A Random Man on Planet Earth

Six Americas - which one are you?

Americans and climate change

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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Environmental Nanotechnology: Predicting the Interaction of Artificial Nanoparticles with Natural Environments

CSIRO scientist Dr Amanda Barnard has been awarded the prestigious Mercedes-Benz Environmental Research Award at the 21st annual Banksia Foundation Awards, held on Friday evening, 24 July 2009. Below is some information on her work on nanotechnology.

Dr. Amanda Barnard, CSIRO

Environmental Nanotechnology: Predicting the Interaction of Artificial Nanoparticles with Natural Environments

As we search for solutions to our future energy needs, carbon emissions, global warming, industrial toxins, and disease, it is clear that keeping the balance between technological development and environmental protection has never been harder.

Nanoscale materials, only millionths of a millimetre in size, may offer solutions to our biggest problems. However, care is needed as these new ‘nanoparticles’ are largely untested, are (literally) unique on an atomic scale, and we have little or no historical data to guide assumptions regarding the possible risks.

Using highly accurate supercomputer simulations, Dr Amanda Barnard's research focuses on predicting the environmental stability of nanoparticles, to understand how these tiny artificial pieces of matter interact with natural ecosystems.

Dr Amanda Barnard is an internationally renowned scientist, with many years experience in predicting the properties of dozens of different nanoparticles. Her ground-breaking theoretical models can see a path through the complexity of this problem, and investigate situations that experiments cannot.

As more and more nanoparticles are produced in laboratories, and introduced into everyday products, Dr Barnard’s predictive model will be in great demand, but priority number one is to understand what happens when nanoparticles are exposed to our most precious resources, air and water.

** If you enjoyed this post please also check out:

Yes, psychologists are starting to go green here in Australia.

The New Green Economy

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Friday, July 24, 2009

Clive Hamilton lecture "The Rebirth of Nature and the Climate Crisis"

Here is the blurb on a fantastic lecture called "The Rebirth of Nature and the Climate Crisis" given by Clive Hamilton recently as part of the Sydney Ideas lecture series being hosted by Sydney University.

In recent times a new theory of a living Earth has captured imaginations. According to James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis, the Earth is a living system in which the biosphere interacts with other physical components of the Earth to maintain conditions suitable for life.

The prevention of climate catastrophe, some argue, requires a shift to a new consciousness, one based on a rediscovery of the idea of a living Earth. To understand how such a philosophical transition might occur, it helps to consider the last great historical transformation of consciousness, the one that gave us the modern view of the Earth.

The emergence of the mechanical philosophy in the second half of the 17th century changed our deepest conception of the world. Previously the Earth was seen as alive and intentioned; the new science saw it as dead. Although Renée Descartes is usually regarded as the seminal thinker of the mechanical philosophy, in fact its roots can be traced to the thirteenth century Scottish theologian Duns Scotus.

Isaac Newton’s work saw the triumph of the conception of a dead Earth, yet Newton himself did not reject the old ‘Hermetic’ philosophy for the new one but held to versions of both. While writing his great mathematical work, the Principia, he also devoted himself to esoteric studies. If Newton could simultaneously be the father of modern science and conceive of the world as alive, could his insights provide the seeds for a new ecological consciousness? And does Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis solve Newton’s conundrum of how to marry a conception of a living Earth with the methods of modern science?

Clive Hamilton is Charles Sturt Professor of Public Ethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics based at the Australian National University. Until early 2008 he was the Executive Director of The Australia Institute, Australia’s leading progressive think tank, which he founded in 1993.

He has held a number of visiting academic positions, including ones at the University of Cambridge, the University of Sydney and the Australian National University. He has just returned from a period as a Senior Visiting Fellow in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University.

Clive is the author of a number of best-selling books, including Growth Fetish, Scorcher: The dirty politics of climate change, Affluenza (with Richard Denniss) and Silencing Dissent (with Sarah Maddison). His most recent book, The Freedom Paradox: Towards a post-secular ethics, was published last year.

Watch the video here

** If you enjoyed this post please also check out:

Yes, psychologists are starting to go green here in Australia.

The New Green Economy

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Thursday, July 02, 2009

Climate simulator (C-Learn)

This also came through the listserve today. C-Learn is quick and easy to use software that shows the outcomes of various climate change scenarios (above shows "Business as Usual"). Worth checking out!

Anyway, here is the message:

We are thrilled to announce the launching of C-Learn, an online freeware interactive climate simulator.
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Check it out at: http://www.climateinteractive.org/
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C-Learn is the 3-region version of the scientifically-reviewed policy-maker-oriented 15-20 region simulator "C-ROADS" built by Sustainability Institute, Ventana Systems, and MIT. You may have seen C-ROADS output in Jonathan Pershing's plenary presentation in April at Bonn. The simulator is being used by the Climate Action Initiative to support the UNFCCC negotiations with analysis and interactive policy exercises.

