It would be no exaggeration to call global warming (or global climate change) the most significant environmental problem of our time. The sheer magnitude and spatial scale of the problem spans the globe and impacts just about everyone; the possibility that climate change will prove irreversible once set in motion; and the fact that responding to climate change might involve significant changes in our lives and lifestyles all combine to make this issue unlike any other we will deal with this semester. The potential impacts of serious climate change include agricultural failure, an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather, coastal flooding, spread of infectious diseases, loss of habitat for plants and animals, more severe heat waves, changes in the hydrologic cycle and increased drought.
At the same time, the very scale and magnitude of the global climate change issue means that there are (and will continue to be) areas of scientific uncertainty in our understanding of the causes, consequences and appropriate responses to global warming. These uncertainties have provided global warming “skeptics” with the opportunity to create confusion over the state of the scientific debate and the urgency with which to address the problem. As we will see, many of the skeptic groups involved in the debate are financed by fossil fuel industries with a direct economic stake in the outcome of the debate. This raises serious questions about the links between science and policy and how environmental debates are framed and addressed in the media and in our political system.
For this segment of the class we will begin with a review of the science behind climate change, examining the basis of the scientific consensus for a warming world. We will see that the “greenhouse effect” is a natural condition responsible for maintaining the earth’s energy balance and making the planet habitable, whereas global warming refers to the enhancement of that greenhouse effect through human activities like the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. We will examine the remaining areas of scientific uncertainty and the link between these and the political debate over how to respond to the problem. We will review the current and projected consequences of a warming planet on ecological and social-economic systems. Finally, we will discuss ways to respond to and address the challenge of global climate change, including a whole host of “no-regret” policies that address both global warming as well as other issues like energy dependence and local air pollution.
Start with Frequently Asked Questions about Global Warming at the home page of the Union of Concerned Scientists. There are a total of ten questions in the FAQ section and you should review all of them closely (click on each of the questions to see the response), they provide an excellent and quick overview of the issue.
Next, you should read all eleven sections of the Union of Concerned Scientists page called The Science of Global Warming. For Monday (2/6) you should read these sections:
For Wednesday (2/8) you should read these sections:
That’s it for the REQUIRED reading – the reading that you absolutely need to do in order to have an idea of what we’ll be reviewing in class. However, I’d also strongly recommend some OPTIONAL reading on issues of climate change politics, impacts and economics.
Eileen Claussen, President of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, gave a fascinating speech at a conference called Emissions Reductions: From Main Street to Wall Street. Interestingly enough, the conference was sponsored by the largest insurance company in the world (Swiss Re) because they recognize that global climate change will lead to increased climatic-related disasters and financial losses for them. Claussen’s speech, Climate Change: Myths and Realities, is worth reading.
Jennifer Bogo, Allegheny College class of ’97, wrote an article The Hottest Spot for Audubon Magazine where she was an editor. The article looks at the impact of global climate change on the Arctic region.
The article Some Like it Hot looks at how over forty public policy groups have been set up to undermine the scientific consensus on global warming, and how they all have one thing in common – they all received funding from get ExxonMobil. If that makes you at least a little pissed off, then you might want to visit the home page of a group called ExxposeExxon to see what you can do about it.
You might be surprised to read that Business Week magazine published an article titled Global Warming that states: “remarkably, business is far ahead of Congress and the White House [on the issue of global warming].”
New Yorker magazine published a fascinating three part series on global warming that concentrates on changes in the way of life for people living in the Arctic region. You can find these articles here: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3.
Finally, if you are REALLY serious about this stuff, and you want to go straight to the most authoritative source on the subject of global climate change, check out the reports at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change home page.
The Union of Concerned Scientists has a web page called Migrating Climates that explains how global climate change will affect climate in the Great Lakes region. First click on the link “click to see Migrating Climates” and then click on your state to the left to see what kind of climate you’ll face in the future. More detail on these changes by state can be found by clicking the link to your state on the main page.
Audubon magazine has a piece called Playing It Cool that provides some good information on what you can do to help address the issue of global climate change.