Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Management & What can we do? Ethics: Why should we do anything? The Pseudoscience Deniers
What do they say? Who supports them?
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Science Fact: Recent Global warming exists, due to humans. Natural variation out (El Nios/La Nias, volcanoes, sun): Average temperature going UP
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impacts practically all bad We see impacts now, only faint rumbling of future impacts if we do not act
Less FOOD crops die at high temperatures Less WATER glaciers, snow packs melting More DISEASE insect vectors moving north More WARS over food, water
Other
examples: Sea level rise SLR, Ocean acidification, Extreme weather (Sandy)
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U. S. Navy is concerned
Sea
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worldwide now living in coastal regions will be displaced by rising seas Where will they go? More wars will result
Pentagon
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absorbs CO2 => carbonic acid Ocean acidification hurts food chain
Algae, shellfish, coral reefs => fewer FISH
Higher
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warming puts more energy into the weather system for extreme events Specifics making Sandy worse
Sea level rise. Higher sea temperature. Also:
Arctic T Details
complicated, and exact attribution not possible, but probably global warming made Sandy worse.
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of risks: 2 types
Average risk: probable, low impact Tail risk: less probable, high impact
Rational
response to risk - lower it! The best way to think about the response to climate is RISK MANAGEMENT
Stop BAU = Business As Usual If BAU, today s tail climate risk becomes tomorrow s average climate risk
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What Can We Do: Climate Mitigation no silver bullet. Progress, need MORE
Action
to support non-fossil energy Mitigation Volume IPCC = 1,000 pages Please note: Citizens Climate Lobby
Carbon Tax + Dividend back to people
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Climate Ethics
Climate
justice: Poor have the smallest effect on climate are hurt the worst
U.S. will be hit very hard if BAU prevails More humane and cheaper for preventive action now rather than disaster adaptive action by our descendants in the future
However, no
place to hide
Intergenerational
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Oppose
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North Carolina and Cnut the Great (Reuters) - Lawmakers in North Carolina voted to ignore studies predicting a rapid rise in sea level due to climate change and postpone planning for the consequences. Cnut the Great ordered the sea not to rise 1000 years ago
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FFCs want to be able to burn every available carbon molecule (gas/oil/coal) in the ground Otherwise STRANDED ASSETS Would reduce FFC $wealth, $stock price
Libertarians: Tea
Basically oppose government action But governments must act to mitigate climate So libertarians try to kill the message
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IPCC Science Report 2007 Global Sea Level Rise Scenarios for the United States National Climate Assessment Skeptical Science website see one liners UU-UNO Climate Portal: soup to nuts climate U.S. Quadrennial Defense Review (2010)
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activities are causing recent global warming trend of climate change Climate impacts mostly bad, observed now, and will become far worse if we do not act Climate action is opposed by strong forces
NOT
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Thank You
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