2992 JU 1 the Anthropocene, Climate Change, and the End
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Climate Change and Human Health: Risks and Responses
Climate change and human health RISKS AND RESPONSES Editors A.J. McMichael The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia D.H. Campbell-Lendrum London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom C.F. Corvalán World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland K.L. Ebi World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, European Centre for Environment and Health, Rome, Italy A.K. Githeko Kenya Medical Research Institute, Kisumu, Kenya J.D. Scheraga US Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, USA A. Woodward University of Otago, Wellington, New Zealand WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION GENEVA 2003 WHO Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Climate change and human health : risks and responses / editors : A. J. McMichael . [et al.] 1.Climate 2.Greenhouse effect 3.Natural disasters 4.Disease transmission 5.Ultraviolet rays—adverse effects 6.Risk assessment I.McMichael, Anthony J. ISBN 92 4 156248 X (NLM classification: WA 30) ©World Health Organization 2003 All rights reserved. Publications of the World Health Organization can be obtained from Marketing and Dis- semination, World Health Organization, 20 Avenue Appia, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland (tel: +41 22 791 2476; fax: +41 22 791 4857; email: [email protected]). Requests for permission to reproduce or translate WHO publications—whether for sale or for noncommercial distribution—should be addressed to Publications, at the above address (fax: +41 22 791 4806; email: [email protected]). The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the World Health Organization concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. -
Anthropocene
Anthropocene The Anthropocene is a proposed geologic epoch that redescribes humanity as a significant or even dominant geophysical force. The concept has had an uneven global history from the 1960s (apparently, it was used by Russian scientists from then onwards). The current definition of the Anthropocene refers to the one proposed by Eugene F. Stoermer in the 1980s and then popularised by Paul Crutzen. At present, stratigraphers are evaluating the proposal, which was submitted to their society in 2008. There is currently no definite proposed start date – suggestions include the beginnings of human agriculture, the conquest of the Americas, the industrial revolution and the nuclear bomb explosions and tests. Debate around the Anthropocene continues to be globally uneven, with discourse primarily taking place in developed countries. Achille Mbembe, for instance, has noted that ‘[t]his kind of rethinking, to be sure, has been under way for some time now. The problem is that we seem to have entirely avoided it in Africa in spite of the existence of a rich archive in this regard’ (2015). Especially in the anglophone sphere, the image of humanity as a geophysical force has made a drastic impact on popular culture, giving rise to a flood of Anthropocene and geology themed art and design exhibitions, music videos, radio shows and written publications. At the same time, the Anthropocene has been identified as a geophysical marker of global inequality due to its connections with imperialism, colonialism and capitalism. The biggest geophysical impact –in terms of greenhouse emissions, biodiversity loss, water use, waste production, toxin/radiation production and land clearance etc – is currently made by the so-called developed world. -
Interactions Between Changing Climate and Biodiversity: Shaping Humanity's Future
COMMENTARY Interactions between changing climate and biodiversity: Shaping humanity’s future COMMENTARY F. Stuart Chapin IIIa,1 and Sandra Dı´azb,c Scientists have known for more than a century about Harrison et al. (9) note that the climate−diversity potential human impacts on climate (1). In the last 30 y, relationship they document is consistent with a cli- estimates of these impacts have been confirmed and matic tolerance model in which the least drought- refined through increasingly precise climate assess- tolerant species are the first to be lost as climate ments (2). Other global-scale human impacts, including dries. According to this model, drought acts as a filter land use change, overharvesting, air and water pollu- that removes more-mesic–adapted species. Since the tion, and increased disease risk from antibiotic resis- end of the Eocene, about 37 million years ago, Cal- tance, have risen to critical levels, seriously jeopardizing ifornia’s ancient warm-temperate lineages, such as the prospects that future generations can thrive (3–5). redwoods, have retreated into more-mesic habitats, as Earth has entered a stage characterized by human more-drought–adapted lineages like oaks and madrone domination of critical Earth system processes (6–8). spread through California. Perhaps this history of Although the basic trajectories of these changes are declining mesic lineages will repeat itself, if Cal- well known, many of the likely consequences are ifornia’s climate continues to dry over the long term. shrouded in uncertainty because of poorly understood The Harrison study (9) documents several dimen- interactions among these drivers of change and there- sions of diversity that decline with drought. -
