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Climate Solutions: Hartwell Paper?


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Recently on the MySpace 'global climate change' thread, I ran across this Hartwell Paper and was very impressed. It seems like a nice compromise for both sides of the issue. I kept thinking it was a cleverly disguised argument for nuclear power and expected they'd spring the trap with each of the later sections, but they just end up advocating for a carbon tax.

 

Roger Pielke Sr. is one of the authors, so denialists can't complain too much. In fact this was brought to my attention by a long-term contrarian. Has anyone else heard of this?

 

 

http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-2821-2010.15.pdf

 

From p.15

 

"The consequence of this misunderstanding was that there was a fundamental framing error, and climate change was represented as a conventional environmental ‘problem’ that is capable of being ‘solved’. It is neither of these. Climate change emerged as a policy issue in the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Despite a few cautionary voices, the idea soon became established that climate change represented a global threat that required a coordinated global solution. In The Wrong Trousers, Prins and Rayner identified the misleading analogies with other international and environmental issues that shaped the FCCC and the Kyoto architecture. In particular, the concept of epistemic community circulating in policy circles reinforced the idea that a common diagnosis of the ‘climate problem’ was required to move policy forward. This view was reinforced by the prominent roles played, for example, by the scientific Ozone Trends Panel in the formation of the ozone regime and of the role of science in shaping the Med Plan to ‘save the Mediterranean,’ neither of which were ‘wicked’ problems.

 

Rather than being a discrete problem to be solved, climate change is better understood as a persistent condition that must be coped with and can only be partially managed more – or less – well. It is just one part of a larger complex of such conditions encompassing population, technology, wealth disparities, resource use, etc. Hence it is not straightforwardly an ‘environmental’ problem either. It is axiomatically as much an energy problem, an economic development problem or a land-use problem, and may be better approached through these avenues than as a problem of managing the behaviour of the Earth’s climate by changing the way that humans use energy. That is reflected in the radical reframing which we employ for this paper."

I'm not sure I accept the characterization as "a persistent condition that must be coped with and can only be partially managed more – or less – well," but that can be refined.

 

The overarching strategy of the paper is summed up by their use of this 18th century quote:

"Lose the object and draw neigh obliquly" ~Lancelot "Capability" Brown -p.9

 

Nice, eh?

===

 

Some other highlights:

 

"Our goal is broad-based support for radical acceleration in decarbonization of the global energy economy." -p.20

 

It seems like a very reasonable approach and should indicate the natural evolution for action on climate change. I was very happy to see them talk about black carbon (soot) as a major climate forcer, as well as the powerful role that agricultural productivity and natural ecosystems play in stabilizing (or destabilizing) the climate system.

 

I was glad to see they also speak about CO2 as a critical problem. This line especially caught my eye:

"But in our view, the Mauna Loa CO2 trend line alone justifies action to abate its rate of rise...." -p.21 ~their italics

 

I sure appreciated their focus on human dignity as a metric by which to guide action and guage progress. It's pretty hard to construct a bad policy with that as your starting point. IMHO, just working effectively on the 8 Millennium Development Goals would do more to combat climate change than would any attempt at regulation of CO2. Although they don't specify those MDG goals, most of what they suggest would fit within that MDG framework too.

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The global warming will increase humidity in tropical deserts. Also the higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere trigger plant growth. As predicted, due to the global warming the sea levels will rise.

There are many easy solutions to reduce global warming and its impact. First of all, people should understand the problem and take measures accordingly to save the world.

1. People should reduce the usage of electrical appliances which emits green house

gases.

2. Follow RRR-Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

3. Trees absorb a large amount of carbon dioxide

4. Usage of green power prevents 300 kg of carbon dioxide to be emitted into the

atmosphere

5. Insulation of the ceiling of a house and power saving

6. People should use only energy efficient appliances

7. Consumption of organic food should be increased

8. Periodic maintenance of the vehicles helps in efficient usage of fuel and reduces

release of green house gases.

________________

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