort to leverage the extensive open Federal data to spur innovation and private-sector entrepreneurship around climate resilience. As part of this initiative the federal agencies identified key climate-relevant datasets and made them discoverable through an online catalog at data.gov/climate. Although this was a critical and foundational step to improve the discoverability to these federal data, enhancements to its accessibility and usability require a deeper understanding of the data needs of the different user communities. More recently, the focus of the CDI project has evolved toward extended engagement with communities of resilience trough the identification of use-cases. This effort aims to guide the next steps of the CDI project to make the CDI resources more easily integrated into decision support systems

  1. Building Capacity to Use Earth Observations in Decision Making for Climate, Health, Agriculture and Natural Disasters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robertson, A. W.; Ceccato, P.

    2015-12-01

    In order to fill the gaps existing in climate and public health, agriculture, natural disasters knowledge and practices, the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) has developed a Curriculum for Best Practices in Climate Information. This Curriculum builds on the experience of 10 years courses on 'Climate Information' and captures lessons and experiences from different tailored trainings that have been implemented in many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In this presentation, we will provide examples of training activities we have developed to bring remote sensing products to monitor climatic and environmental information into decision processes that benefited users such as the World Health Organization, Ministries of Health, Ministries of Agriculture, Universities, Research Centers such as CIFOR and FIOCRUZ. The framework developed by IRI to provide capacity building is based on the IDEAS framework: Innovation (research) Around climate impacts, evaluation of interventions, and the value of climate information in reducing risks and maximizing opportunities Demonstration E.g. in-country GFCS projects in Tanzania and Malawi - or El Nino work in Ethiopia Education Academic and professional training efforts Advocacy This might focus on communication of variability and change? We are WHO collaborating center so are engaged through RBM/Global Malaria Programme Service ENACTS and Data library key to this. Country data better quality than NASA as incorporates all relevant station data and NASA products. This presentation will demonstrate how the IDEAS framework has been implemented and lessons learned.

  2. Moral intensity and climate-friendly food choices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mäkiniemi, Jaana-Piia; Vainio, Annukka

    2013-07-01

    By changing individual food consumption patterns, it might be possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with climate change. The aim of the current study was to examine how perceptions of the moral intensity of climate change are related to climate friendly-food choices. The participants were 350 Finnish university students in the social and behavioral sciences who completed a questionnaire during class. The results indicated that moral perceptions mainly affected the moral evaluation and intentions to make climate-friendly food choices. We suggest that the results can be used to promote climate-friendly food choices, for example, by increasing the recognition of climate change as a moral imperative and by combining environmental motives with other relevant food choice motives. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Should the north make unilateral technology transfers to the south? North-South cooperation and conflicts in responses to global climate change

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yang, Zili

    1999-01-01

    Whether developed countries should make unilateral technology transfers to developing countries in order to address global environment problems is debatable. This paper discusses the issue in a framework that recognizing nations' joint production of environmental externalities. Unlike the existing literature on unilateral transfers, this paper presents a North-South environmental-economic optimal growth model that allows transfers to mitigate externalities only. The paper derives criteria that would make such transfers feasible. By solving the transfer problem in a modified RICE model [Nordhaus, W.D., Yang, Z., 1996. A regional dynamic general equilibrium model of alternative climate change strategies, Am. Econ. Rev., 86 (4) 741-65], this paper also provides information on the timing and the amount of unilateral transfers from North to South to address potential global warming problem, one major global environmental externality. A policy implication from his study is that moderate employment of unilateral transfers would benefit North along with the world as a whole

  4. Energy conservation in refrigerating machines by combining of thermo-static expansion valve and interior heat transfer material; Energieeinsparung in Kaelteanlagen durch Kombination von thermostatischem Expansionsventil und innerem Waermeuebertrager

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tambovtsev, Alexander

    2007-12-15

    The invention of the refrigerating machine enables to generate cold energy in any needed amount and at any desired temperature. However, cold energy generation requires driving energy. The target of this dissertation is to reduce the energy consumption of refrigerating plants considerably by means of an intelligent combination of the thermo-static expansion valve and the interior heat transfer medium. This combination should not deteriorate the reliability nor incur additional costs. Until today the two known components thermo-static expansion valve and interior heat transfer medium are considered as incompatible, because the simple connection of both components leads to an unstable control behaviour. After a detailed analysis of the causes for this instability the hypothesis is made, a stable working area can be found by means of a deliberate ''deterioration'' of the internal heat transfer medium. This ''deterioration'' can be e.g. a bypass of a part of the high-pressure flow or a parallel flow arrangement of the flows in the heat transfer medium. This hypothesis was primarily proved by experiments, but also by simulation calculations. A test stand was set-up for this purpose, which was used to test various configurations and control strategies. A considerable reduction of the energy consumption compared to conventional arrangements was achieved. (orig.) [German] Die Erfindung der Kaeltemaschine macht es moeglich, dass heute zu beliebiger Zeit Kaelte in benoetigter Menge und gewuenschter Temperatur erzeugt werden kann. Aber fuer die Kaelteerzeugung braucht man Antriebsenergie. Das Ziel dieser Doktorarbeit besteht darin, mit einer intelligenten Kombination von thermostatischem Expansionsventil (TEV) und innerem Waermeuebertrager (IWUe) den Energieverbrauch von Kaelteanlagen deutlich zu verringern, ohne dass dies zu einer Verschlechterung der Zuverlaessigkeit oder wesentlichen Mehrkosten fuehrt. Bis heute gelten die beiden

  5. Meteorology and Climate Inspire Secondary Science Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Charlton-Perez, Andrew; Dacre, Helen; Maskell, Kathy; Reynolds, Ross; South, Rachel; Wood, Curtis

    2010-01-01

    As part of its National Science and Engineering Week activities in 2009 and 2010, the University of Reading organised two open days for 60 local key stage 4 pupils. The theme of both open days was "How do we predict weather and climate?" Making use of the students' familiarity with weather and climate, several concepts of relevance to secondary…

  6. Corruption in Organizations: Ethical Climate and Individual Motives

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Madelijne Gorsira

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this research was to examine how organizational and individual factors, in concert, shape corruption. We examined whether the ethical climate of organizations is related to corruption, and if so, whether it affects corruption through individual motives for corruption. A large-scale questionnaire study was conducted among public officials (n = 234 and business employees (n = 289 who were in a position to make corrupt decisions. The findings suggest that public and private sector employees who perceive their organizational climate as more egoistic and less ethical are more prone to corruption. This relationship was fully mediated by individual motives, specifically by personal and social norms on corruption. These results indicate that employees who perceive their organization’s ethical climate as more egoistic and less ethical experience weaker personal and social norms to refrain from corruption, making them more corruption-prone. Hence, strategies addressing the interplay between organizational factors and individual motives seem promising in curbing corruption. To effectively withhold employees from engaging in corruption, organizations could deploy measures that strengthen an organizations’ ethical climate and encourage ethical decision-making based on concern for the wellbeing of others, as well as measures increasing the strength of personal and social norms to refrain from corruption.

  7. Exchanging ideas on climate change in the Yukon

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2000-01-01

    Climate change models predict that Canada's North will receive the earliest and most extreme impacts of a changing climate. An increase in temperature could affect the Yukon economy, wildlife, traditional cultures and recreational activities. For this reason, the Northern Climate Exchange visited communities in the Yukon to exchange ideas with residents regarding observations and concerns about changes in weather and the land. The information obtained from the visits provides a better understanding of the situation and could help determine priorities for further research. The report showed that the residents are concerned about their observations, but public opinion on what do do about climate change varies among communities. While there are large amounts of local information on the subject, very little of it is documented. Very little research is available at a scale that is useful to community-level decision-making processes. This makes local observations even more valuable as they are in the best position to understand and assess their vulnerability to climate change. It was recommended that local and traditional knowledge on climate change be properly documented and that a community-based environmental monitoring strategy be developed. The final recommendation was to develop policy and decision-support tools. 3 tabs., 10 figs

  8. Mapping the decision points and climate information use of agricultural producers across the U.S. Corn Belt

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tonya Haigh

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The usefulness of climate information for agricultural risk management hinges on its availability and relevance to the producer when climate-sensitive decisions are being made. Climate information providers are challenged with the task of balancing forecast availability and lead time with acceptable forecast skill, which requires an improved understanding of the timing of agricultural decision making. Achieving a useful balance may also require an expansion of inquiry to include use of non-forecast climate information (i.e. historical climate information in agricultural decision making. Decision calendars have proven valuable for identifying opportunities for using different types of climate information. The extent to which decision-making time periods are localized versus generalized across major commodity-producing regions is yet unknown, though, which has limited their use in climate product development. Based on a 2012 survey of more than 4770 agricultural producers across the U.S. Corn Belt region, we found variation in the timing of decision-making points in the crop year based on geographic variation as well as crop management differences. Many key decisions in the cropping year take place during the preceding fall and winter, months before planting, raising questions about types of climate information that might be best inserted into risk management decisions at that time. We found that historical climate information and long term climate outlooks are less influential in agricultural risk management than current weather, short term forecasts, or monthly climate projections, even though they may, in fact, be more useful to certain types of decision making.

  9. Economics, ethics, and climate policy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Howarth, R.B.; Monahan, P.A.

    1992-11-01

    Are the costs of greenhouse gas emissions abatement justified by the perceived benefits of sustained climate stability Do people of the present generation have a moral right to impose climate risks on their descendants in generations to come This report examines these questions in light of the emergent facts of climate science and their socioeconomic implications. We consider alternative normative criteria for social decision-making with particular emphasis on cost-benefit analysis and the principle of sustainable development. While each framework yields important insights, we argue that the gross uncertainties associated with climate change and the distribution of impacts between present and future generations constrain the usefulness of cost-benefit criteria in evaluating climate policy. If one accepts the ethical proposition that it is morally wrong to impose catastrophic risks on unborn generations when reducing those risks would not noticeably diminish the quality of life of existing persons, a case can be made for concerted policy action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

  10. Economics, ethics, and climate policy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Howarth, R.B.; Monahan, P.A.

    1992-11-01

    Are the costs of greenhouse gas emissions abatement justified by the perceived benefits of sustained climate stability? Do people of the present generation have a moral right to impose climate risks on their descendants in generations to come? This report examines these questions in light of the emergent facts of climate science and their socioeconomic implications. We consider alternative normative criteria for social decision-making with particular emphasis on cost-benefit analysis and the principle of sustainable development. While each framework yields important insights, we argue that the gross uncertainties associated with climate change and the distribution of impacts between present and future generations constrain the usefulness of cost-benefit criteria in evaluating climate policy. If one accepts the ethical proposition that it is morally wrong to impose catastrophic risks on unborn generations when reducing those risks would not noticeably diminish the quality of life of existing persons, a case can be made for concerted policy action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

  11. Stratocumulus transitions in present-day and future climate

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Van der Dussen, J.J.

    2015-01-01

    Clouds have a strong net cooling effect on our planet, as they reflect a large part of the incident solar radiation. To be able to make accurate forecasts of the global climate, cloudiness should therefore be correctly represented by climate models. Currently, however there are large differences in

  12. Construction of climate change scenarios from transient climate change experiments for the IPCC impacts assessment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Viner, D.; Hulme, M.; Raper, S.C.B.; Jones, P.D.

    1994-01-01

    This paper outlines the different methods which may be used for the construction of regional climate change scenarios. The main focus of the paper is the construction of global climate change scenarios from climate change experiments carried out using General Circulation Models (GCMS) An introduction to some GCM climate change experiments highlights the difference between model types and experiments (e.g., equilibrium or transient). The latest generation of climate change experiments has been performed using fully coupled ocean-atmosphere GCMS. These allow transient simulations of climate change to be performed with respect to a given greenhouse gas forcing scenario. There are, however, a number of problems with these simulations which pose difficulties for the construction of climate change scenarios for use in climate change impacts assessment. The characteristics of the transient climate change experiments which pose difficulties for the construction of climate change scenarios are discussed. Three examples of these problems are: different climate change experiments use different greenhouse gas concentration scenarios; the 'cold-start' problem makes it difficult to link future projections of climate change to a given calendar year; a drift of the climate is noticeable in the control simulations. In order to construct climate change scenarios for impacts assessment a method has therefore to be employed which addresses these problems. At present the climate modeling and climate change impacts communities are somewhat polarized in their approach to spatial scales. Current GCMs model the climate at resolutions larger than 2.5 x 3.75 degree, while the majority of impacts assessment studies are undertaken at scales below 50km (or 0.5 degree). This paper concludes by addressing the problems in bringing together these two different modeling perspectives by presenting a number of regional climate change scenarios. 35 refs., 8 figs., 2 tabs

  13. Climate Masters of Nebraska: An Action Based Approach to Climate Change Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Umphlett, N.; Bernadt, T.; Pathak, T.

    2014-12-01

    The Climate Masters of Nebraska pilot program started in 2010 with the goal of assisting the community in becoming more knowledgeable and making informed decisions regarding climate change issues. First, participants engage in a 10-week training course where they learn from experts how to reduce their carbon footprint in everyday life. Participants then volunteer at least 30 hours educating the community through household consultations, outreach events, or other creative efforts they want to take to actively influence the community to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The first two groups of Climate Masters volunteers completed multiple household consultations, started a drip irrigation project, hosted an informational booth at local events, participated in an Adopt a Highway program, formed a Citizens Climate Lobby group, and worked with the City of Lincoln's reEnergize outreach program. All of these projects positively impacted the environment, reduced GHG emissions, or both. The program is continuing for a third year with a new and improved course in the fall. Taking into account suggestions from previous courses, this new course hopes to focus more on the climate issues that are particularly pressing in southeastern Nebraska.

  14. Making Real Life Connections and Engaging High School Students as They Become Climate Detectives using data obtained through JOIDES Resolution Expedition 341

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chegwidden, D.; Mote, A. S.; Manley, J.; Ledley, T. S.; Haddad, N.; Ellins, K.; Lynds, S. E.

    2016-02-01

    Texas is a state that values and supports an Earth Science curriculum, and as an experienced educator in Texas, I find it crucial to educate my students about the various Ocean Science careers that exist and also be able to use the valuable data that is obtained in a core sample from the ocean floor. "Climate Detective" is an EarthLabs module that is supported by TERC and International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 341. This module contains hands-on activities, many opportunities to interpret actual data from a core sample, and collaborative team skills to solve a problem. Through the module, students are able to make real connections with scientists when they understand various roles aboard the JOIDES Resolution. Students can also visually experience real-time research via live video streaming within the research vessel. In my classroom, the use of the "Climate Detective" not only establishes a beneficial relationship between teacher and marine scientists, but such access to the data also helps enhance the climate-related concepts and explanatory procedures involved in obtaining reports. Data is applied to a challenge question for all student groups to answer at the end of the module. This Project-based learning module emphasizes different forms of evidence and requires that learners apply different inquiry approaches to build the knowledge each one needs to acquire, as they become climate-literate citizens. My involvement with the EarthLabs project has strengthened my overall knowledge and confidence to teach about Earth's systems and climate change. In addition, this experience has led me to become an advocate who promotes vigorous classroom discussion among my students; additionally, I am encouraged to collaborate with other educators through the delivery of professional development across the state of Texas. Regularly, I connect with scientists in my classroom and such connection truly enriches not only my personal knowledge, but also provides a

  15. The Business of Co-Production: Assessing Efforts to Bridge Science and Decision-Making for Adaptation in California

    Science.gov (United States)

    Webber, S.; MacDonald, G. M.

    2016-12-01

    The last decades have seen scholars argue for a greater integration of science and decision-making in order to more effectively respond to climate change. It has been suggested that overcoming the gap between science, on the one hand, and policy-making and management, on the other, requires building bridges through methods of co-production, creating actionable science, or through boundary organizations. In this paper, we review attempts at co-production for policy-making and management in the context of climate change adaptation in California. Building on field research, including numerous interviews conducted with scientists and decision-makers who are co-producers of adaptation projects, we make three arguments. First, we show that an emphasis on co-production and science-informed climate change adaptation decision-making has bolstered a contract-oriented, and decentralized network-based model of producing climate science. Second, reviewing successes and failures in co-production - as reported in interviews - indicates that it is principally in cases of neatly defined, and spatially and temporarily narrow decision-making contexts, and with highly motivated decision-makers, that climate science is used. Finally, we suggest that the ideas of co-production and actionable science may have increased the institutional and organizational burden at the science-decision interface, lengthening the boundary-organization-chain rather than necessarily facilitating adaptive policy-making and management.

