Download or read book Confronting the Climate Challenge written by Lawrence Goulder and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2017-12-26 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Without significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, climate change will cause substantial damage to the environment and the economy. The scope of the threat demands a close look at the policies capable of reducing the harm. Confronting the Climate Challenge presents a unique framework for evaluating the impacts of a range of U.S. climate-policy options, both for the economy overall and for particular household groups, industries, and regions. Lawrence Goulder and Marc Hafstead focus on four alternative approaches for reducing carbon dioxide emissions: a revenue-neutral carbon tax, a cap-and-trade program, a clean energy standard, and an increase in the federal gasoline tax. They demonstrate that these policies—if designed correctly—not only can achieve emissions reductions at low cost but also can avoid placing undesirable burdens on low-income household groups or especially vulnerable industries. Goulder and Hafstead apply a multiperiod, economy-wide general equilibrium model that is distinct in its attention to investment dynamics and to interactions between climate policy and the tax system. Exploiting the unique features of the model, they contrast the shorter- and longer-term policy impacts and focus on alternative ways of feeding back—or “recycling”—policy-generated revenues to the private sector. Their work shows how careful policy design, including the judicious use of policy-generated revenues, can achieve desired reductions in carbon dioxide emissions at low cost, avoid uneven impacts across household income groups, and prevent losses of profit in the most vulnerable U.S. industries. The urgency of the climate problem demands comprehensive action, and Confronting the Climate Challenge offers important insights that can help elevate policy discussions and spur needed efforts on the climate front.
Download or read book Climate Action Challenge written by Joan Gregerson and published by . This book was released on 2020-09-24 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Start your own environmental team and make a real difference...in 90 days!Are you worried about climate change, pollution, and environmental justice, but just haven't been able to figure out how to make a real difference? Do you feel like you've been spinning your wheels joining big committees, signing petitions, or donating to large organizations, but don't see your efforts getting real results? Does it feel like it's time for you to start your own environmental project, but you don't know where to start or how to make it work? Well, don't despair! Starting your own environmental team doesn't have to be hard or intimidating. You can do it and start making a huge eco-impact fast!In this book, Joan Gregerson, Founder of Green Team Academy, distills valuable insight from her experience working with hundreds of GreenTeams into a proven, easy-to-follow system so that you can: - Learn how regular people just like you started their own successful Green Teams.- Attract committed, ideal team members, even when people have extremely busy lives. - Fuel excitement and attract dozens of partners to support your initiatives.- Avoid the common pitfalls that cause too many newbie teams to falter and give up. - Stop wasting time and start making a difference today.This book takes the ideas from 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth to a completely new level, by giving you proven ways to make a huge impact as called for in An Inconvenient Truth, The Sixth Extinction, and Uninhabitable Earth. Pick up your copy today! Be part of the solution and make your children and future generations proud!Find out how people around the world are using this system to make an impact in the 2020 International Climate Action Challenge!
Download or read book America s Climate Choices written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2011-06-11 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate change is occurring. It is very likely caused by the emission of greenhouse gases from human activities, and poses significant risks for a range of human and natural systems. And these emissions continue to increase, which will result in further change and greater risks. America's Climate Choices makes the case that the environmental, economic, and humanitarian risks posed by climate change indicate a pressing need for substantial action now to limit the magnitude of climate change and to prepare for adapting to its impacts. Although there is some uncertainty about future risk, acting now will reduce the risks posed by climate change and the pressure to make larger, more rapid, and potentially more expensive reductions later. Most actions taken to reduce vulnerability to climate change impacts are common sense investments that will offer protection against natural climate variations and extreme events. In addition, crucial investment decisions made now about equipment and infrastructure can "lock in" commitments to greenhouse gas emissions for decades to come. Finally, while it may be possible to scale back or reverse many responses to climate change, it is difficult or impossible to "undo" climate change, once manifested. Current efforts of local, state, and private-sector actors are important, but not likely to yield progress comparable to what could be achieved with the addition of strong federal policies that establish coherent national goals and incentives, and that promote strong U.S. engagement in international-level response efforts. The inherent complexities and uncertainties of climate change are best met by applying an iterative risk management framework and making efforts to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions; prepare for adapting to impacts; invest in scientific research, technology development, and information systems; and facilitate engagement between scientific and technical experts and the many types of stakeholders making America's climate choices.
