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It's impacts and our options for stabilising climate change

Introduction

This unit considers the ways in which climate change affects us as individuals and where we live. It also considers what can be done to reduce or stabilise climate change. These key questions are explored:

  • How does climate change affect me and where I live?
  • What kinds of change might I be able to observe where I live?
  • What kinds of change will be experienced in other parts of the world?
  • What can be done to stabilise climate change?
  • What can be done to reduce/stabilise climate change?
  • What is the best way to reduce the risk of climate change?

Authored by Mo Telford

Learning outcomes

By the end of this unit you should be able to:

  • build a basic understanding of the kind of changes that can be observed by individuals;

  • understand ways in which the effects of climate change can affect us and where we live;

  • develop a basic understanding of the range of ways we can help reduce the effect of climate;

  • develop knowledge and understanding of how to reduce the risk of climate change;

  • gain a basic understanding of what sustainable consumption is.

1 The impacts of climate change

1.1 How we are affected by climate change

Climate change is something that is affecting us, regardless of where we live. Most people understand the general concept of what climate change is, but many do not know what the long-term consequences are.

Climate change affects ecological systems, and changes in ecological systems influence the processes of disease transmission. Rising temperature and other changes in temperature and precipitation, as well as extreme climate events such as floods or droughts, are capable of changing ecological systems. An increase of just a few degrees in average temperature can cause dramatic changes in conditions that are important to the quality of life – and ultimately the Earth's ability to support life.

We may not always see or feel the effect of climate change directly, but it affects us all. For one person it might mean paying more for food because flooding or drought has damaged crops in the area where they live. For another it might mean a higher risk of contracting a disease like malaria, which spreads more easily in warm, wet climates, such as can be found in many African and South American countries. Someone else might face losing their home or even life in a catastrophic weather disaster made worse by global warming.

In one way or another we are all vulnerable to the effects of weather-related disasters, but people in the poorer countries of the world face a far greater threat due to risk factors that include inadequate housing located on flood plains and steep hillsides, weak healthcare systems and heavy economic dependence on agriculture. In the last 20 years, it is not uncommon for single weather events, such as tropical cyclones, hurricanes and floods, to kill thousands of people in regions such as South Asia, southern China, and Central America. If the warming continues for years, extreme weather events and sea level rise will require a great many people to become climate refugees because their homes will be under water.

These Web-based resources provide more background information:

  • The UK Climate Impacts Programme has published information on the impacts of climate change on the UK. See the simple table starting at page 18.

  • How does climate change affect us?

  • The Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Guide, dated 2007, shows clearly how climate change will impact on poor and vulnerable countries.

  • Earth Under Fire: How Global Warming is Changing the World is a comprehensive look at the world wide effects of climate change, in dramatic photographs, maps and quotes from world climate science leaders.

1.2 The changes I might be able to observe where I live in the UK

Much of the effects of global warming can be observed where we live. Rain levels and patterns are changing. There are more severe weather warnings and flooding than ever before. In many parts of the world, there are more droughts reported, and this drives farmers from their land. Sea and ocean levels are slowly rising due to thermal expansion and melting Arctic ice sheets. Record high and low temperatures are recorded more and more frequently. All these changes increase the frequency and severity of other weather extremes, like floods, droughts, hurricanes, heat waves and tornadoes.

The UK government's Department of Energy and Climate Change has written:

We face unprecedented challenges to our environment, our economy and the future security of our energy supplies, and the decisions we make now will affect the planet and our way of life for generations to come.

Many people refuse to believe that the effects of global warming can become as severe as scientists and researchers are predicting. Yet these signs are only the beginning of the effects global warming can have on our environment. As greenhouse gases continue to enter the atmosphere, these effects are only going to increase, making it harder stop them and continuing to reduce our quality of life.

Evidence of climate change in England, for example, as noted by Tony Blair, then British Prime Minister, in 2006 are:

  • The 1990s was the warmest decade in the UK since records began in the 1660s.

  • Four of the five warmest years on record have been in the last 10 years.

  • England's record temperature, 101F (38.5°C), was in 2003.

  • Mean temperatures in central England have risen by about 1°C since 1900 (the climatic equivalent of moving from southern England to mid France today).

  • The growing season has lengthened by about a month in central England since 1900, with the onset of spring occurring around two to three weeks earlier than just 30 years ago.

