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The Environment
So there are three challenges here: 1) increase the likelihood of socioeconomic developments that present lower challenge to climate change mitigation and adaptation; 2) limit the rise in global temperatures; and 3) improve our ability to adapt to climate change. Per the IPCC report, here are some ways to address all three challenges:
The earth has been warmer many times before. The biosphere survived and sometimes thrived. It’s just that humans are used to a cooler planet. So we have to change our ways. This is new for us. Coasts need to be protected; crops made more resilient, wild habitat expanded and better managed. We need to reduce some stressors unrelated to climate change (over-fishing, poor governance) to build resilience to the new stressors.
First, the IPCC report’s full name is Global Warming of 1.5°C, an IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty. …
In Part I of this series, we established that the biosphere was in trouble because close to a fifth of all land plant species are threatened with extinction; 90% of all living land plants are flowering plants; and, most of terrestrial life depends, either directly or indirectly, on flowering plants. Houston, we have a problem…So, let’s create and manage flower and pollinator habitat! Focusing on urban spaces, home gardens, and farmland…
Consider the following:
Close to a fifth of all land plant species are threatened with extinction.
Flowering plants represent 90% of all living land plants.
Most of terrestrial life depends, either directly or indirectly, on flowering plants.
The USDA and National Institute of Food and Agriculture do have a bunch of suggestions on how to deal with insect resistance, many of which would also help protect vulnerable birds and non-target insects. As follows…
To quote: “…climate change beliefs have only a modest impact on the extent to which people are willing to act in climate friendly ways”…
Straw man argument: “…an informal fallacy based on giving the impression of refuting an opponent's argument, while refuting an argument that was not advanced.”
My point here is simply to highlight that disagreements about “facts” are often less about their accuracy than their use-value - that is, what would happen if a lot of people accepted these facts as true. And thus we have a whole industry of scribblers and pundits who provide “context” to uncontested facts. Of course, such context comes with its own truth-value and use-value.
Habitat management is not about preserving a biological moment in a specific locale. It’s about maintaining biodiversity and saving species.
…Ditto the development of increasingly resilient crops, which are better at enduring the slings and arrows of outrageous climate. As long observed, healthier plants are less vulnerable to insect infestations.
Hill notes that in most cases the best response to sea level rise is not the extreme one of building walls or abandoning the coast, but of creating “hybrid edges" that blend "natural ecosystems and human-made infrastructure to help cities adjust to rising tides."
Label creep: a gradual broadening of a category, often changing its meaning.
The journal Nature just published a paper, "Mass balance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet from 1992 to 2017," which documents accelerating ice loss in Antarctica over the last few decades.
This series consists of links and excerpts from my last 12 months of posts touching on the science and politics of climate change. Part VIII: Climate Change: Moral Communities and Divisive Rhetoric Climate Change: Labeling People and Framing the Issues How Not to Talk to a Climate Change Skeptic, Part VI How Not to Talk to a Climate Change Skeptic, Part V Straw Men and Their Variations, Part II: Comment on 'The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels' How Not to Talk to a Climate Change Skeptic, Part IV
This series consists of links and excerpts from my last 12 months of posts touching on the science and politics of climate change. Part VII: Climate Change Consensus: Update from the 97% Folks Climate Change Consensus and Lessons from Social Psychology Climate Change Consensus: Digging Deeper Climate Change: Degrees of Certainty within the Consensus Climate Change: Exploring the Consensus
This series consists of links and excerpts from my last 12 months of posts touching on the science and politics of climate change. Part VI: Estimating Economic Damage from Climate Change, Part II Estimating Economic Damage from Climate Change, Part I Energy Efficiency über Alles What Does It Mean Not to be a Climate Change Skeptic?
This series consists of links and excerpts from my last 12 months of posts touching on the science and politics of climate change. Part V: The Carbon Footprint of Consuming Experiences Instead of Things Estimating Economic Damage from Climate Change, Part V Estimating Economic Damage from Climate Change, Part IV Estimating Economic Damage from Climate Change, Part III
This series consists of links and excerpts from my last 12 months of posts touching on the science and politics of climate change. Part IV: Mitigation Measures for a Less Warm Planet, Part IIIb: Reduce Black Carbon Mitigation Measures for a Less Warm Planet, Part IIIa: Reduce Emissions of Short-Lived Pollutants Mitigation Measures for a Less Warm Planet, Part II: Energy Efficiency Mitigation Measures for a Less Warm Planet, Part I Staying within a 1.5° C Rise by 2100 is Still Possible Plus the Obligatory Warnings