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This article outlines in brief the conditions under which developing country governments are likely to feel motivated to take real action in addressing the greenhouse gas problem and the international mechanisms that are likely to succeed.
We use a global model to compare the economic performance of three policy instruments for controlling C02 emissions -period specific emission limits (limit policy), period specific taxes (tax policy), and a cumulative emissions limit (cumulative limit policy). With known costs and benefits of control, tax and limit policies are equivalent, and either is better than a cumulative limit policy. With uncertain benefits of emission reduction, tax and limit policies are equivalent. However, with uncertain costs of emission reduction, a tax policy may be better. A cumulative limit policy may occasionally perform well under uncertainty, but this is not generally the case.
A 'discount rate' for the consumption of future generations from current investments for their benefit is typically composed of two parts: 'time preference' and an allowance for the lower marginal utility of consumption due to higher average levels of consumption in the future. Time preference would be involved if one were postponing one's own consumption; it has little or nothing to do with income redistribution, which is what greenhouse abatement is about. A lower marginal utility of consumption is an anomaly in income redistribution: we rarely deliberately transfer consumption from the less to the more well-to-do. Time may serve as a kind of measure of distance; we may prefer beneficiaries who are closer in time,...
The paper presents a methodology for comparing the cost-effectiveness of different technical options for the abatement of greenhouse gas emissions. The methodology also allows a determination of the extent to which each technology can contribute to abatement by a specified date. The primary focus of the paper concerns carbon dioxide (C02) emissions. The analysis concludes that of seventeen different abatement options examined, the nuclear option is the most expensive, except for the marginal C02 savings achieved from advanced coal technology. A combination of energy efficiency measures and high efficiency gas-fired generation can achieve C02 savings approaching 285 million tonnes per year by year 2005. This represents...
The Colorado River supplies water to 27 million users in 7 states and 2 countries and irrigates over 3 million acres of farmland. Global climate models almost unanimously project that human-induced climate change will reduce runoff in this region by 10-30%. This work explores whether currently scheduled future water deliveries from the Colorado River system are sustainable under different climate-change scenarios. If climate change reduces runoff by 10%, scheduled deliveries will be missed approximately 58% of the time by 2050. If runoff reduces 20%, they will be missed approximately 88% of the time. The mean shortfall when full deliveries cannot be met increases from approximately 0.5-0.7 billion cubic meters per...
Projections are important tools for long-term planning and policy settings. Renewable energy sources that use indigenous resources have the potential to provide energy services with zero or almost zero emissions of both air pollutants and greenhouse gases. Currently, renewable energy sources supply 14% of the total world energy demand. Renewable energy is a promising alternative solution because it is clean and environmentally safe. Approximately half of the global energy supply will be from renewables in 2040. Photovoltaic systems and wind energy will be able to play an important role in the energy scenarios of the future. The most significant developments in renewable energy production are observed in photovoltaics...
We studied effects of disturbance on migrating waterbirds during spring on Cumberland Pool at Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge, Tishomingo, Oklahoma, USA, 1999 and 2000. We recorded 240 disturbances in 477.5 hr of observation of American coots (Fulica americana), American white pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos), black terns (Chlidonias niger), blue-winged teal (Anas discors), and Franklin's gulls (Larus pipixcan). Recreation (n= 208) accounted for 86.7% of all disturbances, natural disturbances (n = 23) accounted for 9.6%, and 3.3% of disturbances (n = 8) were unknown. Boat fishing increased alertness by American white pelicans but did not affect escape behavior. Recreational disturbances caused increases...
Biochar production and mixing in soil are seen as the best options for atmospheric carbon sequestration, providing simultaneous benefits to soil and opportunities for distributed energy generation. The proximity of biomass source and biochar dispersal greatly reduces the energy and emissions footprint of the whole process. The viability of the whole biochar process is examined from two boundary points: is there enough biomass around to have significant impact on the atmospheric CO2 levels and is there enough soil area for biochar dispersal. The answers are soundly positive, both for the world as a whole and for Canada, for which a more detailed analysis was done. However, the massive adoption of biochar solution...
Climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions is predicted to raise the mean global temperature by 1.0-3.5�C in the next 50-100 years. The direct and indirect effects of this potential increase in temperature on terrestrial ecosystems and ecosystem processes are likely to be complex and highly varied in time and space. The Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems core project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme has recently launched a Network of Ecosystem Warming Studies, the goals of which are to integrate and foster research on ecosystem-level effects of rising temperature. In this paper, we use meta-analysis to synthesize data on the response of soil respiration, net N mineralization, and aboveground...
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On November 11, 2021, the height, density, and species richness of trees were recorded in five plots along a 175 m transect at Hickory Point State Forest near Pocomoke City, Maryland. This data was divided into categories depending on if the tree was alive, dead, or a sapling. Emergent species' height, density, and richness was also recorded.
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This work captures a multi-year progression from 2013 to 2021 of change in the height of the topographic surface and freshwater status of the rooting zone that may indicate impending vegetation transition. Two Surface Elevation Tables (SETs) in a tidal Taxodium distichum swamp at Hickory Point State Forest near Pocomoke City, Maryland were used to collect data on the height of the topographic surface established with respect to a local vertical datum. Annual root production over time was measured by collecting data on ingrowth into mesh root bags. Root bags were collected at 5 set locations within the study area and analyzed to determine the weight in grams of new root production per meter cubed each year. This...