  • Frost occurrence has declined significantly over southern England in recent decades. The annual number of days with air frost for the 'England South' region has decreased from an average of 51 in 1961-90 to 46 in 1971-2000.

Source: National Trust

The following Web-based resources provide more background information:

  • The National Trust has written an overview of the effects of climate change on the UK, including guidance on what we can do as individuals and collectively.

  • The oneclimate.net website can help you in finding out what is going on in your local area.

  • Lord Nicholas Stern's ‘Blueprint for a safer planet’ lecture at the London School of Economics, where he outlines the climate change crisis and how we can solve it.

  • The BBC News article ‘Climate crisis: all change in the UK?’ on how climate change is affecting the UK.

  • The article ‘How climate change is affecting marine life in the UK’ by Steve Connor, the UK Independent newspaper's Science Editor, showing the species affected.

  • The UK government's Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs provides information about climate change and energy in the UK.

  • The RSPB reports on the impacts of climate change on UK wildlife.

  • The MSN.environment website covers the threat of climate change to nature and wildlife in the UK.

1.3 The kinds of change that will be experienced in other parts of the world

Climate change affects ecological systems, and changes in ecological systems influence the processes of disease transmission. Changes in temperature and precipitation, as well as extreme climate events such as floods or droughts, are capable of changing ecological systems. Direct effects of climate change are increases in sea surface temperature and global sea level. As a result of rising sea levels, many coastal areas will experience increased flooding, accelerated erosion, intrusion of seawater into freshwater areas and the loss of wetlands. Other anticipated changes include those relating to wave conditions, ocean circulation patterns and decreases in sea-ice cover.

The impacts of climate change will vary from place to place around the world. We can expect more severe and frequent storms such as hurricanes, ice storms, heat waves, floods, droughts and wildfires. For example, wildfires are already frequent occurrences in places like Australia and the USA. There has also been more frequent flooding in the UK and many parts of Europe. Warmer temperatures will increase the range of disease-bearing mosquitoes in more tropical climates, while also increasing the range and numbers of insects and other agricultural pests, such as weeds. Melting glaciers and expanding sea water (water expands as it warms) will further raise sea level, inundating low-lying islands and flooding coastal areas, while warmer ocean temperatures will kill many of the world's coral reefs. Such events will no doubt affect our food supply, our access to clean water, our health, and the economic and social conditions of families and communities around the world.

As ecosystems become further stressed by climate change, species extinction will accelerate. Many of the species lost will be seemingly insignificant plants and insects, but we will also lose plants that we rely on for food and which could cure diseases, and large animals such as polar bears, which rely on winter ice as a platform to hunt for food. Warmer winters could mean reduced snow pack for some regions, such as Antarctica, Greenland, northern Europe and North America. The regional or national economic impacts of such changes could be significant.

Many such changes are already being seen around the world. For example, the number of weather-related disasters experienced worldwide every year has been increasing over the past few decades. During the course of the twenty-first century, average global surface temperatures are projected to increase at a rate unprecedented over at least the past 10 000 years, and scientists believe that rising temperatures could further increase the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events.

These Web-based resources provide more background information:

  • The Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Guide dated 2007, shows clearly how climate change will impact on poor and vulnerable countries.

  • Drought is one of the effects of global warming: Victoria in Australia is gripped by a drought that threatens to force farmers off the land.

  • The Exploring Earth website poses the question ‘How might global climate change affect life on earth?’ and discusses the impacts on:

    • coastal areas

    • health

    • forests

    • agriculture

    • species and natural areas

    • water resources, using the example of the Colorado River.

  • TVE's Earth Report has an article entitled ‘Adopt, adapt and survive’ that reports from the people most vulnerable to climate change, which are those in the developing world.

  • The Guardian article ‘The world's melting glaciers’ (16 pictures).

  • Reports by Oxfam on the various ways in which climate change is affecting the world, including the global economy.

  • From National Geographic, a hurricane-damaged home in Gulf Breeze, Florida.

  • The World View of Global Warming project's photographic documentation of climate change.

  • ‘In pictures: How the world is changing’, from the BBC News Channel.

2 Ways to reduce and/or stabilise climate change

2.1 A range of options

There are a range of things that we can do to reduce the effect of climate change, both as individuals and collectively. There is an important role for governments to play. A range of policy options exists to governments to cut emissions; strong, deliberate policy action is required to motivate their take-up.