  16. Integrating adaptive governance and participatory multicriteria methods: a framework for climate adaptation governance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stefania Munaretto

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Climate adaptation is a dynamic social and institutional process where the governance dimension is receiving growing attention. Adaptive governance is an approach that promises to reduce uncertainty by improving the knowledge base for decision making. As uncertainty is an inherent feature of climate adaptation, adaptive governance seems to be a promising approach for improving climate adaptation governance. However, the adaptive governance literature has so far paid little attention to decision-making tools and methods, and the literature on the governance of adaptation is in its infancy in this regard. We argue that climate adaptation governance would benefit from systematic and yet flexible decision-making tools and methods such as participatory multicriteria methods for the evaluation of adaptation options, and that these methods can be linked to key adaptive governance principles. Moving from these premises, we propose a framework that integrates key adaptive governance features into participatory multicriteria methods for the governance of climate adaptation.

  17. Climate, weather, and hops

    Science.gov (United States)

    As climate and weather become more variable, hop growers face increased uncertainty in making decisions about their crop. Given the unprecedented nature of these changes, growers may no longer have enough information and intuitive understanding to adequately assess the situation and evaluate their m...

  18. International Business and Global Climate Change

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kolk, A.; Pinkse, J.

    2008-11-15

    Climate change has become an important topic on the business agenda with strong pressure being placed on companies to respond and contribute to finding solutions to this urgent problem. This text provides a comprehensive analysis of international business responses to global climate change and climate change policy. Embedded in relevant management literature, this book gives a concise treatment of developments in policy and business activity on global, regional and national levels, using examples and systematic data from a large number of international companies. The first part outlines the international climate policy landscape and voluntary initiatives taken by companies, both alone and together with others. The second part examines companies' strategies, covering innovation for climate change, as well as compensation via emissions trading and carbon offsetting. Written by well-known experts in the field, International Business and Global Climate Change illustrates how an environmental topic becomes strategically important in a mainstream sense, affecting corporate decision-making, business processes, products, reputation, advertising, communication, accounting and finance.

  19. International Business and Global Climate Change

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kolk, A.; Pinkse, J.

    2008-11-01

    Climate change has become an important topic on the business agenda with strong pressure being placed on companies to respond and contribute to finding solutions to this urgent problem. This text provides a comprehensive analysis of international business responses to global climate change and climate change policy. Embedded in relevant management literature, this book gives a concise treatment of developments in policy and business activity on global, regional and national levels, using examples and systematic data from a large number of international companies. The first part outlines the international climate policy landscape and voluntary initiatives taken by companies, both alone and together with others. The second part examines companies' strategies, covering innovation for climate change, as well as compensation via emissions trading and carbon offsetting. Written by well-known experts in the field, International Business and Global Climate Change illustrates how an environmental topic becomes strategically important in a mainstream sense, affecting corporate decision-making, business processes, products, reputation, advertising, communication, accounting and finance

  20. Derivatives Trading, Climate Science and Human Rights

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Haigh, Matthew

    for capital flows associated with climate management. Media communications and decision making theories are used to interpret data drawn from participant observation and interviews with climate scientists, policy makers and institutional investors. Findings - The framework suggests a digital divide between...... the heaviest polluters as contributing to carbon-minimised investment portfolios. Assets owned by privately managed pension funds have remained materially exposed to risks posed by climate change. In public finance, a narrow range of financial instruments centred on derivatives trading has entrenched global...... between human rights, climate change, and the stability of private pensions provision. Originality/value - Provides policy sciences useful assessments of communication media and financial instruments used in climate management. Establishes bases for theoretical and applied communications research...

  1. Flood Protection Decision Making Within a Coupled Human and Natural System

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Donnell, Greg; O'Connell, Enda

    2013-04-01

    Due to the perceived threat from climate change, prediction under changing climatic and hydrological conditions has become a dominant theme of hydrological research. Much of this research has been climate model-centric, in which GCM/RCM climate projections have been used to drive hydrological system models to explore potential impacts that should inform adaptation decision-making. However, adaptation fundamentally involves how humans may respond to increasing flood and drought hazards by changing their strategies, activities and behaviours which are coupled in complex ways to the natural systems within which they live and work. Humans are major agents of change in hydrological systems, and representing human activities and behaviours in coupled human and natural hydrological system models is needed to gain insight into the complex interactions that take place, and to inform adaptation decision-making. Governments and their agencies are under pressure to make proactive investments to protect people living in floodplains from the perceived increasing flood hazard. However, adopting this as a universal strategy everywhere is not affordable, particularly in times of economic stringency and given uncertainty about future climatic conditions. It has been suggested that the assumption of stationarity, which has traditionally been invoked in making hydrological risk assessments, is no longer tenable. However, before the assumption of hydrologic nonstationarity is accepted, the ability to cope with the uncertain impacts of global warming on water management via the operational assumption of hydrologic stationarity should be carefully examined. Much can be learned by focussing on natural climate variability and its inherent changes in assessing alternative adaptation strategies. A stationary stochastic multisite flood hazard model has been developed that can exhibit increasing variability/persistence in annual maximum floods, starting with the traditional assumption of

  2. Selection of climate change scenario data for impact modelling

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sloth Madsen, M; Fox Maule, C; MacKellar, N

    2012-01-01

    Impact models investigating climate change effects on food safety often need detailed climate data. The aim of this study was to select climate change projection data for selected crop phenology and mycotoxin impact models. Using the ENSEMBLES database of climate model output, this study...... illustrates how the projected climate change signal of important variables as temperature, precipitation and relative humidity depends on the choice of the climate model. Using climate change projections from at least two different climate models is recommended to account for model uncertainty. To make...... the climate projections suitable for impact analysis at the local scale a weather generator approach was adopted. As the weather generator did not treat all the necessary variables, an ad-hoc statistical method was developed to synthesise realistic values of missing variables. The method is presented...

  3. Monitoring and Evaluation Toolkit for Climate Change Adaptation ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Many African countries, regions and organizations are making plans for climate change adaptation. If such plans are to be effective, they will need to be monitored and evaluated on an ongoing basis. This grant will support the integration of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) in climate change adaptation initiatives by ...

  4. Making the best of climatic variability: options for upgrading rainfed farming in water scarce regions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rockström, J

    2004-01-01

    Coping with climatic variability for livelihood security is part of everyday life for rural communities in semi-arid and dry sub-humid savannas. Water scarcity caused by rainfall fluctuations is common, causing meteorological droughts and dry spells. However, this paper indicates, based on experiences in sub-Saharan Africa and India, that the social impact on rural societies of climatically induced droughts is exaggerated. Instead, water scarcity causing food deficits is more often caused by management induced droughts and dry spells. A conceptual framework to distinguish between manageable and unmanageable droughts is presented. It is suggested that climatic droughts require focus on social resilience building instead of land and water resource management. Focus is then set on the manageable part of climatic variability, namely the almost annual occurrence of dry spells, short 2-4 week periods of no rainfall, affecting farmer yields. On-farm experiences in savannas of sub-Saharan Africa of water harvesting systems for dry spell mitigation are presented. It is shown that bridging dry spells combined with soil fertility management can double and even triple on-farm yield levels. Combined with innovative systems to ensure maximum plant water availability and water uptake capacity, through adoption of soil fertility improvement and conservation tillage systems, there is a clear opportunity to upgrade rainfed farming systems in vulnerable savanna environments, through appropriate local management of climatic variability.

  5. Assessment of climate change scenarios for Saudi Arabia using data from global climate models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Husain, T.; Chowdhury, S.

    2009-01-01

    This study assesses available scientific information and data to predict changes in the climatic parameters in Saudi Arabia for understanding the impacts for mitigation and/or adaptation. Meteorological data from 26 synoptic stations were analyzed in this study. Various climatic change scenarios were reviewed and A 2 and B 2 climatic scenario families were selected. In order to assess long-term global impact, global climatic models were used to simulate changes in temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, solar radiation, and wind circulation. Using global climate model (GCM), monthly time series data was retrieved for Longitude 15 o N to 35 o N and 32.5 o E to 60 o E covering the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from 1970 to 2100 for all grids. Taking averages of 1970 to 2003 as baseline, change in temperature, relative humidity and precipitation were estimated for the base period. A comparative evaluation was performed for predictive capabilities of these models for temperature, precipitation and relative humidity. Available meteorological data from 1970 to 2003 was used to determine trends. This paper discusses the inconsistency in these parameters for decision-making and recommends future studies by linking global climate models with a suitable regional climate modeling tool. (author)

  6. Climate: how to turn the tide?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Neslen, Arthur; Touriel, Aubry; Loubens, Audrey; Combe, Matthieu; Danielo, Olivier

    2014-10-01

    The contributions of this publication address various topics and issues related to possible origins and consequences of climate change: biofuels used in Europe accelerate deforestation; uncertainties about the 2030 Energy-Climate package; Paris will soon know the quantity of greenhouse gas which pollutes its air; France does not phase out nuclear for its energy transition; the impacts of air pollution on agriculture; a difficult cost-benefit analysis for the IPCC; whether the warming noticed during the 1970-1990 years partially related to a natural oceanic oscillation; to drill under the ocean in order to understand the Earth; global warming make fishes more toxic; whether our planet will be submitted to apocalyptic climate changes; scientists of the Chinese Academy of Sciences announce a cooling of climate

  7. The computational future for climate change research

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Washington, Warren M

    2005-01-01

    The development of climate models has a long history starting with the building of atmospheric models and later ocean models. The early researchers were very aware of the goal of building climate models which could integrate our knowledge of complex physical interactions between atmospheric, land-vegetation, hydrology, ocean, cryospheric processes, and sea ice. The transition from climate models to earth system models is already underway with coupling of active biochemical cycles. Progress is limited by present computer capability which is needed for increasingly more complex and higher resolution climate models versions. It would be a mistake to make models too complex or too high resolution. Arriving at a 'feasible' and useful model is the challenge for the climate model community. Some of the climate change history, scientific successes, and difficulties encountered with supercomputers will be presented

  8. Getting The Picture: Our Changing Climate- A new learning tool for climate science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yager, K.; Balog, J. D.

    2014-12-01

    Earth Vision Trust (EVT), founded by James Balog- photographer and scientist, has developed a free, online, multimedia climate science education tool for students and educators. Getting The Picture (GTP) creates a new learning experience, drawing upon powerful archives of Extreme Ice Survey's unique photographs and time-lapse videos of changing glaciers around the world. GTP combines the latest in climate science through interactive tools that make the basic scientific tenets of climate science accessible and easy to understand. The aim is to use a multidisciplinary approach to encourage critical thinking about the way our planet is changing due to anthropogenic activities, and to inspire students to find their own voice regarding our changing climate The essence of this resource is storytelling through the use of inspiring images, field expedition notes and dynamic multimedia tools. EVT presents climate education in a new light, illustrating the complex interaction between humans and nature through their Art + Science approach. The overarching goal is to educate and empower young people to take personal action. GTP is aligned with national educational and science standards (NGSS, CCSS, Climate Literacy) so it may be used in conventional classrooms as well as education centers, museum kiosks or anywhere with Internet access. Getting The Picture extends far beyond traditional learning to provide an engaging experience for students, educators and all those who wish to explore the latest in climate science.

  9. Engaging Students In The Science Of Climate Change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rhew, R. C.; Halversen, C.; Weiss, E.; Pedemonte, S.; Weirman, T.

    2013-12-01

    Climate change is arguably the defining environmental issue of our generation. It is thus increasingly necessary for every member of the global community to understand the basic underlying science of Earth's climate system and how it is changing in order to make informed, evidence-based decisions about how we will respond individually and as a society. Through exploration of the inextricable interconnection between Earth's ocean, atmosphere and climate, we believe students will be better prepared to tackle the complex issues surrounding the causes and effects of climate change and evaluate possible solutions. If students are also given opportunities to gather evidence from real data and use scientific argumentation to make evidence-based explanations about climate change, not only will they gain an increased understanding of the science concepts and science practices, the students will better comprehend the nature of climate change science. Engaging in argument from evidence is a scientific practice not only emphasized in the Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), but also emphasized in the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies and Science (CCSS). This significant overlap between NGSS and CCSS has implications for science and language arts classrooms, and should influence how we support and build students' expertise with this practice of sciences. The featured exemplary curricula supports middle school educators as they address climate change in their classrooms. The exemplar we will use is the NOAA-funded Ocean Sciences Sequence (OSS) for Grades 6-8: The ocean-atmosphere connection and climate change, which are curriculum units that deliver rich science content correlated to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Disciplinary Core Ideas and an emphasis on the Practices of Science, as called for in NGSS and the Framework. Designed in accordance with the latest

  10. Multi-criteria analysis to support decision-making process in the event of radiological emergency in tropical climate countries

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pereira, Jose F.; Rochedo, Elaine R.R.; Wasserman, Maria A.V.; Silva, Diogo N.G.

    2008-01-01

    Full text: The Multi-criteria Analysis has been widely used in the most diverse areas of the knowledge such as Economy, Transport, Industry, Production, among others. The Multi-criteria Analysis aims to support the decision process, based on the comparison of alternatives, leading to the recommendation of optimized actions in support to decision makers. One of the permanent concerns in the international scenario is the study of the nuclear/radiological consequences of accidents and other events that lead to the contamination of the environment and the exposure of members of the public as a consequence of this contamination. The Multi-criteria Analysis Method is already being used for similar applications in some European countries but it is necessary that the criteria are established taking in account economic, social and climatic aspects that can affect the selection of protective measures applicable to specific regions, and the selection of the different weights to be associated to the different criteria that are to be applied to different social-politic environments. The present work describes the development, already in advanced phase, of a Multi-criteria tool to support the decision making process for the implementation of protective measures to protect the public in situations of radiological accidents, with the degree of flexibility to be easily adapted to the different social, political and climatic regions of Brazil, through the comparison of different options considering a diversity of aspects, such as the efficiency of the measure in the reducing public exposure, the radiation doses that would be received by the workers, the characteristics of the generated wastes, the difficulty of implementation of the measures, as well as the operational costs related to the implementation of the measures. The aim of such analysis is to supply an optimized guidance, under the point of view of radiological protection, adequate for different types of environments that

  11. Can We Envision a Bettor's Guide to Climate Prediction Markets?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trexler, M.

    2017-12-01

    It's one thing to set up a climate prediction market, it's another to find enough informed traders to make the market work. Climate bets could range widely, from purely scientific or atmospheric metrics, to bets that involve the interplay of science, policy, economic, and behavioral outcomes. For a topic as complex and politicized as climate change, a Bettor's Guide to Climate Predictions could substantially expand and diversify the pool of individuals trading in the market, increasing both its liquidity and decision-support value. The Climate Web is an on-line and publically accessible Beta version of such a Bettor's Guide, implementing the knowledge management adage: "if only we knew what we know." The Climate Web not only curates the key literature, news coverage, and websites relating to more than 100 climate topics, from extreme event exceedance curves to climate economics to climate risk scenarios, it extracts and links together thousands of ideas and graphics across all of those topics. The Climate Web integrates the many disciplinary silos that characterize today's often dysfunctional climate policy conversations, allowing rapid cross-silo exploration and understanding. As a Bettor's Guide it would allow prediction market traders to better research and understand their potential bets, and to quickly survey key thinking and uncertainties relating to those bets. The availability of such a Bettor's Guide to Climate Predictions should make traders willing to place more bets than they otherwise would, and should facilitate higher quality betting. The presentation will introduce the knowledge management dimensions and challenges of climate prediction markets, and introduce the Climate Web as one solution to those challenges.

  12. Overview of the Implementation of the Climate Data Initiative

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tilmes, C.; Goodman, H. M.; Privette, A. P.

    2014-12-01

    One of the efforts described in the President's Climate Action Plan is the Climate Data Initiative, a broad effort to leverage the federal government's extensive, freely-available climate-relevant data resources data to spur innovation and private-sector entrepreneurship in order to advance awareness of and preparedness for the impacts of climate change. The Climate Data Initiative, launched in March 2014, leverages commitments from government and the private sector to unleash data and make it accessible in ways that can be used by communities and companies to prepare for climate change. It builds on the White House's other Open Data Initiatives—in areas such as health, education, and safety. The Climate Data Initiative unleashes federal data relevant to addressing climate-related risks and vulnerabilities through the Climate.Data.gov web site. This talk will describe the Climate Data Initiative and its support and interactions with the Climate Resilience Toolkit.