Download or read book The Climate Change Challenge and the Failure of Democracy written by David Shearman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2007-08-30 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This provocative book presents compelling evidence that the fundamental problem behind environmental destruction—and climate change in particular—is the operation of liberal democracy. Climate change threatens the future of civilization, but humanity is impotent in effecting solutions. Even in those nations with a commitment to reduce greenhouse emissions, they continue to rise. This failure mirrors those in many other spheres that deplete the fish of the sea, erode fertile land, destroy native forests, pollute rivers and streams, and utilize the world's natural resources beyond their replacement rate. In this provocative book, Shearman and Smith present evidence that the fundamental problem causing environmental destruction—and climate change in particular—is the operation of liberal democracy. Its flaws and contradictions bestow upon government—and its institutions, laws, and the markets and corporations that provide its sustenance—an inability to make decisions that could provide a sustainable society. Having argued that democracy has failed humanity, the authors go even further and demonstrate that this failure can easily lead to authoritarianism without our even noticing. Even more provocatively, they assert that there is merit in preparing for this eventuality if we want to survive climate change. They are not suggesting that existing authoritarian regimes are more successful in mitigating greenhouse emissions, for to be successful economically they have adopted the market system with alacrity. Nevertheless, the authors conclude that an authoritarian form of government is necessary, but this will be governance by experts and not by those who seek power. There are in existence highly successful authoritarian structures—for example, in medicine and in corporate empires—that are capable of implementing urgent decisions impossible under liberal democracy. Society is verging on a philosophical choice between liberty or life. But there is a third way between democracy and authoritarianism that the authors leave for the final chapter. Having brought the reader to the realization that in order to halt or even slow the disastrous process of climate change we must choose between liberal democracy and a form of authoritarian government by experts, the authors offer up a radical reform of democracy that would entail the painful choice of curtailing our worldwide reliance on growth economies, along with various legal and fiscal reforms. Unpalatable as this choice may be, they argue for the adoption of this fundamental reform of democracy over the journey to authoritarianism.
Download or read book The Adaptive Challenge of Climate Change written by Karen L. O'Brien and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-07 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a new perspective on climate change for researchers and policymakers in the environmental social sciences and humanities.
Download or read book Climate Action Planning written by Michael R. Boswell and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2019-07-16 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate change continues to impact our health and safety, the economy, and natural systems. With climate-related protections and programs under attack at the federal level, it is critical for cities to address climate impacts locally. Every day there are new examples of cities approaching the challenge of climate change in creative and innovative ways—from rethinking transportation, to greening city buildings, to protecting against sea-level rise. Climate Action Planning is designed to help planners, municipal staff and officials, citizens and others working at local levels to develop and implement plans to mitigate a community's greenhouse gas emissions and increase the resilience of communities against climate change impacts. This fully revised and expanded edition goes well beyond climate action plans to examine the mix of policy and planning instruments available to every community. Boswell, Greve, and Seale also look at process and communication: How does a community bring diverse voices to the table? What do recent examples and research tell us about successful communication strategies? Climate Action Planning brings in new examples of implemented projects to highlight what has worked and the challenges that remain. A completely new chapter on vulnerability assessment will help each community to identify their greatest risks and opportunities. Sections on land use and transportation have been expanded to reflect their growing contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. The guidance in the book is put in context of international, national, and state mandates and goals. Climate Action Planning is the most comprehensive book on the state of the art, science, and practice of local climate action planning. It should be a first stop for any local government interested in addressing climate change.
Download or read book The Urban Climate Challenge written by Craig Johnson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-02-20 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing upon a variety of empirical and theoretical perspectives, The Urban Climate Challenge provides a hands-on perspective about the political and technical challenges now facing cities and transnational urban networks in the global climate regime. Bringing together experts working in the fields of global environmental governance, urban sustainability and climate change, this volume explores the ways in which cities, transnational urban networks and global policy institutions are repositioning themselves in relation to this changing global policy environment. Focusing on both Northern and Southern experience across the globe, three questions that have strong bearing on the ways in which we understand and assess the changing relationship between cities and global climate system are examined. The Urban Climate Challenge will be of interest to scholars of urban climate policy, global environmental governance and climate change. It will be of interest to readers more generally interested in the ways in which cities are now addressing the inter-related challenges of sustainable urban growth and global climate change. Chapter 9 and Chapter 11 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license. https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/tandfbis/rt-files/docs/Open+Access+Chapters/9781138776883_oachapter11.pdf Chapter 9 and Chapter 11 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license. https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/tandfbis/rt-files/docs/Open+Access+Chapters/9781138776883_oachapter9.pdf
Download or read book The Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge written by Joanna Cole and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2010 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ms. Frizzle takes her kids on a whirlwind tour, from the Arctic to the equator so they can see telltale signs of climate change.