The Parallels Between the End-Permian Mass Extinction And
Drawing Connections: The Parallels Between the End-Permian Mass Extinction and Current Climate Change An undergraduate of East Tennessee State University explains that humans’ current effects on the biosphere are disturbingly similar to the circumstances that caused the worst mass extinction in biologic history. By: Amber Rookstool 6 December 2016 About the Author: Amber Rookstool is an undergraduate student at East Tennessee State University. She is currently an English major and dreams of becoming an author and high school English Teacher. She hopes to publish her first book by the time she is 26 years old. Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................1 Brief Geologic Timeline ...........................................................................................................2 The Anthropocene ......................................................................................................................3 Biodiversity Crisis ....................................................................................................................3 Habitat Loss .........................................................................................................................3 Invasive Species ..................................................................................................................4 Overexploitation ...................................................................................................................4 -
Causes of Sea Level Rise
FACT SHEET Causes of Sea OUR COASTAL COMMUNITIES AT RISK Level Rise What the Science Tells Us HIGHLIGHTS From the rocky shoreline of Maine to the busy trading port of New Orleans, from Roughly a third of the nation’s population historic Golden Gate Park in San Francisco to the golden sands of Miami Beach, lives in coastal counties. Several million our coasts are an integral part of American life. Where the sea meets land sit some of our most densely populated cities, most popular tourist destinations, bountiful of those live at elevations that could be fisheries, unique natural landscapes, strategic military bases, financial centers, and flooded by rising seas this century, scientific beaches and boardwalks where memories are created. Yet many of these iconic projections show. These cities and towns— places face a growing risk from sea level rise. home to tourist destinations, fisheries, Global sea level is rising—and at an accelerating rate—largely in response to natural landscapes, military bases, financial global warming. The global average rise has been about eight inches since the centers, and beaches and boardwalks— Industrial Revolution. However, many U.S. cities have seen much higher increases in sea level (NOAA 2012a; NOAA 2012b). Portions of the East and Gulf coasts face a growing risk from sea level rise. have faced some of the world’s fastest rates of sea level rise (NOAA 2012b). These trends have contributed to loss of life, billions of dollars in damage to coastal The choices we make today are critical property and infrastructure, massive taxpayer funding for recovery and rebuild- to protecting coastal communities. -
The Trajectory of the Anthropocene: the Great Acceleration
ANR0010.1177/2053019614564785The Anthropocene ReviewSteffen et al. 564785research-article2015 Review The Anthropocene Review 1 –18 The trajectory of the © The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: Anthropocene: The Great sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/2053019614564785 Acceleration anr.sagepub.com Will Steffen,1,2 Wendy Broadgate,3 Lisa Deutsch,1 Owen Gaffney3 and Cornelia Ludwig1 Abstract The ‘Great Acceleration’ graphs, originally published in 2004 to show socio-economic and Earth System trends from 1750 to 2000, have now been updated to 2010. In the graphs of socio-economic trends, where the data permit, the activity of the wealthy (OECD) countries, those countries with emerging economies, and the rest of the world have now been differentiated. The dominant feature of the socio-economic trends is that the economic activity of the human enterprise continues to grow at a rapid rate. However, the differentiated graphs clearly show that strong equity issues are masked by considering global aggregates only. Most of the population growth since 1950 has been in the non-OECD world but the world’s economy (GDP), and hence consumption, is still strongly dominated by the OECD world. The Earth System indicators, in general, continued their long-term, post-industrial rise, although a few, such as atmospheric methane concentration and stratospheric ozone loss, showed a slowing or apparent stabilisation over the past decade. The post-1950 acceleration in the Earth System indicators remains clear. Only beyond the mid-20th century is there clear evidence for fundamental shifts in the state and functioning of the Earth System that are beyond the range of variability of the Holocene and driven by human activities. -