  13. Competencies Framework for Climate Services.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aguilar, Enric

    2016-04-01

    The World Climate Conference-3 (Geneva, 2009) established the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) to enable better management of the risks of climate variability and change and adaptation to climate change at all levels, through development and incorporation of science-based climate information and prediction into planning, policy and practice. The GFCS defines Climate Services as the result of transforming climate data into climate information in a way that responds to user needs and assists decision-making by individuals and organizations. Capacity Development is a cross-cutting pillar of the GFCS to ensure that services are provided by institutions with professionals whom achieved the adequate set of competencies recommended by WMO, which are yet to be fully defined. The WMO-Commission for Climatology Expert Team on Education and Training, ET-ETR, has been working to define a Competencies Framework for Climate Services to help the institutions to deliver high quality climate services in compliance with WMO standards and regulations, specifically those defined by WMO's Commission for Climatology and the GFCS. This framework is based in 5 areas or competence, closely associated to the areas of work of climate services providers: create and manage climate data sets; derive products from climate data; create and/or interpret climate forecasts and model output; ensure the quality of climate information and services; communicate climatological information with users. With this contribution, we intend to introduce to a wider audience the rationale behind these 5 top-level competency statements and the performance criteria associated with them, as well as the plans of the ET-ETR for further developing them into an instrument to support education and training within the WMO members, specially the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services.

  14. The new socio-economic scenarios for climate change research

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guivarch, C.; Rozenberg, J.

    2013-01-01

    The scientific community is developing a new generation of scenarios to inform the choices we have to make when it comes to responding to climate change. This new generation of scenarios integrates more fully the mechanisms that regulate climate and provides insights to spatial and temporal resolutions unexplored in previous exercises. In addition, it gives a framework for integrating explicit climate policies for mitigation and adaptation, which allows assessing the benefits and costs of climate policies in different socio-economic scenarios. Finally, it introduces a new way of working that strengthens the collaboration between different research communities on climate change. (authors)

  15. Making the links: do we connect climate change with health? A qualitative case study from Canada

    OpenAIRE

    Cardwell, Francesca S; Elliott, Susan J

    2013-01-01

    Background Climate change has been described as the biggest global health threat of the 21st century. Typically framed as an environmental issue, some suggest this view has contributed to public ambivalence and hence a lack of public engagement. The lack of understanding of climate change as a significant environmental health risk on the part of the lay public represents a significant barrier to behaviour change. We therefore need to think about reframing the impact of climate change from an ...

  16. Leveraging federal science data and tools to help communities & business build climate resilience

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herring, D.

    2016-12-01

    Decision-makers in every sector and region of the United States are seeking actionable science-based information to help them understand and manage their climate-related risks. Translating data, tools and information from the domain of climate science to the domains of municipal, social, and economic decision-making raises complex questions—e.g., how to communicate causes and impacts of climate variability and change; how to show projections of plausible future climate scenarios; how to characterize and quantify vulnerabilities, risks, and opportunities facing communities and businesses; and how to make and implement "win-win" adaptation plans. These are the types of challenges being addressed by a public-private partnership of federal agencies, academic institutions, non-governmental organizations, and private businesses that are contributing to the development of the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit (toolkit.climate.gov), a new website designed to help people build resilience to extreme events caused by both natural climate variability and long-term climate change. The site's Climate Explorer is designed to help people understand potential climate conditions over the course of this century. It offers easy access to downloadable maps, graphs, and data tables of observed and projected temperature, precipitation and other decision-relevant climate variables dating back to 1950 and out to 2100. Of course, climate change is only one of many variables affecting decisions about the future so the Toolkit also ties climate information to a wide range of other relevant tools and information to help users to explore their vulnerabilities and risks. In this session, we will describe recent enhancements to the Toolkit, lessons learned from user engagements, and evidence that our approach of coupling scientific information with actionable decision-making processes is helping Americans build resilience to climate-related impacts.

  17. Climate change: the knowledge and the possible

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Le Treut, H.; Huet, S.; Chappellaz, J.; Godard, O.

    2010-01-01

    Ultimatum, justice, crisis, green development, skepticism, controversy.. climate change is making noise in the beginning of this- 21 century and is going to make much more. In order to act with full knowledge of the facts, it is recommended to get the information from the right source and to make a precise status of the available knowledge. Then, this knowledge must be analyzed to understand how it has been obtained, discussed, validated, spread and sometimes distorted. This is what the authors of this book are applying themselves to do: two climatologists, one economist and one journalist are joining their skills and give us the keys that allow us to decode the paradoxes and challenges of the climate question. They provide us with intellectual arms to fight against the insincere skepticism and to discuss about the rational skepticism. (J.S.)

  18. Climate Change and Sustainable Development: Realizing the Opportunity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Robinson, John; Bradley, Mike; Busby, Peter; Connor, Denis; Murray, Anne

    2006-01-01

    Manifold linkages exist between climate change and sustainable development. Although these are starting to receive attention in the climate exchange literature, the focus has typically been on examining sustainable development through a climate change lens, rather than vice versa. And there has been little systematic examination of how these linkages may be fostered in practice. This paper examines climate change through a sustainable development lens. To illustrate how this might change the approach to climate change issues, it reports on the findings of a panel of business, local government, and academic representatives in British Columbia, Canada, who were appointed to advise the provincial government on climate change policy. The panel found that sustainable development may offer a significantly more fruitful way to pursue climate policy goals than climate policy itself. The paper discusses subsequent climate change developments in the province and makes suggestions as how best to pursue such a sustainability approach in British Columbia and other jurisdictions

  19. Ecological and evolutionary impacts of changing climatic variability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vázquez, Diego P; Gianoli, Ernesto; Morris, William F; Bozinovic, Francisco

    2017-02-01

    While average temperature is likely to increase in most locations on Earth, many places will simultaneously experience higher variability in temperature, precipitation, and other climate variables. Although ecologists and evolutionary biologists widely recognize the potential impacts of changes in average climatic conditions, relatively little attention has been paid to the potential impacts of changes in climatic variability and extremes. We review the evidence on the impacts of increased climatic variability and extremes on physiological, ecological and evolutionary processes at multiple levels of biological organization, from individuals to populations and communities. Our review indicates that climatic variability can have profound influences on biological processes at multiple scales of organization. Responses to increased climatic variability and extremes are likely to be complex and cannot always be generalized, although our conceptual and methodological toolboxes allow us to make informed predictions about the likely consequences of such climatic changes. We conclude that climatic variability represents an important component of climate that deserves further attention. © 2015 Cambridge Philosophical Society.

  20. Considerations in Starting Climate Change Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Long, J. C. S.; Morgan, G.; Hamburg, S.; Winickoff, D. E.

    2014-12-01

    Many have called for climate engineering research because the growing risks of climate change and the geopolitical and national security risks of climate remediation technologies are real. As the topic of climate engineering remains highly controversial, national funding agencies should evaluate even modest outdoor climate engineering research proposals with respect to societal, legal, and risk considerations in making a decision to fund or not to fund. These concerns will be extremely difficult to coordinate internationally if they are not first considered successfully on a national basis. Assessment of a suite of proposed research projects with respect to these considerations indicates we would learn valuable lessons about how to govern research by initiating a few exemplar projects. The first time an issue arrives it can be very helpful if it there are specific cases, not a broad class of projects. A good first case should be defensible and understandable, fit within the general mandate of existing research programs, have negligible physical risk, small physical scale and short duration. By focusing on a specific case, the discussion can be held with limits and help to establish some track record in dealing with a controversial subject and developing a process for assigning appropriate scrutiny and outreach. Even at an early stage, with low risk, small-scale experiments, obtaining broad-based advice will aid in dealing with the controversies. An independent advisory body can provide guidance about a wide spectrum of physical and social risks of funding the experiment compared to societal benefit of gaining understanding. Clearly identifying the research as climate engineering research avoids sending research down a path that might violate public trust and provide an important opportunity to grow governance and public engagement at an early stage. Climate engineering research should be seen in the context of all approaches to dealing with the climate problem

  1. Understanding and managing trust at the climate science-policy interface

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lacey, Justine; Howden, Mark; Cvitanovic, Christopher; Colvin, R. M.

    2018-01-01

    Climate change effects are accelerating, making the need for appropriate actions informed by sound climate knowledge ever more pressing. A strong climate science-policy relationship facilitates the effective integration of climate knowledge into local, national and global policy processes, increases society's responsiveness to a changing climate, and aligns research activity to policy needs. This complex science-policy relationship requires trust between climate science `producers' and `users', but our understanding of trust at this interface remains largely uncritical. To assist climate scientists and policymakers, this Perspective provides insights into how trust develops and operates at the interface of climate science and policy, and examines the extent to which trust can manage — or even create — risk at this interface.

  2. Perceptions of and Attitudes Toward Climate Change in the Southeastern United States

    Science.gov (United States)

    David Himmelfarb; John Schelhas; Sarah Hitchner; Cassandra Johnson Gaither; KathErine Dunbar; J. Peter Brosius

    2014-01-01

    Despite a global scientific consensus on the anthropogenic nature of climate change, the issue remains highly contentious in the United States, stifling public debate and action on the issue. Local perceptions of and attitudes toward climate change-how different groups of people outside of the professional climate science community make sense of changes in climate in...

  3. Millennium goals and Climate-Change negotiations for a climate and development convergence mechanism

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mathy, Sandrine

    2014-10-01

    In 2015 two major international events will coincide: the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris and negotiations on a new set of Millennium Development Goals for 2030, including measures to combat poverty. Until now these two dossiers have mainly been treated separately, but the stakes for development and the measures required to avoid unbridled climate change are inextricably linked, particularly in developing countries. In the build-up to the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, this article presents a proposal which seeks to reconcile development strategies with policies on climate change and adaptation, by promoting various forms of synergy between these two fields, in such a way as to make satisfying basic needs an absolute priority and to clear up the dispute between industrialized and developing countries regarding the latter's commitment to combating climate change. Our Climate and Development Convergence Mechanism advocates an approach based on voluntary, sector-based, flexible participation enabled by output-based aid and indicators of the satisfaction of basic needs. The Climate and Development Convergence Mechanism could, in a single move, overcome several stumbling blocks within ongoing climate negotiations on climate change between developed and developing countries. First it could respond to the concerns of developing countries which do not accept constraints on their development on the grounds of combating climate change. On the contrary the mechanism represents a form of incentive to achieve convergence between development priorities, particularly poverty alleviation and satisfaction of several basic needs and the equally necessary efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, while developing in climate-change resilient ways. Second, if developing countries accepted the mechanism, industrialized countries could no longer maintain their current stance, demanding a formal commitment on emissions reduction. The potential of the mechanism relies on

  4. Climate, Companies, and Public Policy: How Transparent Is the Private Sector in Reporting Climate Policy Influence?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goldman, G. T.; Carlson, C.

    2014-12-01

    To enact effective policies to address climate change, decision makers need both scientific and political support. One major barrier to U.S. climate policy enactment has been the opposition of private sector actors to proposed policies and to climate science itself. Increasingly, the public and investors are holding companies accountable for their actions around climate change—including political activies, affiliations with trade groups, and involvement with climate science. However, this accountability is inhibited by the prominent role that trade associations have played in climate policy debates in recent years. The opaque nature of such groups is problematic, as it inhibits the public from understanding who is obstructing progress on addressing climate change, and in some cases, impedes the public's climate literacy. Voluntary climate reporting can yield some information on companies' climate engagement and demonstrates the need for greater transparency in corporate political activities around climate change. We analyze CDP climate reporting data from 1,824 companies to assess the degree to which corporate actors disclosed their political influence on climate policies through their trade associations. Results demonstrate the limitations of voluntary reporting and the extent to which companies utilize their trade associations to influence climate change policy debates without being held accountable for these positions. Notably, many companies failed to acknowledge their board seat on trade groups with significant climate policy engagement. Of those that did acknowledge their board membership, some claimed not to agree with their trade associations' positions on climate change. These results raise questions about who trade groups are representing when they challenge the science or obstruct policies to address climate change. Recommendations for overcoming this barrier to informed decision making to address climate change will be discussed.

  5. Adapting to an Uncertain Climate: Lessons From Practice

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Capela Lourenco, T.; Rovisco, A.; Groot, A.M.E.; Nilsson, C.; Füssel, H.M.; Bree, van L.

    2014-01-01

    Climate change highlights the challenges for long-term policy making in the face of persistent and irreducible levels of uncertainties. It calls for the development of flexible approaches, innovative governance and other elements that contribute to effective and adaptive decision-making. Exploring

  6. Regional climate science: lessons and opportunities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mote, P. W.; Miles, E. L.; Whitely Binder, L.

    2008-12-01

    Since its founding in 1995, the Climate Impacts Group (CIG) at the University of Washington (UW) has achieved remarkable success at translating global- and regional-scale science into forms and products that are useful to, and used by, decision-makers. From GCM scenarios to research on the connection between global climate patterns and locally important factors like floods and wildfires, CIG's strong physical science foundation is matched by a vigorous and successful outreach program. As a result, CIG and its partner the Office of Washington State Climatologist at UW have made substantial progress at bridging the gap between climate science and decision-making, and are deeply involved in advising all levels of government and many business interests on adapting to climate variability and change. This talk will showcase some of the specific activities and tools, describe lessons learned, and illustrate how such efforts fit into a "National Climate Service."

  7. Public Engagement on Climate Change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Curry, J.

    2011-12-01

    Climate change communication is complicated by complexity of the scientific problem, multiple perspectives on the magnitude of the risk from climate change, often acrimonious disputes between scientists, high stakes policy options, and overall politicization of the issue. Efforts to increase science literacy as a route towards persuasion around the need for a policy like cap and trade have failed, because the difficulty that a scientist has in attempting to make sense of the social and political complexity is very similar to the complexity facing the general public as they try to make sense of climate science itself. In this talk I argue for a shift from scientists and their institutions as information disseminators to that of public engagement and enablers of public participation. The goal of engagement is not just to inform, but to enable, motivate and educate the public regarding the technical, political, and social dimensions of climate change. Engagement is a two-way process where experts and decision-makers seek input and learn from the public about preferences, needs, insights, and ideas relative to climate change impacts, vulnerabilities, solutions and policy options. Effective public engagement requires that scientists detach themselves from trying to control what the public does with the acquired knowledge and motivation. The goal should not be to "sell" the public on particular climate change solutions, since such advocacy threatens public trust in scientists and their institutions. Conduits for public engagement include the civic engagement approach in the context of community meetings, and perhaps more significantly, the blogosphere. Since 2006, I have been an active participant in the climate blogosphere, focused on engaging with people that are skeptical of AGW. A year ago, I started my own blog Climate Etc. at judithcurry.com. The demographic that I have focused my communication/engagement activities are the technically educated and scientifically

  8. Habitability from Tidally Induced Tectonics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Valencia, Diana; Tan, Vivian Yun Yan; Zajac, Zachary

    2018-04-01

    The stability of Earth’s climate on geological timescales is enabled by the carbon–silicate cycle that acts as a negative feedback mechanism stabilizing surface temperatures via the intake and outgassing of atmospheric carbon. On Earth, this thermostat is enabled by plate tectonics that sequesters outgassed CO2 back into the mantle via weathering and subduction at convergent margins. Here we propose a separate tectonic mechanism—vertical recycling—that can serve as the vehicle for CO2 outgassing and sequestration over long timescales. The mechanism requires continuous tidal heating, which makes it particularly relevant to planets in the habitable zone of M stars. Dynamical models of this vertical recycling scenario and stability analysis show that temperate climates stable over timescales of billions of years are realized for a variety of initial conditions, even as the M star dims over time. The magnitude of equilibrium surface temperatures depends on the interplay of sea weathering and outgassing, which in turn depends on planetary carbon content, so that planets with lower carbon budgets are favored for temperate conditions. The habitability of planets such as found in the Trappist-1 system may be rooted in tidally driven tectonics.

