The Climate Challenge

Author : Lawrence Goulder,Marc Hafstead
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 354 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2017-12-26
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780231545938

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Confronting the Climate Challenge by Lawrence Goulder,Marc Hafstead Pdf

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.

Author : Guy Dauncey
Publisher : New Society Publishers
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2009-10-01
Category : Science
ISBN : 1550924370

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The Climate Challenge by Guy Dauncey Pdf

Immediate and practical climate change solutions for everyone.

Author : Craig Johnson,Noah Toly,Heike Schroeder
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2015-02-20
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781317680062

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The Urban Climate Challenge by Craig Johnson,Noah Toly,Heike Schroeder Pdf

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. How are cities repositioning themselves in relation to the global climate regime? How are cities being repositioned – conceptually and epistemologically? What are the prospects for crafting policies that can reduce the urban carbon footprint while at the same time building resilience to future climate change? 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 is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at www.tandfebooks.com/openaccess. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license.

Author : Joanna Cole
Publisher : Scholastic Inc.
Page : 50 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2010
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : 9780590108263

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The Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge by Joanna Cole Pdf

Ms. Frizzle takes her kids on a whirlwind tour, from the Arctic to the equator so they can see telltale signs of climate change.

Author : Stephen M. Wheeler
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 202 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2012-05-23
Category : Architecture
ISBN : 9781136344176

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Climate Change and Social Ecology by Stephen M. Wheeler Pdf

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.

Author : David Shearman,Joseph Wayne Smith
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 209 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2007-08-30
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780313345050

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The Climate Change Challenge and the Failure of Democracy by David Shearman,Joseph Wayne Smith Pdf

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.

Author : Stephen M. Wheeler
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2012-05-23
Category : Architecture
ISBN : 9781136344183

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Climate Change and Social Ecology by Stephen M. Wheeler Pdf

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.

Author : Joan Gregerson
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 310 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2020-09-24
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9798689735962

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Climate Action Challenge by Joan Gregerson Pdf

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!

Author : Felipe Bravo,Valerie LeMay,Robert Jandl,Klaus Gadow
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 334 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2008-05-20
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781402083433

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Managing Forest Ecosystems: The Challenge of Climate Change by Felipe Bravo,Valerie LeMay,Robert Jandl,Klaus Gadow Pdf

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.

Author : National Research Council,Division on Earth and Life Studies,Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate,Committee on America's Climate Choices
Publisher : National Academies Press
Page : 134 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2011-06-11
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780309145855

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America's Climate Choices by National Research Council,Division on Earth and Life Studies,Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate,Committee on America's Climate Choices Pdf

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.

Author : David Noble,Susan M. Gardner
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 119 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Climatic changes
ISBN : 0919779867

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Stepping Up to the Climate Change Challenge by David Noble,Susan M. Gardner Pdf

Author : Karen O'Brien,Karen L. O'Brien,Elin Selboe
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 347 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2015-08-07
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781107022980

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The Adaptive Challenge of Climate Change by Karen O'Brien,Karen L. O'Brien,Elin Selboe Pdf

This book presents a new perspective on climate change for researchers and policymakers in the environmental social sciences and humanities.

Author : Wytze van der Gaast,Katherine Begg
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 162 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2012-05-22
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781849963992

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Challenges and Solutions for Climate Change by Wytze van der Gaast,Katherine Begg Pdf

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.

Author : Douglas Macdonald
Publisher : University of Toronto Press
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2020
Category : Climatic changes
ISBN : 9781487524906

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Carbon Province, Hydro Province by Douglas Macdonald Pdf

Why has Canada been unable to achieve any of its climate change targets? Part of the reason is that emissions in two provinces, Alberta and Saskatchewan, have been steadily increasing as a result of expanding oil and gas production. Declining emissions in other provinces, such as Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, have been cancelled out by those western increases. The ultimate explanation for Canadian failure lies in the differing energy interests of the western and eastern provinces. How can Ottawa possibly get all the provinces moving in the same direction of decreasing emissions? To answer this question, Douglas Macdonald explores the five attempts to date to put in place co-ordinated national policy in the fields of energy and climate change - from Pierre Trudeau's ill-fated National Energy Program to Justin Trudeau's bitterly contested Pan-Canadian program - analyzing and comparing them for the first time.

Author : Craig Johnson,Noah Toly,Heike Schroeder
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 266 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2015-02-20
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781317680055

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The Urban Climate Challenge by Craig Johnson,Noah Toly,Heike Schroeder Pdf

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