Discuss anthropogenic climate change considering both (a) the physical processes that drive the climate system, and (b) technologies and strategies that can be used to address this issue. Which response(s) do you think are the most important, and why?

Topic: Discuss anthropogenic climate change considering both (a) the physical processes that drive the climate system, and (b) technologies and strategies that can be used to address this issue. Which response(s) do you think are the most important, and why?

Lecturer’s Name: Dan Zwartz, Dave Frame & Rebecca Ford

Date: 30th January, 2015

Word Count: 1077

The questions are involved in this topic:

1. What is the science under discussion?

When we talk about climate change, not only the climate involved in the discussion but also sociology, psychology, chemistry, physics, mathematics and geoscience involved in this discussion [1]. Why? The reason is that the climate change may also relate to the law, ethics and economics issues, such as the law apply to mitigate global warming and the impact of climate change on the world economy. The psychology involved in climate change is due to the way to find the solution of climate change, like how people react to climate change, including anxious, stress and apathetic. The chemistry involved in climate change is because climate change may cause the chemical reaction, for example, the formation of acid rain could due to amounts of sulfur dioxide combine add to the atmosphere. The physics involved in climate change is because we can use physics to explain the approach of human activities changing the climate, for instance, the relationship between human activities on earth and emissions of greenhouse gas. Like Zwartz said “climate change is also very much about statistics”, the climate change also involved in mathematics, because we can use data we collected to analyze the climate change, it is similar with the weather forecast we watch everyday, however the climate change is forecasting the situation after decades [3]. The geoscience is more like the results of climate change, such as the influence of tropical cyclones and destruction of the Amazon ecosystem.

2. Where does the motivation come from to carry out this research?

The motivation of solving the climate problem is related to human psychology. When people concerned with their health or income, they will consider the impact of climate change. As a result, people will try to find a solution to climate change. For example, people will try to reduce the usage of fossil fuel because it may cause global warming. Semenza, Ploubidis & George (2011) indicated that human should consider both individual and society could impact climate change, especially, it could prevent devastating consequences [4]. Petrovic, Madrigano & Zaval (2014) also shows that public health messaging or advertising could affect the climate change mitigation [5]. According to Ministry for the Environment (2014) report, based on human activities nowadays, there have four impacts may happened in New Zealand – higher temperatures, sea level increasing, extreme weather events increasing and rainfall patterns change [6].

3. How is the research carried out?

IPCC Third Assessment Report (2001) indicated that there have two different factors could drive the climate system. First of all, the ultimate source of energy, which means the sun radiation. The climate system function is that to balance the incoming solar radiation which including “electromagnetic spectrum” and “ultraviolet spectrum”, and outgoing radiation which including infrared radiation, sensible heat and water vapour. Secondly, human activities influence the climate system. Since the first of the Industrial Revolution, mid-18th century, the impact of human activities was dramatically increased, particularly the combustion of fossil fuels produces greenhouse gas. And also, the urbanisation and other human activities, like lumbering and farming will affect the physical and biological properties on earth. The greenhouse effect was introduced in this part, which means most of the greenhouse gas from human activities is in the atmosphere, and the greenhouse gas is absorbed the heat from outgoing radiation. As a result, the atmosphere gets hotter and hotter, so the temperature of the earth surface is increasing when greenhouse gas emission is increasing [7].

4. Who are the different ‘voices’ related to this topic; who can be trusted and why?

Biello (2014) shows that there has ten possible solutions to saving our planet: 1) using fossil fuels smart; 2) upgrade our infrastructure, like our building; 3) move closer to work and study, or using public transport; 4) reduce consumption, like fossil fuels; 5) living efficient way, like buy efficient car; 6) eat more vegetable; 7) stop cutting trees; 8) unplug your devices; 9) reduce birth rate; 10) future energy [8]. However, the IMF (2008) said the climate change will affect the economies, if we want have our economies growth, the GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions will increase. For example, the fast-growing countries like China and India, they contributed most of GHG emission [9]. In other words, the economic growth is based on the destruction of the natural environment. We cannot sacrifice our environment to develop our economic and high standard living. Like Biello said, we could do everything possible to try saving our environment rather than sacrificing.

5. What is the social and political context of this science?

NASA (2015) shows that the action plans listed by the United States government and United Nation framework on climate change. For example, the Clean Power Plan was introduced by EPA in order to protect the health of future generation [10]. And also the EPA (2014) shows that what individual can do to try to reduce the emission of greenhouse gas. For instance, people can reduce pollution, reuse clothes and recycle newspaper, plastic bottle and other goods [11].

6. What issues exist around communication of this science?

Liao (2010) indicated that there still have problems when we using renewable energy during our real world. For example, electricity storage is difficult to solve, because we need a large surface area to convert electricity and storage electricity [12]. The balance between the cost and electricity production is hard to maintain. On the other hand, the wind energy is clean and sustainable energy. However, good wind sites usually far away from cities where the power is needed, and also the wind turbine may have noise pollution and the turbine blades need to maintain the function [13].

7. Considering all of the above, what is your conclusion about the question posed in the essay title?

To sum up, both the physical processes that drive the climate system, and technologies and strategies that can be used to address this issue are important. Because human activities drive the climate system, so that we need to find a solution to try to reduce the impact of climate change by human beings. One of the solution is that we can find new energies to replace our transitional energy, like nuclear power, solar power and wind power to replace the fossil fuels. However, we also need to consider the cost of new energy and economic growth. As a result, both of two factors are important to us, but only need is finding the balance between them.

8. References

[1] Reductionism. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.eoht.info/page/Reductionism

[2] American Psychological Association (APA). (2009). Psychology and Global Climate Change: Addressing a Multi-faceted Phenomenon and Set of Challenges. USA: Washington, DC. Retrieved from: http://www.apa.org/science/about/publications/climate-change-booklet.pdf

[3] Zwartz, D. (2014). SCIE 211 – M3 L2 – Introduction to Climate Change. Retrieved from SCIE 211 blackboard transcript.

[4] Semenza, J. C., Ploubidis, G. B., & George, L. A. (2011). Climate change and climate variability: Personal motivation for adaptation and mitigation. Environmental Health: A Global Access Science Source, 10(1), 46-46. doi: 10.1186/1476-069X-10-46

[5] Petrovic, N., Madrigano, J., & Zaval, L. (2014). Motivating mitigation: When health matters more than climate change. Climatic Change, 126(1), 245-254. doi: 10.1007/s10584-014-1192-2

[6] Ministry for the Environment (MFE). (2014). Climate change impacts in New Zealand. Retrieved from http://www.mfe.govt.nz/climate-change/how-climate-change-affects-nz/climate-change-impacts

[7] Baede, A.P.M., Ahlonsou, E., Ding, Y., & Schimel, D. (2001). IPCC Third Assessment Report: Climate Change 2001 (TAR). Retrieved from http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg1/pdf/tar-01.pdf

[8] Biello, D. (2007). 10 Solutions for Climate Change. Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/10-solutions-for-climate-change/

[9] IMF (2008). Climate Change And The Global Economy. Retrieved from https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2008/01/pdf/c4.pdf

[10] NASA. (2015). Global Climate Change Solutions. Retrieved from http://climate.nasa.gov/solutions/resources/

[11] United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). (2014). What You Can Do. Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/wycd/index.html

[12] Liao, J. (2010). Fueling the Future: Problem Solving for a Renewable Energy World. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/04/19/fueling-future-problem-solving-renewable-energy-world

[13] U.S. Department of Energy. (2015). Advantages and Challenges of Wind Energy. Retrieved from http://energy.gov/eere/wind/advantages-and-challenges-wind-energy