Climate Change Primer

Chapter 1 Foreward: “As you read these, please take into account that numbers, names and circumstances have changed a great deal over the past six years, and so have I. Especially at the start, my time championing poor persons’ biochar involved … Read More

Chapter 2 Global warming is the slow increase in the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere because an increased amount of the energy (heat) striking the earth from the sun is being trapped in the atmosphere and not radiated out into space. … Read More

Chapter 3 Heat is energy and when you add energy to any system changes occur. Because all systems in the global climate system are connected, adding heat energy causes the global climate as a whole to change. Much of the … Read More

Chapter 4 There are three positions on global warming: (1) that global warming is not occurring and so neither is climate change; (2) that global warming and climate change are occurring, but these are natural, cyclic events unrelated to human … Read More

Chapter 5 The most common and most talked about greenhouse gases is CO2 or carbon dioxide. In fact, because it is so common, scientists use it as the benchmark or measure of things that warm the atmosphere. Methane, another important … Read More

Chapter 6 The most compelling climate change evidence scientists have of climate change is long term data relating atmospheric CO2 levels and global temperature, sea level, the expanse of ice, the fossil record and the distribution of species. This data, which goes … Read More

Chapter 7 No. Despite the apparent science view consensus among scientists, NGOs, international organizations, policy makers and the media, there are respected scientists who remain “climate skeptics,” that is, who doubt that the overall theory of human induced global climate … Read More

Chapter 8 Because the global climate is a connected system climate change impacts are felt everywhere. Among the most important climate change impacts are: Rising Sea LevelsClimate change impacts rising sea levels. Average sea level around the world rose about 8 … Read More

Chapter 9 Rising temperatures favor agricultural pests, diseases and disease vectors. Pest populations are on the rise and illnesses once found only in limited, tropical areas are now becoming endemic in much wider zones. In Southeast Asia, for example, where malaria … Read More

Chapter 10 To date, the effort to manage climate change has been a matter of high level diplomatic negotiations involving states and international organizations with a loud, but largely excluded fringe of NGOs, business groups, and minor political actors. The … Read More

Chapter 11 Managing climate change difficulties arise from two, related reasons: climate change management is viewed as expensive and it poses what we call a collective action problem. Why managing climate change difficulties seems so expensive When business and politicians … Read More

Chapter 12 Can we do more? It is clear that even if the international community manages to make further progress, it has a long way to go before it has exhausted its current agenda of negotiated restrictions on carbon emissions. … Read More

Chapter 13 Climate change affects the entire globe; its impacts are more pronounced in the developing world than in the developed world. In fact, ironically, although most of the human activity that produces climate change occurs in the developed world, … Read More

Chapter 14 Countries in the developing world can make two major contributions to slowing climate change: What can the developing world do to avoid the mistakes of the developed world? Look first at the primary sources of the GHGs that … Read More

Chapter 15 Here it is possible to see why countries free ride in the global effort to manage climate change causing the collective action failures that have left us looking at climate disaster. Leaders lack international incentives to act in … Read More