Climate Fact Sheets
Ethical Issues and Climate Change
Human–induced climate change is widely regarded as one of the greatest – if not the greatest – moral challenges of the 21st century. Not merely does it raise numerous ethical issues, but many of these are profoundly difficult and take us to the limits of our moral imagination. Moreover, the ethical dilemmas posed by climate change arise at multiple levels – for citizens, scientists, policymakers, organisations, companies, nation-states, and the international community – and traverse many different areas of moral inquiry.
Read MoreOcean Acidification – The Other CO2 Problem
Ocean acidification (OA) has been described as “global warming’s evil twin” and is considered by many scientists to be one of the greatest environmental challenges to marine organisms in the 21st century. Long-term records have shown a decrease in average ocean pH of 0.1 units since the beginning of the industrial age (from 8.21 to 8.10), and pH is expected to decrease a further 0.3 to 0.4 units by 2100, resulting in seawater that contains 150% more H+ than present.
Read MoreThe Importance Of Methane
Concern about the emissions of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) that causes Climate Change focuses primarily on carbon dioxide (CO2), which is an unavoidable consequence of burning fossil fuels. However, methane (CH4) is an increasingly important contributor to Climate Change.
Read MoreClimate Change – A Psychological Challenge
Climate change is a hard problem. To accept that the climate is being affected by human practices and that it is our collective responsibility to take action, we have to get our heads around a series of mental obstacles put in place by our evolutionary history and cultural practices. What are these, and what can we do about them?
Read MoreClimate Change – Living in a Warmer World
Planet Earth has experienced large shifts in climate over time. In the depths of the last Ice Age, around 20,000 years ago, average temperatures were about 5°C lower than they are today. It looks now as though global warming is likely to heat up the world between 2 and 6°C by the year 2100.
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The Physical Science Basis
The Working Group 1 component of the IPCC 5th Assessment Report (AR5; IPCC 2013a) was released in late 2013. It is a vast assessment of the published, peer-reviewed literature on observed and projected climate change, written by a team of over 200 volunteer scientists. The main findings of the 1500-page full report were boiled down to a 29-page “Summary for Policy Makers” (IPCC 2013b) and then super-summarised in a series of nineteen “headlines.” These headlines are highlighted and fleshed out with discussion from the full report and personal reflections and opinions.
Read MoreGlobal Climate Change from a Pacific Islands’ Perspective
Pacific island countries and people have many mutually reinforcing perspectives on global climate change. Pacific island countries and territories (PICTs) are minor emitters of greenhouse gases. Still, they are on the frontline to experience the many serious, adverse consequences of the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Read MoreClimate Change and Global Warming Risks and Responses
Engineers for Social Responsibility and the Sustainable Energy Forum are concerned about the consequences of human-induced climate change and global warming and the need for widespread understanding of the facts and underlying science.
Read MoreClimate Change and Human Health
Human-caused climate change is a serious and urgent threat to human health. Climate change and its environmental manifestations (e.g. warmer temperatures, more heat waves, altered rainfall patterns, more extreme weather such as heavy rainfall events and/or drought, tropical storms, sea-level rise) result in many risks to human health, both direct and indirect, that are recognised by world health authorities and leading medical journals alike.
Read MoreClimate Change and Health
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest report on March 31, 2014. This report was the second instalment of the Fifth Assessment Report, prepared by Working Group 2, on impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation to climate change. In this Comment, we, as contributors to the chapter on human health, explain how the IPCC report was prepared and highlight important findings.
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