  9. INTRODUCTION: Focus on Climate Engineering: Intentional Intervention in the Climate System

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-12-01

    Geoengineering techniques for countering climate change have been receiving much press recently as a `Plan B' if a global deal to tackle climate change is not agreed at the COP15 negotiations in Copenhagen this December. However, the field is controversial as the methods may have unforeseen consequences, potentially making temperatures rise in some regions or reducing rainfall, and many aspects remain under-researched. This focus issue of Environmental Research Letters is a collection of research articles, invited by David Keith, University of Calgary, and Ken Caldeira, Carnegie Institution, that present and evaluate different methods for engineering the Earth's climate. Not only do the letters in this issue highlight various methods of climate engineering but they also detail the arguments for and against climate engineering as a concept. Further reading Focus on Geoengineering at http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/subject/tag=geoengineering IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science is an open-access proceedings service available at www.iop.org/EJ/journal/ees Focus on Climate Engineering: Intentional Intervention in the Climate System Contents Modification of cirrus clouds to reduce global warming David L Mitchell and William Finnegan Climate engineering and the risk of rapid climate change Andrew Ross and H Damon Matthews Researching geoengineering: should not or could not? Martin Bunzl Of mongooses and mitigation: ecological analogues to geoengineering H Damon Matthews and Sarah E Turner Toward ethical norms and institutions for climate engineering research David R Morrow, Robert E Kopp and Michael Oppenheimer On the possible use of geoengineering to moderate specific climate change impacts Michael C MacCracken The impact of geoengineering aerosols on stratospheric temperature and ozone P Heckendorn, D Weisenstein, S Fueglistaler, B P Luo, E Rozanov, M Schraner, L W Thomason and T Peter The fate of the Greenland Ice Sheet in a geoengineered

  10. Human choice and climate change. Volume 1: The societal framework

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Raynor, S.; Malone, E.

    1998-01-01

    This book is Volume 1 of a four-volume set which assesses social science research that is relevant to global climate change from a wide-ranging interdisciplinary perspective. Attention is focused on the societal framework as it relates to climate change. This series is indispensable reading for scientists and engineers wishing to make an effective contribution to the climate change policy debate

  11. Uncertainty assessment of urban pluvial flood risk in a context of climate change adaptation decision making

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Arnbjerg-Nielsen, Karsten; Zhou, Qianqian

    2014-01-01

    uncertainty analysis, which can assess and quantify the overall uncertainty in relation to climate change adaptation to urban flash floods. The analysis is based on an uncertainty cascade that by means of Monte Carlo simulations of flood risk assessments incorporates climate change impacts as a key driver......There has been a significant increase in climatic extremes in many regions. In Central and Northern Europe, this has led to more frequent and more severe floods. Along with improved flood modelling technologies this has enabled development of economic assessment of climate change adaptation...... to increasing urban flood risk. Assessment of adaptation strategies often requires a comprehensive risk-based economic analysis of current risk, drivers of change of risk over time, and measures to reduce the risk. However, such studies are often associated with large uncertainties. The uncertainties arise from...

  12. A Practical Philosophy of Complex Climate Modelling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmidt, Gavin A.; Sherwood, Steven

    2014-01-01

    We give an overview of the practice of developing and using complex climate models, as seen from experiences in a major climate modelling center and through participation in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP).We discuss the construction and calibration of models; their evaluation, especially through use of out-of-sample tests; and their exploitation in multi-model ensembles to identify biases and make predictions. We stress that adequacy or utility of climate models is best assessed via their skill against more naive predictions. The framework we use for making inferences about reality using simulations is naturally Bayesian (in an informal sense), and has many points of contact with more familiar examples of scientific epistemology. While the use of complex simulations in science is a development that changes much in how science is done in practice, we argue that the concepts being applied fit very much into traditional practices of the scientific method, albeit those more often associated with laboratory work.

  13. An Agenda for Climate Impacts Science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaye, J. A.

    2009-12-01

    The report Global Change Impacts in the United States released by the US Global Change Research Program in June 2009 identifies a number of areas in which inadequate information or understanding hampers our ability to estimate likely future climate change and its impacts. In this section of the report, the focus is on those areas of climate science that could contribute most towards advancing our knowledge of climate change impacts and those aspects of climate change responsible for these impacts in order to continue to guide decision making. The Report identifies the six most important gaps in knowledge and offers some thoughts on how to address those gaps: 1. Expand our understanding of climate change impacts. There is a clear need to increase understanding of how ecosystems, social and economic systems, human health, and the built environment will be affected by climate change in the context of other stresses. 2. Refine ability to project climate change, including extreme events, at local scales. While climate change is a global issue, it has a great deal of regional variability. There is an indisputable need to improve understanding of climate system effects at these smaller scales, because these are often the scales of decision-making in society. This includes advances in modeling capability and observations needed to address local scales and high-impact extreme events. 3. Expand capacity to provide decision makers and the public with relevant information on climate change and its impacts. Significant potential exists in the US to create more comprehensive measurement, archive, and data-access systems that could provide great benefit to society, which requires defining needed information, gathering it, expanding capacity to deliver it, and improving tools by which decision makers use it to best advantage. 4. Improve understanding of thresholds likely to lead to abrupt changes in climate or ecosystems. Potential areas of research include thresholds that could

  14. Change Agents and Collective Experience- Making as Part of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Without ignoring the value of these research strands on social learning, they tend to limit ... experience-making regarding climate change and sustainable transitions. ... By collective experience-making, I mean that people joining forces in some kind of ... In my mind, it is an umbrella term covering a range of quite different.

  15. Climate-driven polar motion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Celaya, Michael A.; Wahr, John M.; Bryan, Frank O.

    1999-06-01

    The output of a coupled climate system model provides a synthetic climate record with temporal and spatial coverage not attainable with observational data, allowing evaluation of climatic excitation of polar motion on timescales of months to decades. Analysis of the geodetically inferred Chandler excitation power shows that it has fluctuated by up to 90% since 1900 and that it has characteristics representative of a stationary Gaussian process. Our model-predicted climate excitation of the Chandler wobble also exhibits variable power comparable to the observed. Ocean currents and bottom pressure shifts acting together can alone drive the 14-month wobble. The same is true of the excitation generated by the combined effects of barometric pressure and winds. The oceanic and atmospheric contributions are this large because of a relatively high degree of constructive interference between seafloor pressure and currents and between atmospheric pressure and winds. In contrast, excitation by the redistribution of water on land appears largely insignificant. Not surprisingly, the full climate effect is even more capable of driving the wobble than the effects of the oceans or atmosphere alone are. Our match to the observed annual excitation is also improved, by about 17%, over previous estimates made with historical climate data. Efforts to explain the 30-year Markowitz wobble meet with less success. Even so, at periods ranging from months to decades, excitation generated by a model of a coupled climate system makes a close approximation to the amplitude of what is geodetically observed.

  16. An analytical model for climatic predictions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Njau, E.C.

    1990-12-01

    A climatic model based upon analytical expressions is presented. This model is capable of making long-range predictions of heat energy variations on regional or global scales. These variations can then be transformed into corresponding variations of some other key climatic parameters since weather and climatic changes are basically driven by differential heating and cooling around the earth. On the basis of the mathematical expressions upon which the model is based, it is shown that the global heat energy structure (and hence the associated climatic system) are characterized by zonally as well as latitudinally propagating fluctuations at frequencies downward of 0.5 day -1 . We have calculated the propagation speeds for those particular frequencies that are well documented in the literature. The calculated speeds are in excellent agreement with the measured speeds. (author). 13 refs

  17. Economics, ethics and climate policy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Howarth, R.B.; Monahan, P.A.

    1993-01-01

    Are the costs of greenhouse gas emissions abatement justified by the perceived benefits of sustained climate stability? Do people of the present generation have a moral right to impose climate risks on their descendants in generations to come? This report examines these questions in light of the emergent facts of climate science and their socioeconomic implications. We consider alternative normative criteria for social decision-making with particular emphasis on cost-benefit analysis and the principle of sustainable development. While each framework yields important insights, we argue that the gross uncertainties associated with climate change and the distribution of impacts between present and future generations constrain the usefulness of cost-benefit criteria in evaluating climate policy. If one accepts the ethical proposition that it is morally wrong to impose catastrophic risks on unborn generations when reducing those risks would not noticeably diminish the quality of life of existing persons, a case can be made for concerted policy action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (118 refs., 3 figs., 4 tabs.)

  18. Regeneration decisions in forestry under climate change related uncertainties and risks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schou, Erik; Thorsen, Bo Jellesmark; Jacobsen, Jette Bredahl

    2015-01-01

    ) assigned to each outcome. Results show that the later a forest manager expects to obtain certainty about climate change or the more skewed their belief distribution, the more will decisions be based on ex ante assessments — suggesting that if forest managers believe that climate change uncertainty......Future climate development and its effects on forest ecosystems are not easily predicted or described in terms of standard probability concepts. Nevertheless, forest managers continuously make long-term decisions that will be subject to climate change impacts. The manager's assessment of possible...... to generate a set of alternative outcomes, investigating effects on decision making of three aspects of uncertainty: (i) the perceived time horizon before there will be certainty on outcome, (ii) the spread of impacts across the set of alternative outcomes, and (iii) the subjective probability (belief...

  19. Climate Change and Climate Policy: An Inconvenient Issue, in the Low Countries Too

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Leroy, P.

    2008-01-01

    Climate policy in Belgium and the Netherlands exhibits all the dilemmas of policy-making at the present juncture: the policy has to be global, but the political system remains largely national, and therefore operates on a relatively ineffective scale. The policy has to be long-term, but politicians

  20. Designing Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways using Many-Objective Robust Decision Making

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kwakkel, Jan; Haasnoot, Marjolijn

    2017-04-01

    Dealing with climate risks in water management requires confronting a wide variety of deeply uncertain factors, while navigating a many dimensional space of trade-offs amongst objectives. There is an emerging body of literature on supporting this type of decision problem, under the label of decision making under deep uncertainty. Two approaches within this literature are Many-Objective Robust Decision Making, and Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways. In recent work, these approaches have been compared. One of the main conclusions of this comparison was that they are highly complementary. Many-Objective Robust Decision Making is a model based decision support approach, while Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways is primarily a conceptual framework for the design of flexible strategies that can be adapted over time in response to how the future is actually unfolding. In this research we explore this complementarity in more detail. Specifically, we demonstrate how Many-Objective Robust Decision Making can be used to design adaptation pathways. We demonstrate this combined approach using a water management problem, in the Netherlands. The water level of Lake IJselmeer, the main fresh water resource of the Netherlands, is currently managed through discharge by gravity. Due to climate change, this won't be possible in the future, unless water levels are changed. Changing the water level has undesirable flood risk and spatial planning consequences. The challenge is to find promising adaptation pathways that balance objectives related to fresh water supply, flood risk, and spatial issues, while accounting for uncertain climatic and land use change. We conclude that the combination of Many-Objective Robust Decision Making and Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways is particularly suited for dealing with deeply uncertain climate risks.

  1. Local government and climate policy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Burger, H.; Menkveld, M.; Coenen, F.H.J.M.

    2000-01-01

    Local government in the Netherlands could play a greater role than they currently do in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the country. This fact formed the motivation for initiating the research project on Local Government and Climate Policy. Many local climate options are known in theory. Options for reduction that lie within the sphere of influence of Dutch local government are, for example, sustainable building or encouraging the utilisation of sustainable energy. But actual practice turns out to be rather refractory. If such options are to be implemented, then one has to overcome institutional barriers, such as the co-operation between different departments in the same local authority. The objective of this research is to improve the contribution that local government makes to climate policy

  2. America's Climate Choices: Informing an Effective Response to Climate Change (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liverman, D. M.; McConnell, M. C.; Raven, P.

    2010-12-01

    climate-related decisions that society will confront over the coming decades will require an informed and engaged public and an education system that provides students with the knowledge to make informed choices. Although nearly all Americans have now heard of climate change, many have yet to understand the full implications of the issue and the opportunities and risks that lie in the solutions. Nonetheless, national surveys demonstrate a clear public desire for more information about climate change and how it might affect local communities. A majority of Americans want the government to take action in response to climate change and are willing to take action themselves. Although communicating about climate change and choices is vitally important, it can be difficult. This report summarizes some simple guidelines for more effective communications.

  3. Climatic change science, experience and controversies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Le Treut, H.; Van Ypersele, J.P.; Hallegatte, St.; Hourcade, J.Ch.

    2004-01-01

    The international scientific community, gathered in the framework of the inter-governmental group for climate evolution (Giec), has confirmed the influence of human activities on climate and on the global warming. However, this diagnosis is sometimes questioned in the press. This book, published by the institute of sustainable development, gathers a series of articles written by scientists who make comments on the last Giec reports and who outline the knowledge gained, the remaining uncertainties and the controversies. (J.S.)

  4. Assessing NARCCAP climate model effects using spatial confidence regions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. P. French

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available We assess similarities and differences between model effects for the North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP climate models using varying classes of linear regression models. Specifically, we consider how the average temperature effect differs for the various global and regional climate model combinations, including assessment of possible interaction between the effects of global and regional climate models. We use both pointwise and simultaneous inference procedures to identify regions where global and regional climate model effects differ. We also show conclusively that results from pointwise inference are misleading, and that accounting for multiple comparisons is important for making proper inference.

  5. The Urgent Need for Improved Climate Models and Predictions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goddard, Lisa; Baethgen, Walter; Kirtman, Ben; Meehl, Gerald

    2009-09-01

    An investment over the next 10 years of the order of US$2 billion for developing improved climate models was recommended in a report (http://wcrp.wmo.int/documents/WCRP_WorldModellingSummit_Jan2009.pdf) from the May 2008 World Modelling Summit for Climate Prediction, held in Reading, United Kingdom, and presented by the World Climate Research Programme. The report indicated that “climate models will, as in the past, play an important, and perhaps central, role in guiding the trillion dollar decisions that the peoples, governments and industries of the world will be making to cope with the consequences of changing climate.” If trillions of dollars are going to be invested in making decisions related to climate impacts, an investment of $2 billion, which is less than 0.1% of that amount, to provide better climate information seems prudent. One example of investment in adaptation is the World Bank's Climate Investment Fund, which has drawn contributions of more than $6 billion for work on clean technologies and adaptation efforts in nine pilot countries and two pilot regions. This is just the beginning of expenditures on adaptation efforts by the World Bank and other mechanisms, focusing on only a small fraction of the nations of the world and primarily aimed at anticipated anthropogenic climate change. Moreover, decisions are being made now, all around the world—by individuals, companies, and governments—that affect people and their livelihoods today, not just 50 or more years in the future. Climate risk management, whether related to projects of the scope of the World Bank's or to the planning and decisions of municipalities, will be best guided by meaningful climate information derived from observations of the past and model predictions of the future.

  6. Climate Change and Political Action: the Citizens' Climate Lobby

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nelson, P. H.; Secord, S.

    2014-12-01

    Recognizing the reality of global warming and its origin in greenhouse gas emissions, what does one do about it? Individual action is commendable, but inadequate. Collective action is necessary--Citizens' Climate Lobby proposes a "fee-and-dividend" approach in which a fee is imposed on carbon-based fuel at its sources of production. The fee increases annually in a predictable manner. The funds collected are paid out to consumers as monthly dividends. The approach is market-based, in that the cost of the fee to producers is passed on to consumers in the cost of carbon-based fuels. Downstream energy providers and consumers then make their choices regarding investments and purchases. Citizens' Climate Lobby (CCL) builds national consensus by growing local Chapters, led and populated by volunteers. The Chapters are charged with public education and presenting the fee-and-dividend proposal to their respective Representatives and Senators. CCL builds trust by its non-partisan approach, meeting with all members of Congress regardless of party affiliation and stance on climate-related issues. CCL also builds trust by a non-confrontational approach, seeking to understand rather than to oppose. CCL works both locally, through its local Chapters, and nationally, with an annual conference in Washington DC during which all Congressional offices are visited. CCL recognizes that a long-term, sustained effort is necessary to address climate change.

  7. Teaching the Intersection of Climate and Society

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thomson, C.; Ting, M.; Orlove, B. S.