C-Learn allows users to test changes in fossil fuel emissions (in 3 global regions), deforestation, and afforestation and observe graphical and numerical results for CO2 concentrations, temperature, sea level rise, cumulative emissions, and emissions per capita.

C-Learn software, equations and interface will be shared using open source approaches via Climate Interactive, a partnership of organizations out of Sustainability Institute working to address climate change.

More information:

C-ROADS Overview:

http://www.climateinteractive.org/simulations/C-ROADS

Scientific Review Results:

http://www.climateinteractive.org/simulations/C-ROADS/technical

Project blog: http://climateinteractive.wordpress.com/

The slides Pershing presented:

http://climateinteractive.wordpress.com/2009/04/03/c-roads-and-pershing/

Direct link to C-Learn:

http://forio.com/simulation/climate-development/

Sustainability Institute:

http://www.blogger.com/www.sustainer.org and http://au.mc571.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=climateinteractive@sustainer.org

** If you enjoyed this post please also check out:

UNFCCC: Why technology is so important

Earthrace

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Positions of the major GHG emitting countries

I was looking around for some information on the GHG emission reduction policy positions of different countries (leading up to Copenhagen). Anyway, this information came through on the climate-l listserve (today).

The Finnish Institute of International Affairs' (UPI-FIIA) research programme on the International Politics of Natural Resources and the Environment has recently published the following publications that discuss the positions of major greenhouse gas emitting countries:

Climate sudoku: Japan's bumpy ride towars a post-2012 target
by Alex Luta
24 June 2009 -- UPI Briefing Paper 36

The Russian debate on climate doctrine: Emerging issues on the road to Copenhagen
by Anna Korppoo
5 June 2009 -- UPI Briefing Paper 33

Towards a new climate regime? Views of China, India, Japan, Russia and the United States in the road to Copenhagen
by Anna Korppoo, Linda Jakobson, Johannes Urpelainen, Antto Vihma, Alex Luta
4 May 2009 -- UPI Report 19

Also see the blog articles related to the Major Emitters:

Medvedev promised to cut emissions - or did he?
by Anna Korppoo, 23 June 2009

Is the new 'climate doctrine' marking a turning point in Russian policy?
by Anna Korppoo, 24 April 2009

Japanese Opinion Poll Supports 7% Emission Cuts
by Alex Luta, 26 May 2009

Additional complexities for Japanese mid-term target
by Alex Luta, 18 May 2009
http://www.upi-fiia.fi/en/blog/161/

Economy versus the Environment on Japan's Road to Copenhagen
by Alex Luta, 22 April 2009

For more information on the research programme on the International Politics of Natural Resources of the UPI-FIIA, please visit their hompage:

** If you enjoyed this post please also check out:

UNFCCC: Why technology is so important

Earthrace

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Friday, June 26, 2009

Use 'synthetic trees' to capture carbon?

Above is an artists impression of a possible new high-tech method to capture carbon emissions. Professor Klaus Lackner suggests a 'synthethic tree' as a way of capturing carbon emissions from the air. [Plus, it looks like it could also be used as a bus shelter]. Should we be investing in 'synthetic tree' development? What do people think about this idea? It seems to be a very technocratic solution to climate change. Interesing idea. It sounds like the US Department of Energy may also be 'interested' in the idea.

Here is some more on the idea.

As the wind blows though plastic "leaves," the carbon is trapped in a chamber, compressed and stored as liquid carbon dioxide. The technology is similar to that used to capture carbon from flue stacks at coal-fired power plants, but the difference is that the "synthetic tree" can catch carbon anytime, anywhere.

"Half of your emissions come from small, distributed sources where collection at the site is either impossible or impractical," said Professor Klaus Lackner, Ewing-Worzel Professor of Geophysics in the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering at Columbia University.

Lackner started working on the concept of an ambient carbon catcher in 1998.

"I argued back then and I still argue that the reason this can be done, from a theoretical point of view, is that the CO2 in the air is actually surprisingly concentrated, therefore the device you need to collect CO2 is quite small."

"If you give me one of those big windmills which have those big areas through which the rotor moves -- how much CO2 can I avoid? And if I had an equally sized CO2 collector -- how much CO2 can I collect? It turns out the collector is several hundred times better than the windmill."

Source

** If you enjoyed this post please also check out:

UNFCCC: Why technology is so important

Earthrace

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Thursday, June 25, 2009

Hopenhagen

The United Nations has teamed up with some of the leading advertising, marketing and media agencies to create a campaign to increase awareness of the upcoming Copenhagen Climate Change Conference (COP15) in December later this year.

Hopenhagen aims:

"to help empower global citizens to engage in the UN Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen".