Perspectives on Climate Change and Sustainability
20 Perspectives on climate change and sustainability Coordinating Lead Authors: Gary W. Yohe (USA), Rodel D. Lasco (Philippines) Lead Authors: Qazi K. Ahmad (Bangladesh), Nigel Arnell (UK), Stewart J. Cohen (Canada), Chris Hope (UK), Anthony C. Janetos (USA), Rosa T. Perez (Philippines) Contributing Authors: Antoinette Brenkert (USA), Virginia Burkett (USA), Kristie L. Ebi (USA), Elizabeth L. Malone (USA), Bettina Menne (WHO Regional Office for Europe/Germany), Anthony Nyong (Nigeria), Ferenc L. Toth (Hungary), Gianna M. Palmer (USA) Review Editors: Robert Kates (USA), Mohamed Salih (Sudan), John Stone (Canada) This chapter should be cited as: Yohe, G.W., R.D. Lasco, Q.K. Ahmad, N.W. Arnell, S.J. Cohen, C. Hope, A.C. Janetos and R.T. Perez, 2007: Perspectives on climate change and sustainability. Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, M.L. Parry, O.F. Canziani, J.P. Palutikof, P.J. van der Linden and C.E. Hanson, Eds., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 811-841. Perspectives on climate change and sustainable development Chapter 20 Table of Contents .....................................................813 Executive summary 20.7 Implications for regional, sub-regional, local and sectoral development; access ...................814 .............826 20.1 Introduction: setting the context to resources and technology; equity 20.7.1 Millennium Development Goals – 20.2 A synthesis of new knowledge relating -
Earth: a Single, Complex and Rapidly Changing System
INTERVIEW with keynote speaker Dr. Will Steffen, The Australian National University and the Stockholm Resilience Centre, AUSTRALIA Keynote Plenary Session 1 Thursday, 21 September, 10:30 – 12:00 Rolf Böhme Saal (Konzerthaus Freiburg) The Earth System, the Anthropocene and the World’s Forests Earth: a single, complex and rapidly changing system By Bob Burt IUFRO Science Writer “It’s important to put the changes that are occurring to the world’s forests in a much larger, long-term perspective,” said Dr. Will Steffen. “Land systems in general, but forests in particular, play an important role in the functioning of the Earth System.” Dr. Steffen, a leading proponent of the Anthropocene – a proposed epoch dating from the beginnings of significant human impact on earth’s geology and ecosystems – will be a keynote speaker at the IUFRO 125th Anniversary Congress in Freiburg. Dr. Steffen, along with Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen and other scientists, contends that the Holocene, the 10,000-year geological epoch since the last ice age, in which the earth’s environment has been unusually stable, is being, or has already been, supplanted by an epoch in which human intervention has become a – and perhaps “the” – major driver of environmental change. Since the mid-20th century, carbon dioxide emissions, sea level rise, the mass extinction of species around the world and the transformation of land by deforestation and development have effectively ended the Holocene and ushered in the Anthropocene, they say. “The Earth System is now in a rapidly-changing, highly transient phase in which the end point is not known, and cannot be predicted. -
The Water Planetary Boundary: Interrogation and Revision
1 The water planetary boundary: interrogation and revision 2 This is a non-peer reviewed preprint submitted to EarthArXiv which is in review at “One Earth” 3 Tom Gleeson 1,2, Lan Wang Erlandsson 3, 4, 8, Samuel C. Zipper 1, Miina Porkka 3, 8, Fernando Jaramillo 2, 5, 4 Dieter Gerten 6,7, Ingo Fetzer 3,8, Sarah E. Cornell 3, Luigi Piemontese 3, Line Gordon 3, Johan 5 Rockström 2, 6, Taikan Oki 9, Murugesu Sivapalan 10, Yoshihide Wada 11, Kate A Brauman 12, Martina 6 Flörke 13, Marc F.P. Bierkens 14,15, Bernhard Lehner 16, Patrick Keys17, Matti Kummu 18, Thorsten 7 Wagener 19, Simon Dadson 20, Tara J. Troy1, Will Steffen 3, 21, Malin Falkenmark 3, James S. Famiglietti 22 8 1 Department of Civil Engineering, University of Victoria, Canada 9 2 School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria 10 3 Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden 11 4 Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Kyoto, Japan 12 5 Department of Physical Geography, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden 13 6 Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, 14 Germany 15 7 Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Geography Dept., Berlin, Germany 16 8 Bolin Centre of Climate Research, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden 17 9 Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science, University of Tokyo, Japan 18 10 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 19 Urbana IL 61801, USA. Department of Geography and Geographical Science, University -
Climate Change: Evidence & Causes 2020