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Annual root production over time was measured by collecting data on ingrowth into mesh root bags. The study was conducted on tidal freshwater swamp environments subjected to salinity intrusion at Hickory Point State Forest near Pocomoke City, Maryland. Root bags were collected at 5 set locations within the study area from 2013 to 2021 and analyzed to determine the weight in grams of new root production per meter cubed each year.
Abstract Abstract By use of a coupled ocean–atmosphere–land model, this study explores the changes of water availability, as measured by river discharge and soil moisture, that could occur by the middle of the 21st century in response to combined increases of greenhouse gases and sulphate aerosols based upon the ȁIS92aȁ scenario. In addition, it presents the simulated change in water availability that might be realized in a few centuries in response to a quadrupling of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Averaging the results over extended periods, the radiatively forced changes, which are very similar between the two sets of experiments, were successfully extracted. The analysis indicates that the discharges from...
What is the best strategy to encourage research and development on new energy technologies in a market economy? What steps can ensure a rapid and efficient transition to an economy that has much lower net carbon emissions? This paper shows that, under limited conditions, a necessary and sufficient condition for an appropriate innovational environment is a universal, credible, and durable price on carbon emissions. Such a price would balance the marginal damages from carbon emissions against the marginal costs of abating emissions; it should not contain a correction factor for inducing technological change. This result, which the paper calls “price fundamentalism,” applies principally to the market-oriented part...
Thehigh demand for water, the recent multiyear drought (1999–2007), andprojections of global warming have raised questions about the long-termsustainability of water supply in the southwestern United States. Inthis study, the potential effects of specific levels of atmosphericwarming on water-year streamflow in the Colorado River basin areevaluated using a water-balance model, and the results are analyzedwithin the context of a multi-century tree-ring reconstruction (1490–1998) ofstreamflow for the basin. The results indicate that if futurewarming occurs in the basin and is not accompanied byincreased precipitation, then the basin is likely to experience periodsof water supply shortages more severe than those...
Understanding of the influence of global warming has been limited by a paucity of experiments. Taking advantage of the largest, longest-running experimental warming of a forest, we convened dozens of scientists from across the world to collect data to study and understand how bacteria, fungi, herbivores, plant pathogens, insects and a diversity of other groups respond to warming. We found that warming had a significant impact on ecosystems at both a site in North Carolina, as well as a more northern site in Massachusetts. The types of effects, however, differed between the north and south; they also differed as a function of the organisms considered. While warming affected all levels of organization, it had the...
In temperate latitudes, toxic cyanobacteria blooms often occur in eutrophied ecosystems during warm months. Many common bloom-forming cyanobacteria have toxic and non-toxic strains which co-occur and are visually indistinguishable but can be quantified molecularly. Toxic Microcystis cells possess a suite of microcystin synthesis genes (mcyA–mcyJ), while non-toxic strains do not. For this study, we assessed the temporal dynamics of toxic and non-toxic strains of Microcystis by quantifying the microcystin synthetase gene (mcyD) and the small subunit ribosomal RNA gene, 16S (an indicator of total Microcystis), from samples collected from four lakes across the Northeast US over a two-year period. Nutrient concentrations...
An integrated approach for choosing among energy supply- and demand-side measures shows that, compared to business-as-usual demand patterns, global greenhouse-gas emissions can be reduced well below current levels with net economic benefits to society. Given these findings, a 'wait-and-see' stance towards new initiatives in energy and environmental policy is not economically justifiable. Achieving significant emissions reductions, however, will require commitments to policies aimed at enabling energy markets to function more efficiently and supporting legislation where market forces do not suffice.
In order to study the likely effects of global warming on future ecosystems, a method for applying a heating treatment to open-field plant canopies (i.e. a temperature free-air controlled enhancement (T-FACE) system) is needed which will warm vegetation as expected by the future climate. One method which shows promise is infrared heating, but a theory of operation is needed for predicting the performance of infrared heaters. Therefore, a theoretical equation was derived to predict the thermal radiation power required to warm a plant canopy per degree rise in temperature per unit of heated land area. Another equation was derived to predict the thermal radiation efficiency of an incoloy rod infrared heater as a function...
map background search result map search result map Data Release: Peat collapse and vegetation shift after storm-driven saltwater surge in a tidal freshwater swamp, roots Data Release: Peat collapse and vegetation shift after storm-driven saltwater surge in a tidal freshwater swamp, CTD Diver data Data Release: Peat collapse and vegetation shift after storm-driven saltwater surge in a tidal freshwater swamp, tree height and density 2021 Peat collapse and vegetation shift at Hickory Point Data Release: Peat collapse and vegetation shift after storm-driven saltwater surge in a tidal freshwater swamp, roots Data Release: Peat collapse and vegetation shift after storm-driven saltwater surge in a tidal freshwater swamp, CTD Diver data Data Release: Peat collapse and vegetation shift after storm-driven saltwater surge in a tidal freshwater swamp, tree height and density 2021 Peat collapse and vegetation shift at Hickory Point