The idea of 'hope' (as used by Obama) is obviously the key idea used to try and engage with people on this issue.

The website is www.hopenhagen.org/

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Friday, June 19, 2009

UK Climate Projections 2009 (UKCP09)

Video: Dr Vicky Pope, Head of Climate Change Advice at the Met Office, talks about the new UK Climate Projections 2009 (UKCP09).

Here is some new information on UK climate projections from the Met Office Hadley Centre. So if you live in the UK, this is worth checking out! The website has many resources on climate change available to use free of charge. Isn't that nice!

The UK Climate Projections 2009 (UKCP09) confirm that the UK is likely to see hotter, drier summers and warmer, wetter winters coupled with more frequent extreme weather such as flooding, heatwaves and droughts.

UKCP09 is the latest cutting edge science developed by the Met Office Hadley Centre and is the first time that a probabilistic approach has been used for climate projections, allowing us to take a risk-based approach to planning for the future.

Met Office Chief Scientist, Julia Slingo, said: “Through UKCP09 the Met Office has provided the world’s most comprehensive regional climate projections with a unique assessment of the possible changes to our climate through the rest of this century. For the first time businesses and authorities have the tools to help them make risk-based decisions to adapt to the challenges of our changing climate.”

For more information about UKCP09 see here.

You can read more detailed key findings for different parts of the UK, or look at UKCP09 maps of the UK showing how the climate could change in the future, and how this information should be interpreted.

** If you enjoyed this post please also check out:

Change is in the air

'Catastrophic' rise in temperature possible says the Met Office

Gambling with climate change: MIT updates its climate gamble wheels

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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States

Here is the blurb from the long awaited new report called "Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States".

The report summarizes the science and the impacts of climate change on the United States, now and in the future. It focuses on climate change impacts in different regions of the U.S. and on various aspects of society and the economy such as energy, water, agriculture, and health. It’s also a report written in plain language, with the goal of better informing public and private decision making at all levels.

In addition to discussing the impacts of climate change in the U.S., the report also highlights the choices we face in response to human-induced climate change. It is clear that impacts in the United States are already occurring and are projected to increase in the future, particularly if the concentration of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continues to rise. So, choices about how we manage greenhouse gas emissions will have far-reaching consequences for climate change impacts. Similarly, there are choices to be made about adaptation strategies than can help to reduce or avoid some of the undesirable impacts of climate change. This report provides many of the scientific underpinnings for effective decisions to be made – at the national and at the regional level.

The key findings were:

1. Global warming is unequivocal and primarily human-induced.

2. Climate changes are underway in the United States and are projected to grow.

3. Widespread climate-related impacts are occurring now and are expected to increase.

4. Climate change will stress water resources.

5. Crop and livestock production will be increasingly challenged.

6. Coastal areas are at increasing risk from sea-level rise and storm surge.

7. Threats to human health will increase.

8. Climate change will interact with many social and environmental stresses.

9. Thresholds will be crossed, leading to large changes in climate and ecosystems.

10. Future climate change and its impacts depend on choices made today.

** If you enjoyed this post please also check out:

"Emission reductions by the USA in 2020 and the risk of exceeding 2°C warming"

Environmentalists draft roadmap for Obama

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Monday, June 08, 2009

Allan Schnaiberg

Photo taken by: Alan Thomas

It is with much sadness, that I must announce that the 'village elder' of Bluesky-Greenwater - Allan Schnaiberg - has passed away in Chicago. Allan was my friend and a wonderful spirit. His energy and passion for the environment and people was fantastic. I am deeply upset at his passing and will keep his ideas and his spirit close to my heart forever. He was a special man that was always willing to share his wisdom and help me understand more about the social world.

Thank you Allan for being my friend and for all your help and inspiration.

I will really miss you!

Allan wrote (back in 1980) the best book I have read on the environment called:

The Environment: From Surplus to Scarcity

In particular, it has an excellent chapter on population (Chapter 2) called "Paradoxes of the Hydra Monster". It is well worth a read!!! Allan was one of the 'elders' of environmental sociology and suggested the societal-environmental dialectic, back in 1975. He is also well known for his 'treadmill of production' ideas and wrote many other papers and books (see here).

Also worth reading, is his paper called "Reflections on My 25 Years Before the Mast of the Environmental and Technology Section", as it contains a great personal summary of his academic life (including background on how the theory of the treadmill of production came about). Anyway, I will leave you with some of what he wrote to me recently:

Thanks for staying in touch at a human level -- far more important that just a "professional" level. I suppose the paradox is that "human warmth" may be the best antidote to "global warming"...

See you, mate,

allan

UPDATE: Very touching to see the Allan Schnaiberg memorial website and to read all the comments about Allan.