    2014-12-01

    As the first program of its kind, the M.A. in Climate and Society at Columbia University educates students on how climate affects society and vice versa. The 12-month interdisciplinary Master's program is designed to allow students from a wide variety of backgrounds to gain knowledge in climate science and a deep understanding of social sciences and how they related to climate. There are currently more than 250 alumni applying their skills in fields including energy, economics, disaster mitigation, journalism and climate research in more than a dozen countries worldwide. The presentation will highlight three key components of the program that have contributed to its growth and helped alumni become brokers that can effectively put climate science in the hands of the public and policymakers for the benefit of society. Those components include working with other academic departments at Columbia to successfully integrate social science classes into the curriculum; the development of the course Applications in Climate and Society to help students make an overt link between climate and its impacts on society; and providing students with hands-on activities with practitioners in climate-related fields.

  8. The health impacts of climate-related migration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schwerdtle, Patricia; Bowen, Kathryn; McMichael, Celia

    2017-12-11

    Changes in climate, in conjunction with other drivers of mobility, shape human migration. While there is an increasing focus on the adaptive potential of migration, the health impacts of climate-related migration, including planned relocation and forced displacement, have not been thoroughly examined. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated that migration is currently, and will increasingly be, influenced by environmental degradation and climate change, and that it needs to be addressed in a focused and coordinated manner. This paper examines the links between climate change, migration, and health, considering diverse migration responses, including immobility, forced displacement and planned migration, as well as the associated health risks and opportunities in different contexts. Using case studies, the paper illustrates strategies to reduce the health risks associated with climate change-related migration. While there is an increasing body of research examining the climate change-migration nexus, a dual approach is now required. This approach must include debate and further research regarding the health consequences and responses associated with climate migration as well as immediate strengthening of health systems to make them both climate resilient and migrant inclusive.

  9. 1.2 million years of climate change, globally and in the Mediterranean

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Konijnendijk, T.Y.M.

    2015-01-01

    In this thesis we make a detailed reconstruction of climate changes based on materials from the Mediterranean Sea. Not only does this provide new insights in climate changes in the Mediterranean region, the aim is to improve our understanding of global climate changes as well. We created a single

  10. Climate change effects in El Yunque National Forest, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean region

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lisa Nicole Jennings; Jamison Douglas; Emrys Treasure; Grizelle González

    2014-01-01

    Understanding the current and expected future conditions of natural resources under a changing climate is essential to making informed management decisions. However, the ever increasing volume of useful scientific information about climate change makes it difficult for managers and planners to effectively sort through and apply the emerging science. This report...

  11. Debunking Climate Change Myths in the College Classroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bedford, D. P.

    2012-12-01

    Research in sociology (e.g. Hamilton, 2011) and social psychology (e.g. Kahan et al., 2012) suggests that there is no basis to an assumption common among educators that higher education levels lead to more rational decision making. Indeed, there is growing evidence that views on climate change, for just one significant example, become more polarized at higher education levels, rather than converging on the scientific consensus. Some research points to improved facility at filtering information according to preconceptions at higher education levels as a possible explanation for this phenomenon. Misinformation about subjects that are perceived to be contentious, such as anthropogenic climate change, is therefore potentially easily accepted despite-- or even because of-- higher levels of education. Thus, explicitly addressing misinformation about climate change may be an important strategy for use in the classroom. Fortunately, misinformation provides a valuable opportunity to turn a challenging situation to educational advantage and, in effect, make lemonade out of lemons. This presentation provides a case study of efforts explicitly to debunk climate change myths in the college classroom. The approach outlined here utilizes material on the psychology of the acceptance of misinformation for the popular audience, combined with examples of misinformation itself. Qualitative assessment of the effectiveness of these efforts is also presented. Hamilton, L. 2011. Education, political and opinions about climate change: evidence for interaction effects. Climatic Change vol. 104 no. 2, 231-242.. Kahan, D.M., E. Peters, M. Wittlin, P. Slovic, L. Larrimore Ouellette, D. Braman and G. Mandel. 2012. The polarizing impact of science literacy and numeracy on perceived climate change risks. Nature Climate Change. doi:10.1038/nclimate1547.

  12. The climate4impact platform: Providing, tailoring and facilitating climate model data access

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pagé, Christian; Pagani, Andrea; Plieger, Maarten; Som de Cerff, Wim; Mihajlovski, Andrej; de Vreede, Ernst; Spinuso, Alessandro; Hutjes, Ronald; de Jong, Fokke; Bärring, Lars; Vega, Manuel; Cofiño, Antonio; d'Anca, Alessandro; Fiore, Sandro; Kolax, Michael

    2017-04-01

    One of the main objectives of climate4impact is to provide standardized web services and tools that are reusable in other portals. These services include web processing services, web coverage services and web mapping services (WPS, WCS and WMS). Tailored portals can be targeted to specific communities and/or countries/regions while making use of those services. Easier access to climate data is very important for the climate change impact communities. To fulfill this objective, the climate4impact (http://climate4impact.eu/) web portal and services has been developed, targeting climate change impact modellers, impact and adaptation consultants, as well as other experts using climate change data. It provides to users harmonized access to climate model data through tailored services. It features static and dynamic documentation, Use Cases and best practice examples, an advanced search interface, an integrated authentication and authorization system with the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF), a visualization interface with ADAGUC web mapping tools. In the latest version, statistical downscaling services, provided by the Santander Meteorology Group Downscaling Portal, were integrated. An innovative interface to integrate statistical downscaling services will be released in the upcoming version. The latter will be a big step in bridging the gap between climate scientists and the climate change impact communities. The climate4impact portal builds on the infrastructure of an international distributed database that has been set to disseminate the results from the global climate model results of the Coupled Model Intercomparison project Phase 5 (CMIP5). This database, the ESGF, is an international collaboration that develops, deploys and maintains software infrastructure for the management, dissemination, and analysis of climate model data. The European FP7 project IS-ENES, Infrastructure for the European Network for Earth System modelling, supports the European

  13. Adaptation research meets adaptation decision-making. Second Nordic international conference on climate change adaption. Programme and abstracts

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2012-07-01

    Nearly two years have passed since a small team of researchers began a new chapter in Nordic co-operation on climate change by organising a conference in Stockholm, Sweden. The conference, entitled Climate Adaptation in the Nordic Countries - Science, Practice, Policy, co-ordinated by the Stockholm Environment Institute and hosted by Stockholm University in November 2010, was the first of its kind in the Nordic region. Since the European Commission adopted its White Paper on adaptation to climate change in 2009, many of that document's 33 actions have been implemented, a climate change adaptation platform, Climate-ADAPT, was launched at the European Environment Agency in March this year, and just a week before this conference the Commission concluded a public consultation of stakeholders and experts in member states designed to feed into the preparation of a European Union adaptation strategy. The 2012 conference therefore presents an ideal opportunity to take stock of ongoing efforts and to consider how adaptation research efforts are keeping pace with policy demands as well as the needs of public and private decision-makers operating at a range of scales. It brings together researchers, public and private decision- makers, as well as those who plan and realize adaptation plans. Session themes include, among others: national and local adaptation plans, climate portals and climate services, adaptation in developing countries, legal aspects of adaptation, economic appraisal of adaptation, analysing and handling risk and uncertainty, urban planning and scenarios. The contributors have very diverse backgrounds, ranging from biosciences to social sciences, economics to geo-sciences, and engineering to architecture. Interest in climate change adaptation in the Nordic region is clearly high, with over 70% of our participants drawn from the five Nordic countries, but the conference has also managed to attract participation from further afield, with registrations

  14. Biometeorological Forecasts as Adaptation Measures in the Contest of Climate Change

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ieva Nariūnaitė

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available The basic aim of this paper is to review biometeorological forecasts in Lithuania as well as their necessities and adjustments toward climate change. Weather alterations and climate anomalies make a substantial impact on human health (physical and psychological, and therefore biometeorological forecasts are useful to foresee and elude some negative climate influence. Article in Lithuanian

  15. Climate Change Impacts on Future Wave Climate around the UK

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    William G. Bennett

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Understanding the changes in future storm wave climate is crucial for coastal managers and planners to make informed decisions required for sustainable coastal management and for the renewable energy industry. To investigate potential future changes to storm climate around the UK, global wave model outputs of two time slice experiments were analysed with 1979–2009 representing present conditions and 2075–2100 representing the future climate. Three WaveNet buoy sites around the United Kingdom, which represent diverse site conditions and have long datasets, were chosen for this study. A storm event definition (Dissanayake et al., 2015 was used to separate meteorologically-independent storm events from wave data, which in turn allowed storm wave characteristics to be analysed. Model outputs were validated through a comparison of the modelled storm data with observed storm data for overlapping periods. Although no consistent trends across all future clusters were observed, there were no significant increases in storm wave height, storm count or storm power in the future, at least according to the global wave projection results provided by the chosen model.

  16. New perspectives for European climate services: HORIZON2020

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bruning, Claus; Tilche, Andrea

    2014-05-01

    The developing of new end-to-end climate services was one of the core priorities of 7th Framework for Research and Technological Development of the European Commission and will become one of the key strategic priorities of Societal Challenge 5 of HORIZON2020 (the new EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation 2014-2020). Results should increase the competitiveness of European businesses, and the ability of regional and national authorities to make effective decisions in climate-sensitive sectors. In parallel, the production of new tailored climate information should strengthen the resilience of the European society to climate change. In this perspective the strategy to support and foster the underpinning science for climate services in HORIZON2020 will be presented.

  17. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Services Portal: A New Centralized Resource for Distributed Climate Information

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burroughs, J.; Baldwin, R.; Herring, D.; Lott, N.; Boyd, J.; Handel, S.; Niepold, F.; Shea, E.

    2010-09-01

    With the rapid rise in the development of Web technologies and climate services across NOAA, there has been an increasing need for greater collaboration regarding NOAA's online climate services. The drivers include the need to enhance NOAA's Web presence in response to customer requirements, emerging needs for improved decision-making capabilities across all sectors of society facing impacts from climate variability and change, and the importance of leveraging climate data and services to support research and public education. To address these needs, NOAA (during fiscal year 2009) embarked upon an ambitious program to develop a NOAA Climate Services Portal (NCS Portal). Four NOAA offices are leading the effort: 1) the NOAA Climate Program Office (CPO), 2) the National Ocean Service's Coastal Services Center (CSC), 3) the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center (CPC), and 4) the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service's (NESDIS) National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). Other offices and programs are also contributing in many ways to the effort. A prototype NCS Portal is being placed online for public access in January 2010, http://www.climate.gov. This website only scratches the surface of the many climate services across NOAA, but this effort, via direct user engagement, will gradually expand the scope and breadth of the NCS Portal to greatly enhance the accessibility and usefulness of NOAA's climate data and services.

  18. CIRUN: Climate Information Responding to User Needs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Busalacchi, A. J.

    2009-12-01

    climate or projections of climate change? - Is your organization developing a plan for adapting to climate change? - What are your needs for climate observations, predictions, and services? Please cite one or more specific examples when possible. - Do you currently have access to the climate information your organization needs? - What next steps are needed to assure effective use of climate services in your decision making? As a result, a dialogue with various user communities and a subsequent series of more sector specific workshops has been established regarding how significantly enhanced climate observations, data management, modeling, and predictions can provide valuable decision support for business and policy decisions. In particular, CIRUN has helped - To identify how users, stakeholders, and decision makers are influenced by climate on time scales from seasons to decades - To identify the needs and requirements of users, stakeholders, and decision makers for climate information, observations, predictions, and services from global to local scales - To identify what adaptation measures are being considered in the private and public sectors, and how this might result in new classes of information for decision support - To recommend principal elements of the path forward toward more effective use of climate services in decision making.

  19. Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS): status of implementation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lucio, Filipe

    2015-04-01

    The World Climate Conference-3 (Geneva 2009) unanimously decided to establish the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS), a UN-led initiative spearheaded by WMO to guide the development and application of science-based climate information and services in support of decision-making in climate sensitive sectors. By promoting science-based decision-making, the GFCS is empowering governments, communities and companies to build climate resilience, reduce vulnerabilities and adapt to impacts. The initial priority areas of GFCS are Agriculture and Food Security; Disaster Risk Reduction; Health; and Water Resources. The implementation of GFCS is well underway with a governance structure now fully established. The governance structure of GFCS includes the Partner Advisory Committee (PAC), which is GFCS's stakeholder engagement mechanism. The membership of the PAC allows for a broad participation of stakeholders. The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the European Commission (EC), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the Global Water Partnership (GWP), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the World Food Programme (WFP) and WMO have already joined the PAC. Activities are being implemented in various countries in Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and Pacific Small Islands Developing States through flagship projects and activities in the four priority areas of GFCS to enable the development of a Proof of Concept. The focus at national level is on strengthening institutional capacities needed for development of capacities for co-design and co-production of climate services and their application in support of decision-making in climate sensitive

  20. Management system, organizational climate and performance relationships

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davis, B. D.

    1979-01-01

    Seven aerospace firms were investigated to determine if a relationship existed among management systems, organizational climate, and organization performance. Positive relationships were found between each of these variables, but a statistically significant relationship existed only between the management system and organizational climate. The direction and amount of communication and the degree of decentralized decision-making, elements of the management system, also had a statistically significant realtionship with organization performance.

  1. A steep road to climate stabilization

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Friedlingstein, P [CEA Saclay, Inst Pierre Simon Laplace, Lab Climate and Environm Sci, F-91191 Gif Sur Yvette, (France)

    2008-07-01

    The only way to stabilize Earth's climate is to stabilize the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, but future changes in the carbon cycle might make this more difficult than has been thought. (author)

  2. A steep road to climate stabilization

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Friedlingstein, P.

    2008-01-01

    The only way to stabilize Earth's climate is to stabilize the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, but future changes in the carbon cycle might make this more difficult than has been thought. (author)

  3. Making the links: do we connect climate change with health? A qualitative case study from Canada.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cardwell, Francesca S; Elliott, Susan J

    2013-03-08

    Climate change has been described as the biggest global health threat of the 21st century. Typically framed as an environmental issue, some suggest this view has contributed to public ambivalence and hence a lack of public engagement. The lack of understanding of climate change as a significant environmental health risk on the part of the lay public represents a significant barrier to behaviour change. We therefore need to think about reframing the impact of climate change from an environmental to a health issue. This paper builds on calls for increased understanding of the public's views of human health risks associated with climate change, focusing on facilitators and barriers to behaviour change. Semi-structured in-depth interviews (n = 22) with residents of the Golden Horseshoe region of Southern Ontario were conducted between August 2010 and January 2011. Topics included individual and community health, climate change, and facilitators and barriers to behaviour change. Few participants recognized the role of the environment in the context of either individual and community health. When asked about health concerns specific to their community, however, environmental issues were mentioned frequently. Health effects as possible impacts of global environmental change were mentioned by 77% of participants when prompted, but this link was not described in great detail or within the context of impacting their communities or themselves. Participants were willing to act in environmentally friendly ways, and possible incentives to undertake behaviour change such as decreasing cost were described. Health co-benefits were not identified as incentives to engaging in mitigative or adaptive behaviours. The results support recent calls for reframing the impact of climate change from an environmental to a public health issue in order to increase public engagement in adaptive and mitigative behaviour change. While previous research has touched on public awareness of the

  4. Climate challenges - New issues for electricity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Durdilly, R.

    2009-01-01

    While France is confronted with new challenges, in particular climate, the French Union for Electricity (UFE) wishes to make a contribution allowing to take advantage o the reduction of the carbon balance of the electricity generation facilities. This positive report should not however make us forget that the carbon balance of these facilities could deteriorate if the right choices are not made right now. That is why the UFE proposes a Vision 2020', an ambitious, but realistic scenario for energy policy taking on the fight against the climatic change, and achieving an economy that is globally more mode-rate in carbon, while potentially creating new jobs and a new industry. The UFE emphasizes in its 'Vision 2020' scenario, that in order too contribute to the fight against the climate change, the challenge is to reduce recourse during peak periods to those sources which generate the greatest volume of carbon dioxide emissions. Thus, the UFE proposes a structured change of behaviour, prioritizing the substitution away from the consumption of fossil energy to that of electricity with a better CO 2 performance. The implementation of this 'Vision 2020' will in particular allow France to achieve a large part of its objective to reduce CO 2 emissions, fixed within the framework of the Grenelle de l'Environnement and of the Paquet Energie Climat. (author)

  5. Climatic change in Germany. Development, consequences, risks and perspectives

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brasseur, Guy; Jacob, Daniela; Schuck-Zoeller, Susanne

    2017-01-01

    The book on the climatic change in Germany includes contributions to the following issues: global climate projections and regional projections in Germany and Europe: observation of the climatic change in Central Europe, regional climate modeling, limits and challenges of the regional climate modeling; climatic change in Germany - regional features and extremes: temperature and heat waves, precipitation, wind and cyclones, sea-level increase, tides, storm floods and sea state, floods, definition uncertainties, draughts, forest fires, natural risks; consequences of the climatic change in Germany: air quality, health, biodiversity, water resources, biochemical cycles, agriculture, forestry, soils, personal and commercial transport, cities and urban regions, tourism, infrastructure, energy and water supplies, cost of the climatic change and economic consequences; overall risks and uncertainties: assessment of vulnerabilities, literature review, climatic change as risk enhancement in complex systems, overall risks and uncertainties, decision making under uncertainties in complex systems; integrated strategies for the adaptation to the climatic change: the climate resilient society - transformations and system changes, adaptation to the climatic change as new political field, options for adaptation strategies.