Download or read book Climate Change and Social Ecology written by Stephen M. Wheeler and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-05-23 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although strategies to prevent global warming – such as by conserving energy, relying on solar and wind power, and reducing motor vehicle use – are well-known, societies have proved unable to implement these measures with the necessary speed. They have also been unwilling to confront underlying issues such as overconsumption, overpopulation, inequity, and dysfunctional political systems. Political and social obstacles have prevented the adoption of improved technologies, which would provide only a partial solution in any case if the fundamental causes of greenhouse gas emissions aren’t addressed. Climate Change and Social Ecology takes a new approach to the climate crisis, portraying global warming as a challenge of rapid social evolution. This book argues that, in order to address this impending catastrophe and bring about more sustainable development, we must focus on improving social ecology – our values, mind-sets, and social organization. Steps to do this include institutional reforms to improve democracy, educational strategies to encourage public understanding of complex issues, and measures to prevent corporations and the wealthy from shaping societies in other directions instead. This book presents a captivating vision of how to help social systems evolve toward sustainability and explores the social transformations needed for dealing with the climate crisis in the long term. It reviews the climate change strategies considered to date, presents a detailed description of a future sustainable society, and analyzes how this vision might be realized through more conscious public nurturing of our social systems. This interdisciplinary volume provides a compelling rethink of the climate crisis. Authoritative and accessible, it will be of great interest to anyone concerned about climate change and sustainability challenges and is essential reading for students, professionals, and general readers alike.
Download or read book Environmental Engineering for the 21st Century written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2019-03-08 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Environmental engineers support the well-being of people and the planet in areas where the two intersect. Over the decades the field has improved countless lives through innovative systems for delivering water, treating waste, and preventing and remediating pollution in air, water, and soil. These achievements are a testament to the multidisciplinary, pragmatic, systems-oriented approach that characterizes environmental engineering. Environmental Engineering for the 21st Century: Addressing Grand Challenges outlines the crucial role for environmental engineers in this period of dramatic growth and change. The report identifies five pressing challenges of the 21st century that environmental engineers are uniquely poised to help advance: sustainably supply food, water, and energy; curb climate change and adapt to its impacts; design a future without pollution and waste; create efficient, healthy, resilient cities; and foster informed decisions and actions.
Download or read book Challenges and Solutions for Climate Change written by Wytze van der Gaast and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-05-22 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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. Both impacts can fundamentally alter environmental structures on which humanity relies and have serious consequences for the food chain among others. 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: 1. 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 emissions. 2. To select technologies or measures for climate change mitigation and adaptation based on countries’ sustainable development and climate goals. 3. To create low greenhouse gas emission and climate resilient strategies and action plans in order to accelerate innovation needed for achieving sustainable development and climate goals on the scale and timescale required within countries. 4. To rationalize the current directions in international climate policy making in order to provide coherent and efficient support to developing countries in devising and implementing strategies and action plans for low emission technology transfers to deliver climate and sustainable development goals. 5. To facilitate development of an international framework for financial resources in order to support technology development and transfer, improve enabling environments for innovation, address equity issues such as poor people’s energy access, and make implementation of activities possible at the desired scale within the country. The solutions presented in Challenges and Solutions for Climate Change show how ambitious measures can be undertaken which are fully in line with domestic interests, both in developing and in developed countries, and how these measures can be supported through the international mechanisms.
Download or read book The Moral Challenge of Dangerous Climate Change written by Darrel Moellendorf and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-04-07 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the threat that climate change poses to projects of poverty eradication, sustainable development, and biodiversity preservation. It discusses the values that support these projects and evaluates the normative bases of climate change policy. It regards climate change policy as a public problem that normative philosophy can shed light on and assumes that the development of policy should be based on values regarding what is important to respect, preserve, and protect. What sort of policy do we owe the poor of the world who are particularly vulnerable to climate change? Why should our generation take on the burden of mitigating climate change caused, in no small part, by emissions from people now dead? What value is lost when species go extinct, because of climate change? This book presents a broad and inclusive discussion of climate change policy, relevant to those with interests in public policy, development studies, environmental studies, political theory, and moral and political philosophy.