Photo taken by: Alan Thomas

Monday, May 25, 2009

The New Green Economy

The new green economy will ensure economic prosperity and create new green jobs.

The new green economy will ensure energy independence and self-sufficiency.

The new green economy will use clean, safe, natural sources of energy that will never run out.

The new green economy will get pollution under control.

The new green economy will make polluters pay for their own mess, so we protect our health and the health of our children.

The new green economy will preserve the majesty of our land (and the Great Barrier Reef).

The new green economy will reverse the deterioration of our atmosphere.

The new green economy will harness (Australian) ingenuity.

The new green economy will protect the future for our children.

The idea for this post came from reading "Speaking to Americans about climate change" and "Six Americans - which one are you?". I do realise that Americans and Australians are relatively different (socially), but they do also share many similarities (e.g. just think of Gridiron versus AFL). I decided to put the words "new green economy" with the main messages coming out of the 'Speaking to Americans' report. I have also throw in some "powerful images", although I realise that I should have more people in the images (more relevent to most people - look at magazine covers - they almost always have a face or person on them). Anyway, it was only a quick post idea.

I also understand that the message needs to be localised to be effective, but I have tried to get the core message without losing too much of the flavour of the message (i.e. using plain, values orientated language that resonates with the audiences underlying values and beliefs) so that it can be broadly understood (hopefully).

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Speaking to Americans about Climate Change

On the back of the report into the six different 'types' of Americans (when it comes to climate change), I found an article in the Huffington Post called Speaking with Americans about Energy and Climate: From the Think Tank to the Kitchen Table. [The report is by Drew Westen, Ph.D., who is Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at Emory University; and Celinda Lake who is President and Founder of Lake Research Partners].

It examines a new report called "Climate Truths: Making the Necessary Connections".

It is based on research undertaken in collaboration and under the sponsorship and guidance of ecoAmerica and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). For a description of the complete study and results (entitled, Climate Truths: Making the Necessary Connections), contact meighen@ecoAmerica.org, or fkoe@nrdc.org.

It looks good, so I have asked for a copy of their report. Anyway, here is what the study found:

What we found is that when we talk in plain, values-oriented language, we solidly move people, motivate them to action, and beat the industry's well-crafted messages by 20-40 points. What resonates with people are not specific fuel standards or the mechanics of how a cap and trade system would work or the precise tonnage of carbon emissions per year. What moves them is a set of themes that bring the issue home to them: economic prosperity and jobs; energy independence and self-sufficiency; clean, safe, natural sources of energy that will never run out; getting pollution under control and making polluters pay for their own messes so we protect our health and the health of our children, preserve the majesty of our land, and reverse the deterioration of our atmosphere; harnessing American ingenuity and restoring American leadership; and protecting our legacy to our children the way our parents and grandparents protected their legacy to us. And we learned that one striking fact that gets people to sit up and take notice -- for example, that the 10 hottest years on record have all occurred since 1990 -- is worth a thousand policy descriptions.

So rather than trying to push 'scientific facts' at people and expect them to undergo some sort of amazing behaviour change. [Note: 'now they have the facts, they will see the light' does not work.] It is much better to use "plain, values orientated language" that "brings the issue home to them" if you want to achieve some real behaviour change.

They also have a lovely climate change narrative concept-map figure which looks at the often contradictory network of associations (blue positive and red negative) held by the public and illustrated below (see Figure 1 - below). So for solar power, the industry should be pushing the message that they are "clean", "safe", "never run out" and will "help build jobs for the future" rather than "will save x amount of CO2". Makes sense, as people often seem to just tune out when science or mathematics starts been discussed. Much better to include them in the conversation by making it about them, by using their values and what is important to them a part of the conversation.

Figure 1: Emotional connections and a possible climate narrative.

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Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Six Americas - which one are you?

A great new social science report has just been released that finds there are six different 'types' of Americas when it comes to climate change:

(i) Alarmed (18%)
(ii) Concerned (33%)
(iii) Cautious (19%)
(iv) Disengaged (12%)
(v) Doubtful (11%)
(vi) Dismissive (7%)

Here is the blurb (from the envirosoc listserve):

Just a quick note to let you know about a major report we just released today called, "Global Warming's Six Americas." Drawing on a scientific survey of American climate change beliefs, attitudes, policy preferences, and behaviors, our research has found that the public falls into six distinct groups – each of which currently engages (or not) with the issue in a unique way:

The report introduces the six groups by briefly describing each and highlighting how they differ from one another. As you know, one of the first rules of effective communication is to “know thy audience.” We hope the results are useful to you in your own efforts to constructively engage the public in this pressing issue. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Anthony Leiserowitz, Ph.D
Director, Yale Project on Climate Change
School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
Yale University

The report can be downloaded here:

http://environment.yale.edu/uploads/6Americas2009.pdf

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