  6. Climate risk screening tools and their application: A guide to the guidance

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Traerup, S.; Olhoff, A.

    2011-07-01

    Climate risk screening is an integral part of efforts to ascertain current and future vulnerabilities and risks related to climate change. It is a prerequisite for identifying and designing adaptation measures, and an important element in the process of integrating, or mainstreaming, climate change adaptation into development project, planning and policy processes. There is an increasing demand and attention among national stakeholders in developing countries to take into account potential implications of climate variability and change for planning and prioritizing of development strategies and activities. Subsequently, there is a need for user friendly guidance on climate risk screening tools and their potentials for application that targets developing country stakeholders. This need is amplified by the sheer volume of climate change mainstreaming guidance documents and risk screening and assessment tools available and currently under development. Against this background, this paper sets out to provide potential users in developing countries, including project and programme developers and managers, with an informational entry point to climate risk screening tools. The emphasis in this report is on providing: 1) An overview of available climate risk screening and assessment tools along with indications of the tools available and relevant for specific purposes and contexts (Section 3). 2) Examples of application of climate risk screening and assessment tools along with links to further information (Section 4). Before turning to the respective sections on available climate risk screening tools and examples of their application, a delimitation of the tools included in this paper is included in Section 2. This section also provides a brief overview of how climate screening and related tools fit into decision making steps at various planning and decision making levels in conjunction with an outline of overall considerations to make when choosing a tool. The paper is

  7. Overview of the Kenya country studies on Climate Change Project

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gacuhi, R.A.

    1998-01-01

    The general objective of the Kenya country study on climate change was to make a contribution to the global efforts of finding a solution to climatic change problem.The specific objectives were, Contribute to the development of national capacity to handle climatic changes issues, Assess the country's contribution to the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG's), Evaluate the vulnerability of various sensitive sectors to impacts of climate change, Generate information useful to the development of an overall national policy on climate change, Lay a foundation for development of national action plans and national communication required under the UNFCCC

  8. A Framework for Benefit-Cost Analysis of Adaptation to Climate Change and Climate Variability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Leary, N.A.

    1999-01-01

    The potential damages of climate change and climate variability are dependent upon the responses or adaptations that people make to their changing environment. By adapting the management of resources, the mix and methods of producing goods and services, choices of leisure activities, and other behavior, people can lessen the damages that would otherwise result. A framework for assessing the benefits and costs of adaptation to both climate change and climate variability is described in the paper. The framework is also suitable for evaluating the economic welfare effects of climate change, allowing for autonomous adaptation by private agents. The paper also briefly addresses complications introduced by uncertainty regarding the benefits of adaptation and irreversibility of investments in adaptation. When investment costs are irreversible and there is uncertainty about benefits, the usual net present value criterion for evaluating the investment gives the wrong decision. If delaying an adaptation project is possible, and if delay will permit learning about future benefits of adaptation, it may be preferable to delay the project even if the expected net present value is positive. Implications of this result for adaptation policy are discussed in the paper. 11 refs

  9. Developing a Climate Change Boundary Organization: the Montana Adaptation Knowledge Exchange

    Science.gov (United States)

    Whitlock, C. L.; Brooks, S.; Armstrong, T.; Bryan, B.

    2017-12-01

    States, like Montana, with small populations and large areas, are challenged by a need to offer timely and relevant climate-science information that addresses diverse and widely dispersed stakeholder groups. In Montana, filling the gap between science and practice has motivated the first Montana Climate Assessment (MCA), released September 2017 with a focus on climate impacts on the agriculture, water and forestry sectors. The MCA is an outcome of a science-stakeholder partnership that has identified critical climate-change information and knowledge gaps for the state through listening sessions and questionnaires. From the initial feedback, it became clear that stakeholder groups were deeply concerned about the challenges posed by rising temperatures and wanted to know how recent and projected warming will affect Montana's natural and managed resources. As part of the next phase of the MCA project, we are now creating the Montana Adaptation Knowledge Exchange (MAKE), a "boundary organization" as described by the National Academy of Sciences. MAKE moves beyond information sharing by bringing scientists and practitioners together to seek solutions related to climate-change adaptation and other pressing environmental and socio-economic concerns. Through a collaborative partnership that involves Montana universities, state and federal agencies, businesses and non-governmental organizations, MAKE is designed to communicate current research findings and support revision and expansion of state-of-the-knowledge assessments like the MCA. Stakeholder partners will provide guidance to the science community to help prioritize research directions and activities of high importance. Significant, but often technical, scientific results will be translated and delivered to stakeholder groups through a variety of print, web, and mobile products. MAKE will support an extensive online database, host an online portal, gather a network of experts in respective fields, and maintain a

  10. Climate change in the Netherlands : Challenges for a safe and attractive urban environment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Döpp, S.P.; Bosch, P.R.; Deelen, C.L. van

    2009-01-01

    Climate change in cities has so far been underexposed in Dutch research on climate change adaptation. High population density and high economic values make Dutch urban areas nevertheless vulnerable to climate change. Even with stringent mitigation policies Dutch cities will be subject to warmer

  11. Co-exploratory climate risk workshops: Experiences from urban Africa

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Steynor

    2016-01-01

    The paper describes the context for a place-based co-exploratory analysis of climate risks, the elements and steps incorporated in the approach, reflections on the effectiveness of this approach in addressing multi-stressor, place-based decision-making and the challenges that still remain in further refining the approach. The co-exploration approach is complementary to the objectives of the Global Framework for Climate Services and provides lessons for uptake of climate information into urban adaptation planning in Africa.

  12. Climate Science: A Journalist's View

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roosevelt, M.

    2011-12-01

    U.S. public opinion polls show that concern over global warming has dropped precipitously in the wake of economic turmoil. With a dearth of climate change coverage on network news, and in large newspapers and magazines, the public largely gets its climate news--and science news generally--from local TV weathermen. At the same time, many local weathercasters have little time to educate themselves about climate change--although the National Science Foundation is funding an effort to inform them. The Heartland Institute and other climate-skeptic organizations are reaching out to TV weathermen, and some prominent weathercasters have embraced the skeptics' arguments, but websites such as Climate Central, and blogs such as DotEarth are seeking to fill the void. The innate caution of climate scientists, most of whom are reluctant to extrapolate from a narrow study on, say, carbon flux or sea ice, to talk about why the planet is in danger is another challenge. For the most part, they don't want to stick their necks out for fear of professional retribution. When scientists limit themselves to talking about narrow results, journalists' eyes glaze over and no one connects the dots. Much attention is devoted to whether or not the media is doing a good job in covering climate change, when energy might better be spent on applying pressure to decision makers? The media can't make legislators vote for progressive climate change policies--only constituents can do that.

  13. Building Materials in Arctic Climate

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Ole Mejlhede

    2005-01-01

    Building in the artic requires special attention on the appropriateness of building materials. The harsh climate makes execution difficult and sets unusual requirements for the pure material properties. In addition, there is a lack of choice of good, natural building materials in the arctic...

  14. CLIMATE CHANGE AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    users

    www.globaljournalseries.com; Email: info@globaljournalseries.com. CLIMATE ... and hunger. These issues are likely to become especially important in making decisions not only about how to reduce .... Agriculture is the largest single consumer of fresh water ..... imply increased refrigeration loads at the same time that.

  15. Climate policy: Bucket or drainer?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oikonomou, Vlasis; Patel, Martin; Worrell, Ernst

    2006-01-01

    Worldwide, industry is responsible for about 40% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, making it an important target for climate policy. Energy-intensive industries may be particularly vulnerable to higher energy costs caused by climate policy. If companies cannot offset rising energy costs and would face increased competition from countries without climate policy, they may decide to relocate their industrial production to the countries without climate policy. The resulting net effect of climate policy on GHG emissions in foreign countries is typically referred to as 'carbon leakage'. Carbon leakage may lead to higher global GHG emissions due to the use of less advanced technology in less developed countries. Based on a literature review of climate policy, earlier environmental policy and analyses of historical trends, this paper assesses the carbon leakage effects of climate policy for energy-intensive industries. Reviews of past trends in production location of energy-intensive industries show an increased global production share of Non-Annex 1 countries. However, from empirical analyses we conclude that the trend is primarily driven by regional demand growth. In contrast, climate policy models show a strong carbon leakage. Even though future climate policy may have a more profound impact than environmental policies in the past, the modelling results are doubtful. Leakage generally seems to be overestimated in current models, especially as potential positive spillovers are often not included in the models. The ambiguity of the empirical analyses and the modelling results warrants further research in the importance of production factors for relocation

  16. A new scenario framework for Climate Change Research: scenario matrix architecture

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Vuuren, D.P.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/11522016X; Kriegler, E.; O'Neill, B.C.; Ebi, K.L.; Riahi, K.; Carter, T.R.; Edmonds, J.; Hallegatte, S.; Kram, T.; Mathur, R.; Winkler, H.

    2014-01-01

    This paper describes the scenario matrix architecture that underlies a framework for developing new scenarios for climate change research. The matrix architecture facilitates addressing key questions related to current climate research and policy-making: identifying the effectiveness of different

  17. Crop advisors as climate information brokers: Building the capacity of US farmers to adapt to climate change

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Carmen Lemos

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper examines the role of crop advisors as brokers of climate information to support US corn farmers to adapt to climatic change. It uses quantitative data collected from a broad survey of crop advisors in the US Corn Belt to examine the factors that shape advisors’ use of (and willingness to provide climate information to their clients. Building upon a general model of climate information usability we argue that advisors’ willingness to provide climate advice to farmers is influenced by three main factors: their information seeking habits and behavior, their experience with innovation in the past, and how climate information interplays with other kinds of information that they provide—especially agronomic advice. We find that advisors’ willingness to provide climate related information depends both on factors at the individual and organizational level and on the type of advice they provide. First, at the individual and organizational levels, advisors who work in supportive organizations and who collaborate with other advisors are more likely to provide climate information. Second, advisors are more likely to provide climate information if it does not interfere with their main profit making business (e.g. provision of agronomic advice. Third, there is a significant positive relationship between trust in a greater number or sources of information and use of climate information. Fourth, the way advisors perceive short- and long-term risk also influences their willingness to provide climate information; the more concerned they are about long-term climate-related risks to farming, the more likely they are to provide (or want to provide advice based on climate information. Differently from other empirical work in the literature, our analytical model suggests that neither negative experiences with climate information in the past nor the high level of uncertainty characteristic of climate information appear to influence advisors

  18. An avian equivalent of make-up?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Piersma, T; Dekker, M; Damste, JSS; Sinninghe Damsté, Jaap S.; Lambrechts, M.

    We report that a long-distance migrating shorebird, the red knot, makes a complete switch from commonly occurring monoester preen waxes to a much rarer class of higher-molecular-weight diester waxes at the time of take-off to the high arctic breeding grounds. The cold arctic climate would have

  19. Level of knowledge in the science of climate change: will the climate really change in the 21st century?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bourque, A.

    2003-01-01

    The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently stated that mean temperature is not as stable as it used to be, indicating a trend toward global warming. Understanding this phenomena should lead to better decisions concerning reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. It should also make it easier to adapt our socio-economic and environmental activities to a new reality which seems inevitable. The author discussed climate equilibrium by looking at the five sub-systems: atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere. A review of the historical evolution of climate was presented along with an examination of the relationships between greenhouse gases and the recent evolution of climate. The author discussed the uncertainty of scenarios predicting the future of climate change and concluded that climate change is upon us and is likely to intensify in the future. It was emphasized that adaptation to climate change will have to include reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. According to the author, a scenario involving a doubling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere appears almost unavoidable. 7 refs., 1 tab., 6 figs

  20. Human choice and climate change. Volume 4: What have we learned?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Raynor, S.; Malone, E.

    1998-01-01

    This book is Volume 4 of a four-volume set which assesses social science research that is relevant to global climate change from a wide-ranging interdisciplinary perspective. Attention is focused on lessons learned as related to climate change. This series is indispensable reading for scientists and engineers wishing to make an effective contribution to the climate change policy debate

  1. Global climate change through CO2 emissions - fact or fiction

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Metzner, H.

    1994-01-01

    'Horror scenarios' of an imminent climate disaster have for long been dominating the media and giving rise to insecurity and fear. The present article deals critically with these visions and makes a realistic assessment of the present climate situation based on plain scientific facts. (orig.) [de

  2. Resilient Cities Initiative on Climate Change in Latin America and ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Resilient Cities Initiative on Climate Change in Latin America and the Caribbean ... and Development Knowledge Network will help strengthen decision-making and ... represent a serious threat for fast-growing small- and medium-sized cities. ... guidance on how to integrate gender practices into climate resilient plans for ...

  3. Climate disturbance and water resources

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nguyen, Tien-Duc

    2012-01-01

    The worldwide multiplication of extreme climatic events (heat waves, dryness, floods, storms..) and their impact on the precious water resources raises the question of climate change: is it a reality, are the consequences already visible, should we urgently take care of it, and if so who actually takes care of it and how? This books makes a comprehensive overview of our knowledge about these questions, in a relevant and pedagogical way. Solutions to contain the climate boom risk exist and are based on the shared solidarity and responsibility. They require a strong involvement of the entire international community and their implementation has to run counter to the traditional opposition between developed and developing countries. However, the present day economic crisis is often used as a pretext for not doing anything. (J.S.)

  4. Integrated climate change risk assessment:

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kaspersen, Per Skougaard; Halsnæs, Kirsten

    2017-01-01

    Risk assessments of flooding in urban areas during extreme precipitation for use in, for example, decision-making regarding climate adaptation, are surrounded by great uncertainties stemming from climate model projections, methods of downscaling and the assumptions of socioeconomic impact models...... to address the complex linkages between the different kinds of data required in assessing climate adaptation. It emphasizes that the availability of spatially explicit data can reduce the overall uncertainty of the risk assessment and assist in identifying key vulnerable assets. The usefulness...... of such a framework is demonstrated by means of a risk assessment of flooding from extreme precipitation for the city of Odense, Denmark. A sensitivity analysis shows how the presence of particularly important assets, such as cultural and historical heritage, may be addressed in assessing such risks. The output...

  5. The Construction of a Sustainable Development in Times of Climate Change

    OpenAIRE

    Brandstedt, Eric

    2013-01-01

    This dissertation is a contribution to the debate about ‘climate justice’, i.e. a call for a just and feasible distribution of responsibility for addressing climate change. The main argument is a proposal for a cautious, practicable, and necessary step in the right direction: given the set of theoretical and practical obstacles to climate justice, we must begin by making contemporary development practices sustainable. In times of climate change, this is done by recognising and responding to t...

  6. Integrating climate change into agricultural research for development in Africa

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chambwera, Muyeye; Anderson, Simon

    2011-09-15

    African agriculture is already struggling to meet increasing demand for food. Climate change, which will alter agroecological conditions and looks set to arrest and decrease agricultural yields on the continent, will make it even harder to achieve food security. Boosting agricultural productivity in Africa, especially in the face of climate change, cannot be achieved without the benefits of cutting edge science. Advances in technology development and transfer, capacity building and policy research must be harnessed by developing and disseminating relevant strategies and technologies, and improving policy environments. The European Initiative for Agricultural Research for Development (EIARD), which facilitates and coordinates European policy and support for agricultural research for development, must integrate climate change into its activities and ensure that agricultural research for development and climate change adaptation are not disjointed. This demands a more strategic and coordinated approach from the initiative — one that reflects African realities, responds to African priorities for adaptation and development, and makes the best use of limited resources.