Climate Change Evidence & Causes Update 2020 An overview from the Royal Society and the US National Academy of Sciences n summary Foreword CLIMATE CHANGE IS ONE OF THE DEFINING ISSUES OF OUR TIME. It is now more certain than ever, based on many lines of evidence, that humans are changing Earth’s climate. The atmosphere and oceans have warmed, which has been accompanied by sea level rise, a strong decline in Arctic sea ice, and other climate-related changes. The impacts of climate change on people and nature are increasingly apparent. Unprecedented flooding, heat waves, and wildfires have cost billions in damages. Habitats are undergoing rapid shifts in response to changing temperatures and precipitation patterns. The Royal Society and the US National Academy of Sciences, with their similar missions to promote the use of science to benefit society and to inform critical policy debates, produced the original Climate Change: Evidence and Causes in 2014. It was written and reviewed by a UK-US team of leading climate scientists. This new edition, prepared by the same author team, has been updated with the most recent climate data and scientific analyses, all of which reinforce our understanding of human-caused climate change. The evidence is clear. However, due to the nature of science, not every detail is ever totally settled or certain. Nor has every pertinent question yet been answered. Scientific evidence continues to be gathered around the world. Some things have become clearer and new insights have emerged. For example, the period of slower warming during the 2000s and early 2010s has ended with a dramatic jump to warmer temperatures between 2014 and 2015. -
US Global Change Research Program
U.S. Global Change Research Program The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) coordinates and integrates federal research on changes in the global environment and their implications for society. Since its inception in 1990, the USGCRP has supported research and observation activities in collaboration with other national and international science programs. These activities have led to major advances in key areas of climate science, which are documented in numerous assessments commissioned by the program. The most recent national assessment, Global Climate Change Impacts in the U.S. (2009), provides a sectoral and regional perspective of anticipated climate change impacts. The USGCRP annual report to Congress, Our Changing Planet, further describes program accomplishments and plans. Historical Focus During the past two decades, the USGCRP has made significant investment and progress towards improving understanding of the Congressional Mandate Earth’s past and present climate; quantifying Global Change Research Act of 1990 the changes in the Earth’s climate systems; (P.L. 101-606) called for “a comprehensive improving projections of future changes; and and integrated United States research understanding climate change impacts and program that will assist the Nation and the vulnerabilities of natural and human systems. world to understand, assess, predict, and respond to human-induced and natural A New Era for Global Change Research processes of global change.” The USGCRP continues to support a variety of research activities to gain more Vision detailed, predictive understanding of A nation, globally engaged and guided by climate change. However, to build on science, meeting the challenges of climate these traditional strengths and to better and global change respond to already-identified impacts and the changing needs of society, the Mission program is currently undergoing a strategic and organizational realignment. -
Anthropocene
ANTHROPOCENE Perrin Selcer – University of Michigan Suggested Citation: Selcer, Perrin, “Anthropocene,” Encyclopedia of the History of Science (March 2021) doi: 10.34758/be6m-gs41 From the perspective of the history of science, the origin of the Anthropocene appears to be established with unusual precision. In 2000, Nobel laureate geochemist Paul Crutzen proposed that the planet had entered the Anthropocene, a new geologic epoch in which humans had become the primary driver of global environmental change. This definition should be easy to grasp for a generation that came of age during a period when anthropogenic global warming dominated environmental politics. The Anthropocene extends the primacy of anthropogenic change from the climate system to nearly every other planetary process: the cycling of life-sustaining nutrients; the adaptation, distribution, and extinction of species; the chemistry of the oceans; the erosion of mountains; the flow of freshwater; and so on. The human footprint covers the whole Earth. Like a giant balancing on the globe, each step accelerates the rate of change, pushing the planet out of the stable conditions of the Holocene Epoch that characterized the 11,700 years since the last glacial period and into a turbulent unknown with “no analog” in the planet’s 4.5 billion-year history. It is an open question how much longer humanity can keep up. For its advocates, the Anthropocene signifies more than a catastrophic regime shift in planetary history. It also represents a paradigm shift in how we know global change from environmental science to Earth System science. Explaining the rise the Anthropocene, therefore, requires grappling with claims of both ontological and epistemological rupture; that is, we must explore the entangled histories of the Earth and its observers.