SOC 1105 Lecture 11: SOC1105-D Lecture 11
22 Aug 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
March 1st, 2016
SOC1105-D
Lecture 11 →Environments, Population, & Climate Change
“Where you live should not decide/ whether you live or whether you die /Three to a
bed/ Sister Ann, she said /dignity passes by U 2005)
Reading: Climate Change: A Catastrophe in Slow Motion (R.T. Pierrehumbert)
• What makes global warming unique in the four billion year history of the
planet is that the causative agents – humans – are sentient.
Suggested Reading
• Silent Spring, Rachel Carson’s cult classic,
o Recognized the dangers of DDT and was appalled at the
powerlessness of the environment
• Soil Not Oil, Vandana Shiva, 2008
IPCC 2014 Report
• It is very likely (90-% probability that the earth’s mean surface
temperature will increase by 1.4-5.8 degrees centigrade between 2000-2100
• There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over
the last 50 years is attributable to human activities
• Natural scientists have generated more than sufficient proof to show the
world that (a) contemporary global climate change is happening; (b) it is
unprecedented in comparison to the natural climate change cycles of the past
600,000 years (time period based on ice core records of Antarctica); and (c)
it is , to a significant degree, a result of human activity Crate :
• From the standpoint of climate change, carbon dioxide released in Sydney,
Australia is in every regard interchangeable with carbon dioxide released in
Beijing, China or Edmonton, Canada. The atmosphere truly is a global
commons with respect to carbon dioxide
•
Greenhouse Effect
• Sun’s energy hist the atmosphere as solar radiation. Some bounced back into
space by the atmosphere, but most passes through the atmosphere to warm
the surface of the earth
• Once earth warmed by the short wave solar energy, excess heat is radiated
back into the environment as long-wave infrared radiation
• Some of the gases in earth’s atmosphere act like class in the car windows.
They let in solar energy and block or absorb infrared energy. As a result, the
atmosphere gets warmer.
o Heat is melting the glaciers
o Threat is global because both of the ice caps reflect heat back into
space and as they diminish, their reflection diminishes as well
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Climate Change
• Carbon dioxide acts as a sleeping bag by preventing heat to escape into space
and warming the planet
• Arctic summer ice may be gone in 50 years
• The Larsen B ice-shelf in the Antarctic has collapsed for the first time in ten
millennia
• Need for alternate fuels or capture technology
o We have the ability to sequester our emissions to prevent it from
going into the atmosphere
o Because there is ambiguity about climate change, many industries will
not change over to these technologies because they do not believe that
humans are the cause of climate change.
Carbon Dioxide
• Carbon dioxide is implicated in virtually all of the great climate shifts in
Earth’s history, including the coming and going of the )ce Ages; The eons of
warm ice-free states that the dinosaurs lived in some seventy million years
ago; the collapse of the earth into a globally frozen state in the Neoprotrozoic
era some six hundred million years ago
Ambiguities?
• Ambiguities combined with a fairly high degree of ignorance regarding the
worlds weather patterns and ocean currents, combine to support those who
oppose immediate action
o Climate change and Ozone depletion are not linear
▪ Many who deny climate change look at it over a decadal basis
to see that the trend is undeniable
o General Circulation Models are not fully understood of the deep ocean
currents
Extinction
• We are in a period of massive extinction that is potent because of the speed
of the extinction
• We are responsible to some degree for these extinctions
• Climate change is representative of 150,000 HUMAN deaths annually
Collapse of States
• Despite knowledge of terraced agriculture and other achievements, the Maya
experienced environmental degradation
o Lacked knowledge of soil morphology, of the need to fallow the land,
and the need to replace nutrients
o Lost their soil landscape which led to famines
• Maladaption can lead to the collapse of societies
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Greenhouse effect the last 50 years is attributable to human activities: recognized the dangers of ddt and was appalled at the. Reading: climate change: a catastrophe in slow motion (r. t. pierrehumbert) powerlessness of the environment: soil not oil, vandana shiva, 2008. 600,000 years (time period based on ice core records of antarctica); and (c) space by the atmosphere, but most passes through the atmosphere to warm the surface of the earth. Australia is in every regard interchangeable with carbon dioxide released in. They let in solar energy and block or absorb infrared energy. Carbon dioxide: carbon dioxide is implicated in virtually all of the great climate shifts in. Extinction: we are in a period of massive extinction that is potent because of the speed of the extinction, we are responsible to some degree for these extinctions, climate change is representative of 150,000 human deaths annually.