  7. Climate Services for Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saunby, M.; Bhaskaran, B.; Buontempo, C.; Willett, K.

    2010-09-01

    Working to improve the lives of the poorest people in the world is a huge challenge that has cost 2.3 trillion over the last 50 years. The work is far from done. Now there is also the challenge of adapting to changes in climate that threaten the very land on which the poorest live and work. There can be no simple plan to solve these problems, but those with information, knowledge or skills that could make a difference have a vital role to play. In this presentation we explore recent developments in communications technologies, the use of these technologies in assisting development in poorer countries, and how "open data" is enabling the rapid flow of information to those who need it most. Examples of recent Met Office projects and collaborations illustrate challenges faced and technical approaches already available. We pay particular attention to "feedback" - gathering information from end users throughout the entire lifetime of a service in order to best allocate resources and make rapid improvements in the quality, reach and benefits of climate services.

  8. Making better decisions in uncertain times (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    St John, C.

    2013-12-01

    Scientific information about climate change and other human impacts on the environment are increasingly available and sought after (often in the form of probabilistic forecasts or technical information related to engineering solutions). However, it is increasingly apparent that there are barriers to the use of this information by decision makers - either from its lack of application altogether, its usability for people without scientific backgrounds, or its ability to inform sound decisions and widespread behavior change. While the argument has been made that an information deficit is to blame, we argue that there is also a motivation deficit contributing to a lack of understanding of information about climate change impacts and solutions. Utilizing insight from over thirty years of research in social and cognitive psychology, in addition to other social sciences, the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED) seeks to understand how people make environmental decisions under conditions of uncertainty, and how these decisions can be improved. This presentation will focus specifically on recent research that has come forth since the 2009 publication of CRED's popular guide 'The Psychology of Climate Change Communication: A Guide for Scientists, Journalists, Educators, Political Aides, and the Interested Public.' Utilizing case studies from real world examples, this talk will explore how decision making can be improved through a better understanding of how people perceive and process uncertainty and risk. It will explore techniques such as choice architecture and 'nudging' behavior change, how social goals and group participation affect decision making, and how framing of environmental information influences mitigative behavior.

  9. Governing climate : the struggle for a global framework beyond Kyoto

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sugiyama, T.; Hasselknippe, H.; Tangen, K.; Michaelowa, A.; Pan, J.; Sinton, J.

    2005-01-01

    This book presented the results of a 2 year research project which developed post-2012 climate regime scenarios. The aim of the project was to contribute to decision-making and dialogue between policy-makers and stakeholders. A range of scenarios for a post-2012 framework were developed which illustrated the many possible futures under which the global climate regime may evolve. Scenarios include the strengthening of a binding-cap approach; a bottom-up evolution of emission markets on a global scale; a regime consisting of multiple treaties among like-minded countries and a binding-cap regime with an emphasis on equity. Papers in this book explored key building blocks of a future climate regime, and presented ideas on how to broaden the current cap-and-trade regime. The roles and importance of technology were explored. Lessons from past successes were reviewed with the aim of developing options for their most effective use in the near future. The issue of financial flows to developing countries was addressed, including the issue of mainstreaming assistance for climate-change response. It was suggested that European countries will be key players in initial negotiations in the post-2012 regime, and that the current framework favours Europe while making it difficult for the United States, Japan and Canada to make ambitious commitments. It was concluded that a careful analysis of all the alternative paths available for international climate policies is needed. refs., tabs., figs

  10. Embedding Climate Services

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shafer, M.; Boone, M.; Keim, B. D.

    2015-12-01

    With the rapidly-increasing number of climate services providers, the landscape for putting climate into practice is getting both easier to access and more confusing. Each provider serves a different clientele, and in so doing draws more stakeholder organizations into the sphere of those using climate information in decision-making. The challenge has been in connecting these new stakeholders with expertise that may reside within a different provider organization. To help close the gap, the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program (SCIPP; http://www.southernclimate.org), a NOAA RISA Team, initiated a summer internship program, where students with expertise in meteorology or climatology would work for an organization more closely aligned with another climate services provider network. The format was patterned after the successful NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at the National Weather Center, where students are selected from undergraduate programs across the nation to spend a summer conducting research under a scientific mentor. The SCIPP initiative flipped this model, instead sending students to organizations with operational needs for climate information to work under their mentorship in partnership with SCIPP scientists. Over the past two summers, SCIPP has recruited students to work at landscape-based (Gulf Coast Joint Venture and National Wetlands Research Center) and community-based (Tulsa Partners) organizations. Students worked alongside the organizations' staff on a daily basis and were supported through periodic calls with the SCIPP team to help identify appropriate datasets and work through methodological issues. This presentation will discuss how these relationships were created, the expertise of each of the organizations involved, and outcomes from the projects.

  11. Southern voices on climate policy choices: Analysis of and lessons learned from civil society advocacy on climate change

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Reid, Hannah; Ampomah, Gifty; Prera, Maria Isabel Olazabal; Rabbani, Golam; Zvigadza, Shepard

    2012-05-15

    This report provides an analysis of the tools and tactics advocacy groups use to influence policy responses to climate change at international, regional, national and sub-national levels. More than 20 climate networks and their member organisations have contributed to the report with their experiences of advocacy on climate change, including over 70 case studies from a wide range of countries - including many of the poorest - in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific. These advocacy activities primarily target national governments, but also international and regional processes, donors and the private sector. Analyses and case studies show how civil society plays key roles in pushing for new laws, programmes, policies or strategies on climate change, in holding governments to account on their commitments; in identifying the lack of joined-up government responses to climate change; and in ensuring that national policy making does not forget the poor and vulnerable. The report is the first joint product of the Southern Voices Capacity Building Programme, or for short: Southern Voices on Climate Change.

  12. Controlling the temperature in Canadian homes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dewis, G.

    2008-01-01

    Programmable thermostats can be used to optimize the operation of heating and cooling systems by reducing system usage when occupants are asleep or when dwellings are unoccupied. This paper used the results of a 2006 households and the environment survey to examine how programmable thermostats are currently being used in Canadian households. The demographic factors associated with thermostat use were discussed, as well as how their usage varied in different areas of Canada. The study showed that most Canadian households set their temperature at between 20 to 22 degrees C during times when they are home and awake. Home temperatures were reduced to between 16 and 18 degrees C when household members were away or asleep. Only 4 out of 10 households used programmable thermostats. Of those who used programmable thermostats, only 7 in 10 programmed the thermostat to lower the temperature when occupants were asleep. Senior citizens and people with lower levels of education were less likely to use programmable thermostats. It was concluded that incentive programs and the distribution of free programmable thermostats will increase their use in households. Assistance in programming during the installation process should also be provided. Factor analyses must also be conducted to examine the influence of age, education, and income and the decisions made by households in relation to temperature regulation. 7 tabs

  13. Adapting to climate change : an introduction for Canadian municipalities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mehdi, B.

    2006-02-01

    Climate change studies have indicated that Canada will experience large shifts in weather patterns in the next few decades due to both natural variations as well as human activities that release greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world's average surface temperature is expected to increase by 1.4 to 5.8 degrees C over the period 1990-2100. The use of fossils fuels in transportation, manufacturing, heating, cooling, and electricity generation is the biggest source of GHGs such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. The rest comes from land use activities, such as agriculture and forestry. Total GHG emissions in Canada amounted to 740 megatonnes in 2003. Municipalities are directly and indirectly responsible for almost half of those emissions. This document outlined decision-making processes to help municipal governments make informed decisions and take appropriate mitigative action. Topics of discussion focused on the effect of global warming on public health, agriculture, water, coastline and marine management. Among the impacts of climate change are droughts; diminished and lower quality surface water; a higher incidence of vector-borne diseases; more frequent heat waves with discomfort in urban centres; and, an increase in storm surges in coastal regions. The greatest concerns for most municipalities are intense precipitation, heavy winds, or ice storms. Examples of how 6 Canadian communities are starting to address climate change adaptation were presented in the hope that these examples will help raise awareness of climate change impacts in other communities and provide ideas as to how these challenges might be addressed. The Toronto Heat-Health Alert System, the Greater Vancouver Regional District Stormwater Management Program, the Halifax Regional Municipality ClimateSMART Initiative, Sept-Iles' Shoreline Erosion Program, the City of Iqaluit Sustainable Development strategy and the Tidal

  14. Climate Policy Under Fat-Tailed Risk: An Application of Dice

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hwang, I.C.; Reynès, F.; Tol, R.S.J.

    2013-01-01

    Uncertainty plays a significant role in evaluating climate policy, and fat-tailed uncertainty may dominate policy advice. Should we make our utmost effort to prevent the arbitrarily large impacts of climate change under deep uncertainty? In order to answer to this question, we propose a new way of

  15. Climate Change and Public Health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ciesielski, Timothy

    2017-05-01

    It is clear that the public health community is concerned about the human health impacts of climate change, but are we inadvertently underestimating the scope of the problem and obfuscating potentially useful interventions by using a narrow intellectual frame in our discussions with policy makers? If we take a more holistic approach, we see that the public health impacts of climate change are only one subset of the enormous public health impacts of fossil fuel burning. This broader perspective can provide a more accurate and comprehensive assessment that is more useful for decision making in public policy settings.

  16. Arctic action against climatic changes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Njaastad, Birgit

    2000-01-01

    The articles describes efforts to map the climatic changes in the Arctic regions through the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment Project which is a joint venture between eight Arctic countries: Denmark, Canada, the USA, Russia, Finland, Sweden and Norway. The project deals with the consequences of the changes such as the UV radiation due to diminishing ozone layers. The aims are: Evaluate and integrate existing knowledge in the field and evaluate and predict the consequences particularly on the environment both in the present and the future and produce reliable and useful information in order to aid the decision-making processes

  17. Will current probabilistic climate change information, as such, improve adaptation?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lopez, A.; Smith, L. A.

    2012-04-01

    Probabilistic climate scenarios are currently being provided to end users, to employ as probabilities in adaptation decision making, with the explicit suggestion that they quantify the impacts of climate change relevant to a variety of sectors. These "probabilities" are, however, rather sensitive to the assumptions in, and the structure of the modelling approaches used to generate them. It is often argued that stakeholders require probabilistic climate change information to adequately evaluate and plan adaptation pathways. On the other hand, some circumstantial evidence suggests that on the ground decision making rarely uses well defined probability distributions of climate change as inputs. Nevertheless it is within this context of probability distributions of climate change that we discuss possible drawbacks of supplying information that, while presented as robust and decision relevant, , is in fact unlikely to be so due to known flaws both in the underlying models and in the methodology used to "account for" those known flaws. How might one use a probability forecast that is expected to change in the future, not due to a refinement in our information but due to fundamental flaws in its construction? What then are the alternatives? While the answer will depend on the context of the problem at hand, a good approach will be strongly informed by the timescale of the given planning decision, and the consideration of all the non-climatic factors that have to be taken into account in the corresponding risk assessment. Using a water resources system as an example, we illustrate an alternative approach to deal with these challenges and make robust adaptation decisions today.

  18. Adaptive and interactive climate futures: systematic review of ‘serious games’ for engagement and decision-making

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flood, Stephen; Cradock-Henry, Nicholas A.; Blackett, Paula; Edwards, Peter

    2018-06-01

    Climate change is already having adverse impacts on ecosystems, communities and economic activities through higher temperatures, prolonged droughts, and more frequent extremes. However, a gap remains between public understanding, scientific knowledge about climate change, and changes in behaviour to effect adaptation. ‘Serious games’—games used for purposes other than entertainment—are one way to reduce this adaptation deficit by enhancing opportunities for social learning and enabling positive action. Games can provide communities with the opportunity to interactively explore different climate futures, build capability and capacity for dealing with complex challenges, and socialise adaptation priorities with diverse publics. Using systematic review methods, this paper identifies, reviews, synthesises and assesses the literature on serious games for climate change adaptation. To determine where and how impact is achieved, we draw on an evaluation framework grounded in social learning, to assess which combinations of cognitive (knowledge and thinking), normative (norms and approaches) and relational (how people connect and network building) learning are achieved. Results show that factors influencing the overall success in influencing behaviour and catalysing learning for adaptation include generating high levels of inter- and intra- level trust between researchers, practitioners and community participants; strong debriefing and evaluation practices; and the use of experienced and knowledgeable facilitators. These results can help inform future game design, and research methodologies to develop robust ways for engaging with stakeholders and end users, and enhance learning effects for resilient climate futures.

  19. The Distribution of Climate Change Public Opinion in Canada.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Matto Mildenberger

    Full Text Available While climate scientists have developed high resolution data sets on the distribution of climate risks, we still lack comparable data on the local distribution of public climate change opinions. This paper provides the first effort to estimate local climate and energy opinion variability outside the United States. Using a multi-level regression and post-stratification (MRP approach, we estimate opinion in federal electoral districts and provinces. We demonstrate that a majority of the Canadian public consistently believes that climate change is happening. Belief in climate change's causes varies geographically, with more people attributing it to human activity in urban as opposed to rural areas. Most prominently, we find majority support for carbon cap and trade policy in every province and district. By contrast, support for carbon taxation is more heterogeneous. Compared to the distribution of US climate opinions, Canadians believe climate change is happening at higher levels. This new opinion data set will support climate policy analysis and climate policy decision making at national, provincial and local levels.

  20. The Distribution of Climate Change Public Opinion in Canada.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mildenberger, Matto; Howe, Peter; Lachapelle, Erick; Stokes, Leah; Marlon, Jennifer; Gravelle, Timothy

    2016-01-01

    While climate scientists have developed high resolution data sets on the distribution of climate risks, we still lack comparable data on the local distribution of public climate change opinions. This paper provides the first effort to estimate local climate and energy opinion variability outside the United States. Using a multi-level regression and post-stratification (MRP) approach, we estimate opinion in federal electoral districts and provinces. We demonstrate that a majority of the Canadian public consistently believes that climate change is happening. Belief in climate change's causes varies geographically, with more people attributing it to human activity in urban as opposed to rural areas. Most prominently, we find majority support for carbon cap and trade policy in every province and district. By contrast, support for carbon taxation is more heterogeneous. Compared to the distribution of US climate opinions, Canadians believe climate change is happening at higher levels. This new opinion data set will support climate policy analysis and climate policy decision making at national, provincial and local levels.

  1. Climatic changes : the planet as a crystal ball

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Forget, D.

    2003-01-01

    Climatology is a science that makes long term climate forecasts based on the intrinsic characteristics of the earth, the atmosphere, and the oceans. Scientists make use of computers to simulate the earth's mechanisms and to make forecasts, thereby creating a virtual planet. A wide variety of parameters are defined using thousands of lines of code, such as the earth's dimensions, oceans distribution, atmospheric composition, and the quantity of energy generated by the sun. When the sun's energy reaches the earth, it interacts with the surface, the oceans, ice, and vegetation, resulting in differential temperature increases. By varying the concentration of carbon dioxide in the virtual atmosphere, scientists can observe the effect of this variation in different regions of the world and predict the influence on precipitation. The manner in which human activity will progress in the next few decades is also being examined in order to estimate the quantities of carbon dioxide that will be emitted. Those numbers are integrated into the climatologists' computerized simulations. To date, there are approximately 15 global climate models, and about the same number of regional models. Scientists from the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis division of Environment Canada, in Victoria have developed one of the most respected global climate models. Quebecers are also recognized for their expertise in developing regional models, such as the one developed at the University of Quebec in Montreal and Ouranos, which simulates the climate in North America over a 25-year period. It can also be used for any region of the planet. The model was validated through a series of exercises which used historical data to predict and confirm the outcome of past events. It is estimated that the temperature could rise by between 1.5 and 6 degrees C by 2100

  2. Global Climate Change and Ocean Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spitzer, W.; Anderson, J.

    2011-12-01

    the Earth's climate system. The problem is not simply that the public lacks information. In fact, the problem is often that there is too much information available with much of it complicated and even contradictory. The news media, both print and electronic, tend to exacerbate this by aiming for "balance" even when there is an overwhelming scientific or policy consensus. An additional problem is "reinforcement bias," which tends to lead people to focus on information that supports what they already believe or think they know. Instead, we need an approach that facilitates "meaning-making." A "framing" approach to communication (Frameworks Institute, 2010) supports meaning-making by appealing to strongly held values, providing metaphoric language and models, and illustrating specific applications to real world problems. This approach translates complex science in a way that allows people to examine evidence, make well-informed decisions, and embrace science-based solutions. However, interpreters need specialized training, resources, up-to-date information, and ongoing support to help understand a complex topic such as climate change, its connections to the ocean, and how to relate it to the live animals, habitats and exhibits they interpret.