Download or read book Managing Forest Ecosystems The Challenge of Climate Change written by Felipe Bravo and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-05-20 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate changes, particularly warming trends, have been recorded around the globe. For many countries, these changes in climate have become evident through insect epidemics (e.g., Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic in Western Canada, bark beetle in secondary spruce forests in Central Europe), water shortages and intense forest fires in the Mediterranean countries (e.g., 2005 droughts in Spain), and unusual storm activities (e.g., the 2004 South-East Asia Tsunami). Climate changes are expected to impact vegetation as manifested by changes in vegetation extent, migration of species, tree species composition, growth rates, and mortality. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has included discussions on how forests may be impacted, and how they may be used to mitigate the impacts of changes in climate, to possibly slow the rate of change. This book provides current scientific information on the biological and economical impacts of climate changes in forest environments, as well as information on how forest management activities might mitigate these impacts, particularly through carbon sequestration. Case studies from a wide geographic range are presented. This information is beneficial to managers and researchers interested in climate change and impacts upon forest environments and economic activities. This volume, which forms part of Springer’s book series Managing Forest Ecosystems, presents state-of-the-art research results, visions and theories, as well as specific methods for sustainable forest management in changing climatic conditions.
Download or read book Too Hot to Handle written by Willis, Rebecca and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2020-03-25 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scientists are clear that urgent action is needed on climate change, and world leaders agree. Yet climate issues barely trouble domestic politics. This book explores a central dilemma of the climate crisis: science demands urgency; politics turns the other cheek. Is it possible to hope for a democratic solution to climate change? Based on interviews with leading politicians and activists, and the author’s twenty years on the frontline of climate politics, this book explores why climate is such a challenge for political systems, even when policy solutions exist. It argues that more democracy, not less, is needed to tackle the climate crisis, and suggests practical ways forward.
Download or read book Challenging Climate Change written by Arne Wossink and published by Sidestone Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout history, climate change has been an important driving force behind human behaviour. This archaeological study seeks to understand the complex interrelations between that behaviour and climatic fluctuations, focussing on how climate affected the social relations between neighbouring communities of occasionally differing nature. It is argued that developments in these relations will fall within a continuum between competition on one end and cooperation on the other. The adoption of a particular strategy depends on whether that strategy is advantageous to a community in terms of the maintenance of its well-being when faced with adverse climate change. This model will be applied to northern Mesopotamia between 3000 and 1600 BC. Local palaeoclimate proxy records demonstrate that aridity increased significantly during this period. Within this geographical, chronological, and climatic framework, this study looks at changes in settlement patterns as an indication of competition among sedentary agriculturalist communities, and the development of the Amorite ethnic identity as reflecting cooperation among sedentary and more mobile pastoralist communities.
Download or read book Climate Action Challenge Workbook written by Joan Gregerson and published by . This book was released on 2020-09-30 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Write your dream into reality by creating your own custom Action Plan!The workbook is the companion to the book:Climate Action Challenge: A Proven Plan for Launching Your Eco-Initiative in 90 daysThe Workbook includes over 50 writing activities:Your Hero's JourneyYour Personal Vision StatementYour Self-Care PlanYour Team's Vision & Mission StatementYour 100 Ideal Partners List...and so much more!Use the Climate Action Challenge Workbook to stay organized and motivated. Use the Checklist to track your progress and go from passion to action in 90 days!
Download or read book China Tackle the Challenge of Global Climate Change written by Angang Hu and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-05-18 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Global climate change is one of the challenges ever to confront humanity with the largest scale, widest scope and most far-reaching influence. As the biggest developing country with the largest population, China is the world’s leading consumer of coal and energy, and one of the worst-hit victims of global warming. Consequently, China should assume its responsibility in making contributions to global sustainable development. Based on the principles of fairness and efficiency, this study creatively puts forward two principles of global governance on climate change. The first entails replacement of the two-group schema of developed and developing countries with a four-group model based on the Human Development Index (HDI). The second entails application of the resulting model to specify the major emitters as principal contributors to emission reduction. In addition, it proposes a two-step strategy for China to tackle the issue of climate change. This book makes it clear that China should proactively engage in relevant international cooperation, actively participate in international climate negotiations, make clear commitments to reduce emissions, and assume the obligations of a responsible power to achieve sustainable and green development.