  3. Climate controls photosynthetic capacity more than leaf nitrogen contents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ali, A. A.; Xu, C.; McDowell, N. G.

    2013-12-01

    Global vegetation models continue to lack the ability to make reliable predictions because the photosynthetic capacity varies a lot with growth conditions, season and among species. It is likely that vegetation models link photosynthetic capacity to concurrent changes in leaf nitrogen content only. To improve the predictions of the vegetation models, there is an urgent need to review species growth conditions and their seasonal response to changing climate. We sampled the global distribution of the Vcmax (maximum carboxylation rates) data of various species across different environmental gradients from the literature and standardized its value to 25 degree Celcius. We found that species explained the largest variation in (1) the photosynthetic capacity and (2) the proportion of nitrogen allocated for rubisco (PNcb). Surprisingly, climate variables explained more variations in photosynthetic capacity as well as PNcb than leaf nitrogen content and/or specific leaf area. The chief climate variables that explain variation in photosynthesis and PNcb were radiation, temperature and daylength. Our analysis suggests that species have the greatest control over photosynthesis and PNcb. Further, compared to leaf nitrogen content and/or specific leaf area, climate variables have more control over photosynthesis and PNcb. Therefore, climate variables should be incorporated in the global vegetation models when making predictions about the photosynthetic capacity.

  4. Carbon dioxide and climate

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1991-10-01

    Global climate change is a serious environmental concern, and the US has developed ''An Action Agenda'' to deal with it. At the heart of the US effort is the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), which has been developed by the Committee on Earth and Environmental Sciences (CEES) of the Federal Coordinating Council for Sciences, Engineering, and Technology (FCCSET). The USGCRP will provide the scientific basis for sound policy making on the climate-change issue. The DOE contribution to the USGCRP is the Carbon Dioxide Research Program, which now places particular emphasis on the rapid improvement of the capability to predict global and regional climate change. DOE's Carbon Dioxide Research Program has been addressing the carbon dioxide-climate change connection for more than twelve years and has provided a solid scientific foundation for the USGCRP. The expansion of the DOE effort reflects the increased attention that the Department has placed on the issue and is reflected in the National Energy Strategy (NES) that was released in 1991. This Program Summary describes projects funded by the Carbon Dioxide Research Program during FY 1991 and gives a brief overview of objectives, organization, and accomplishments. The Environmental Sciences Division of the Office of Health and Environmental Research, Office of Energy Research supports a Carbon Dioxide Research Program to determine the scientific linkage between the rise of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, especially carbon dioxide, and climate and vegetation change. One facet is the Core CO 2 Program, a pioneering program that DOE established more than 10 years ago to understand and predict the ways that fossil-fuel burning could affect atmospheric CO 2 concentration, global climate, and the Earth's biosphere. Major research areas are: global carbon cycle; climate detection and models of climate change; vegetation research; resource analysis; and, information and integration

  5. Climate change risk perception and communication: addressing a critical moment?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pidgeon, Nick

    2012-06-01

    Climate change is an increasingly salient issue for societies and policy-makers worldwide. It now raises fundamental interdisciplinary issues of risk and uncertainty analysis and communication. The growing scientific consensus over the anthropogenic causes of climate change appears to sit at odds with the increasing use of risk discourses in policy: for example, to aid in climate adaptation decision making. All of this points to a need for a fundamental revision of our conceptualization of what it is to do climate risk communication. This Special Collection comprises seven papers stimulated by a workshop on "Climate Risk Perceptions and Communication" held at Cumberland Lodge Windsor in 2010. Topics addressed include climate uncertainties, images and the media, communication and public engagement, uncertainty transfer in climate communication, the role of emotions, localization of hazard impacts, and longitudinal analyses of climate perceptions. Climate change risk perceptions and communication work is critical for future climate policy and decisions. © 2012 Society for Risk Analysis.

  6. Predictability of weather and climate

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Palmer, Tim; Hagedorn, Renate

    2006-01-01

    ... and anthropogenic climate change are among those included. Ensemble systems for forecasting predictability are discussed extensively. Ed Lorenz, father of chaos theory, makes a contribution to theoretical analysis with a previously unpublished paper. This well-balanced volume will be a valuable resource for many years. High-quality chapter autho...

  7. Can Organizational Climate be Managed?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Håkonsson, Dorthe Døjbak; Obel, Børge; Burton, Richard

    2008-01-01

    to maintain the system in fit, as long as it is properly perceived and supported by the leadership style. In the longer run, climate is more influential to change, making it difficult to perceive it properly. This challenge may lead to transformative changes, causing leaders to have little control....

  8. Climatic servitude: climate change, business and politics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Belouve, J.M.

    2009-01-01

    This book is together a contemporary history book and a global dossier about a topic of prime importance in our civilization. It treats of the history of science, of ideas and events put in the modern civilization context, of science situation and scientific controversies, of the media aspects, of carbon economy and its related business, of Al Gore's and Maurice Strong's biographies, and finally, it makes a critical geopolitical analysis and makes proposals for a renovated ecology. In the conclusion, the author shows how climate change has become the hobbyhorse of a new thinking trend, namely the New World Order, aiming at conducting people to the acceptance of constraining policies encompassing the energy security of nations, new taxes, a worldwide economic disruption, the limitation of the World's population, and a World governance supported by the United Nations and not constrained by classical democratic rules. (J.S.)

  9. Arctic adaptation and climate change

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Agnew, T.A.; Headley, A.

    1994-01-01

    The amplification of climatic warming in the Arctic and the sensitivity of physical, biological, and human systems to changes in climate make the Arctic particularly vulnerable to climate changes. Large areas of the Arctic permafrost and sea ice are expected to disappear under climate warming and these changes will have considerable impacts on the natural and built environment of the north. A review is presented of some recent studies on what these impacts could be for the permafrost and sea ice environment and to identify linkages with socioeconomic activities. Terrestrial adaptation to climate change will include increases in ground temperature; melting of permafrost with consequences such as frost heave, mudslides, and substantial settlement; rotting of peat contained in permafrost areas, with subsequent emission of CO 2 ; increased risk of forest fire; and flooding of low-lying areas. With regard to the manmade environment, structures that will be affected include buildings, pipelines, highways, airports, mines, and railways. In marine areas, climate change will increase the ice-free period for marine transport operations and thus provide some benefit to the offshore petroleum industry. This benefit will be offset by increased wave height and period, and increased coastal erosion. The offshore industry needs to be particularly concerned with these impacts since the expected design life of industry facilities (30-60 y) is of the same order as the time frame for possible climatic changes. 18 refs., 5 figs

  10. Phenology and growth of European trees in relation to climate change

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kramer, K.

    1996-01-01

    Research topics

    The relationships between climate and both phenology and growth of some important European tree species were studied to evaluate the potential impacts of climate change on trees and forests in Europe. In order to make such assessments, insight is

  11. Energy Choices and Climate Change: A New Interactive Feature on Windows to the Universe

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gardiner, L. S.; Russell, R. M.; Ward, D.; Johnson, R. M.; Henderson, S.; Foster, S. Q.

    2009-12-01

    We have developed a new, self-paced online module to foster understanding of how choices made about energy production and energy use affect greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. The module, entitled “Energy Choices and Climate Change” is available on Windows to the Universe (www.windows.ucar.edu), an extensive educational Web site used by over 20 million people each year. “Energy Choices and Climate Change” provides a new way to look at issues related to energy and climate change, emphasizing the climate implications of the choices we make. “Energy Choices and Climate Change” allows users to explore two different scenarios through which they make decisions about energy production or use. In the “Ruler of the World” scenario, the user is given the authority to make decisions about the mix of energy sources that will be used worldwide with the aim of reducing emissions while meeting global energy demand and monitoring costs and societal implications. In “The Joules Family” scenario, the user makes decisions about how to change the way a hypothetical family of four uses energy at home and for transportation with the aim of reducing the family’s carbon emissions and fossil fuel use while keeping costs less than long-term savings. While this module is intended for a general public audience, an associated teacher’s guide provides support for secondary educators using the module with students. Windows to the Universe is a project of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research Office of Education and Outreach. Funding for the Energy Choices and Climate Change online module was provided by the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

  12. Climate in Context - How partnerships evolve in regions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parris, A. S.

    2014-12-01

    In 2015, NOAA's RISA program will celebrate its 20th year of exploration in the development of usable climate information. In the mid-1990s, a vision emerged to develop interdisciplinary research efforts at the regional scale for several important reasons. Recognizable climate patterns, such as the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), emerge at the regional level where our understanding of observations and models coalesce. Critical resources for society are managed in a context of regional systems, such as water supply and human populations. Multiple scales of governance (local, state, and federal) with complex institutional relationships can be examined across a region. Climate information (i.e. data, science, research etc) developed within these contexts has greater potential for use. All of this work rests on a foundation of iterative engagement between scientists and decision makers. Throughout these interactions, RISAs have navigated diverse politics, extreme events and disasters, socio-economic and ecological disruptions, and advances in both science and technology. Our understanding of information needs is evolving into a richer understanding of complex institutional, legal, political, and cultural contexts within which people can use science to make informed decisions. The outcome of RISA work includes both cases where climate information was used in decisions and cases where capacity for using climate information and making climate resilient decisions has increased over time. In addition to balancing supply and demand of scientific information, RISAs are engaged in a social process of reconciling climate information use with important drivers of society. Because partnerships are critical for sustained engagement, and because engagement is critically important to the use of science, the rapid development of new capacity in regionally-based science programs focused on providing climate decision support is both needed and challenging. New actors can bolster

  13. Identifying climate risk perceptions, information needs, and barriers to information exchange among public land managers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peters, Casey B; Schwartz, Mark W; Lubell, Mark N

    2018-03-01

    Meeting ecosystem management challenges posed by climate change requires building effective communication channels among researchers, planners and practitioners to focus research on management issues requiring new knowledge. We surveyed resource managers within two regions of the western United States regions to better understand perceived risks and vulnerabilities associated with climate change and barriers to obtaining and using relevant climate science information in making ecosystem management decisions. We sought to understand what types of climate science information resource managers find most valuable, and the formats in which they prefer to receive climate science information. We found broad concern among natural resource managers in federal agencies that climate change will make it more difficult for them to achieve their management goals. Primary barriers to incorporating climate science into planning are distributed among challenges identifying, receiving, and interpreting appropriate science and a lack of direction provided by agency leadership needed to meaningfully use this emerging science in resource planning. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. Influence Processes in Climate Change Negotiations. Modelling the Rounds

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Courtois, P.

    2002-10-01

    An integrated framework for structuring and evaluating dynamic and sequential climate change decision making in the international arena is presented, taking into account influence processes occurring during negotiation rounds. The analysis integrates imitation, persuasion and dissuasion behaviours. The main innovation brought in the approach is the presentation of a stochastic model framework derived from thermodynamics. The so-called master equation is introduced in order to better understand strategic switch and influence games exerted. The model is illustrated toward a simulation of climate change conferences decision making processes. Characteristics of regions behaviours are derived from the simulations. In particular the bargain behaviours allowing for the emergence of an agreement are presented

  15. Influence Processes in Climate Change Negotiations. Modelling the Rounds

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Courtois, P. [CIRED Centre international de recherches sur l' environnement et le developpement, CNRS/EHESS, Paris (France)

    2002-10-01

    An integrated framework for structuring and evaluating dynamic and sequential climate change decision making in the international arena is presented, taking into account influence processes occurring during negotiation rounds. The analysis integrates imitation, persuasion and dissuasion behaviours. The main innovation brought in the approach is the presentation of a stochastic model framework derived from thermodynamics. The so-called master equation is introduced in order to better understand strategic switch and influence games exerted. The model is illustrated toward a simulation of climate change conferences decision making processes. Characteristics of regions behaviours are derived from the simulations. In particular the bargain behaviours allowing for the emergence of an agreement are presented.

  16. AGROECOLOGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE SEMIARID TROPICS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guillermo Gamarra-Rojas

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available This article makes a theoretical and, to a certain extent, propositional reflection on the conceptions, assumptions and evidences of climate change in the tropics, with emphasis on the Brazilian semiarid region. The contributions of agriculture to climate change are presented and the impacts of climate change on family agriculture in the semiarid region are analyzed. Evidence of mitigation and adaptation in agroecological systems of the semiarid region is presented and an outline of an agenda of the sector based on the commitments assumed by the country and the needs of mitigation and adaptation is provided.

  17. CLIMATE CHANGE IN KYIV: WAYS TO CONTERACT AND MINIMIZE NEGATIVE EFFECTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. Bazylevych

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available ital issues of climate change in Kyiv are studied with elucidation of the need for developing a comprehensive research technique to analyse and assess a cumulative impact of the process. The study exposes anthropogenic and natural factors responsible for climate formation in Kyiv and the climatic changes. With an account for recent international experience the proposals are formulated how to make use of contemporary administrative, economic, legal and regulatory levers to forestall climatic changes in the capital and cope with the negative environmental aftermath.

  18. Perceived Effect of Climate Variation on Food Crop Production in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The study objective is to determine the perception of food crop farmers in Oyo state to climate variation as it affects their production, because the relationship between climate variation and food security is direct and Oyo State has enormous potentials to make Nigeria food secure. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to ...

  19. Modeling lakes and reservoirs in the climate system

    Science.gov (United States)

    MacKay, M.D.; Neale, P.J.; Arp, C.D.; De Senerpont Domis, L. N.; Fang, X.; Gal, G.; Jo, K.D.; Kirillin, G.; Lenters, J.D.; Litchman, E.; MacIntyre, S.; Marsh, P.; Melack, J.; Mooij, W.M.; Peeters, F.; Quesada, A.; Schladow, S.G.; Schmid, M.; Spence, C.; Stokes, S.L.

    2009-01-01

    Modeling studies examining the effect of lakes on regional and global climate, as well as studies on the influence of climate variability and change on aquatic ecosystems, are surveyed. Fully coupled atmosphere-land surface-lake climate models that could be used for both of these types of study simultaneously do not presently exist, though there are many applications that would benefit from such models. It is argued here that current understanding of physical and biogeochemical processes in freshwater systems is sufficient to begin to construct such models, and a path forward is proposed. The largest impediment to fully representing lakes in the climate system lies in the handling of lakes that are too small to be explicitly resolved by the climate model, and that make up the majority of the lake-covered area at the resolutions currently used by global and regional climate models. Ongoing development within the hydrological sciences community and continual improvements in model resolution should help ameliorate this issue.

  20. Climate services for society: origins, institutional arrangements, and design elements for an evaluation framework

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vaughan, Catherine; Dessai, Suraje

    2014-01-01

    Climate services involve the generation, provision, and contextualization of information and knowledge derived from climate research for decision making at all levels of society. These services are mainly targeted at informing adaptation to climate variability and change, widely recognized as an important challenge for sustainable development. This paper reviews the development of climate services, beginning with a historical overview, a short summary of improvements in climate information, and a description of the recent surge of interest in climate service development including, for example, the Global Framework for Climate Services, implemented by the World Meteorological Organization in October 2012. It also reviews institutional arrangements of selected emerging climate services across local, national, regional, and international scales. By synthesizing existing literature, the paper proposes four design elements of a climate services evaluation framework. These design elements include: problem identification and the decision-making context; the characteristics, tailoring, and dissemination of the climate information; the governance and structure of the service, including the process by which it is developed; and the socioeconomic value of the service. The design elements are intended to serve as a guide to organize future work regarding the evaluation of when and whether climate services are more or less successful. The paper concludes by identifying future research questions regarding the institutional arrangements that support climate services and nascent efforts to evaluate them. PMID:25798197