Emissions can be cut through increased energy efficiency, changes in demand and through adoption of clean power, heat and transport technologies. Cuts in non-energy emissions, such as those resulting from deforestation and from agricultural and industrial processes, are also essential. With strong, deliberate policy choices, it is possible to reduce emissions in both developed and developing economies on the scale necessary for stabilisation in the required range while continuing to grow.

According to the ‘Stern review on the economics of climate change’, commissioned by Gordon Brown (UK) in 2005, there are three elements of policy required for an effective global response. They are:

  1. the pricing of carbon, implemented through tax, trading or regulation

  2. developing policy to support innovation and the deployment of low-carbon technologies

  3. action to remove barriers to energy efficiency, and to inform, educate and persuade individuals about what they can do to respond to climate change.

Action on climate change will also create significant business opportunities, as new markets are created in low-carbon energy technologies and other low-carbon goods and services. These markets could grow to be worth hundreds of billions of dollars each year, and employment in these sectors will expand accordingly. The evidence gathered by the Stern review concludes that the benefits of strong, early action considerably outweigh the costs and that ignoring climate change will eventually damage economic growth.

2.2 Reducing carbon dioxide emissions

To stabilise climate change, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions would have to be reduced by around 70% globally. This is a considerable amount.

One of the main problems with CO2 is the length of time it remains in the atmosphere, as broadly speaking it can take around 100 years or more for it to be removed, even after some of it is absorbed by vegetation. Consequently, even if we stopped CO2 emissions immediately, the effects of human activity would still influence our weather for years to come. However, CO2 emissions are not going to stop; therefore, some change in our behaviour, consumption and approach will help reduce the effect of climate change. The level of change depends on the amount of greenhouse gases we continue to emit, which in turn is related to population growth, the use of new technologies, consumption and how much energy we use.

By reducing the amount of greenhouse gases even marginally, the rate of change should be less and, therefore, there will be less impact on our planet and our lives.

To achieve the CO2 emission reductions necessary to forestall a continuing cycle of global warming, a broad range of policy instruments will need to be deployed; and action by all countries will be required.

  • ‘Climate change, risk and global emissions trading’ is a paper by Aubrey Meyer and Tony Cooper in which they argue that current international policy options are inadequate and that the answer to stabilising climate change lies in a truly global and equitable solution.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) argues for technological innovation to bring down the costs of climate change mitigation over time. It argues that a concerted research and development effort can be expected to yield important benefits, but not by itself. The OECD also provides an analysis of carbon leakage; that is, the concern that greenhouse-gas-intensive industries located in countries that take action will lose competitiveness vis-à-vis competitors in countries that do not. The OECD assessment is that such effects, while they are of concern, diminish quite rapidly as the set of countries participating in climate change mitigation efforts grow.

2.3 Reducing consumption

There is widespread and growing awareness of the non-sustainable patterns of consumption and the need to find ways of tackling the thorny issues of environmental impacts, economic and population growth, and technological change.

The lack of commitment on the part of governments to address such problems is attributed partly to their fear of losing power by upsetting voters with unpopular measures. There are only so many policy levers and so many combinations of fiscal and regulatory levers that governments can pull.

There are already well-established regulatory approaches to reducing energy consumption introduced by governments. These include energy taxes, building regulations and rationing in emergencies. In many countries, including the UK, raising energy prices and curbing consumption are politically unpopular measures. Governments can encourage behavioural changes, including sustainable consumption, through a range of incentives, including tax breaks for energy-saving products and services. Governments can also invest in renewable energy, build low-energy social housing and introduce appropriate legislation to combat unnecessary waste and CO2 emissions.

  • BBC News article ‘Taxing time to stabilise climate’ – Matt Prescott sets out his case as to why a carbon tax will make it cheaper to protect the environment.

  • The Solar Solutions website article ‘Global warming’:

    • The basics

    • What can we do?

  • BedZED and eco-village development – the Beddington Zero Energy Development (BedZED) is a well known eco-village and one of the most coherent examples of sustainable living in the UK.

2.4 Sustainable development and sustainable consumption

Sustainable development is about the way products and services are produced and used by consumers. This development is usually supported by technologies. Sustainable consumption is more about social issues of consumption and lifestyle and less about technologies such as eco-efficiency and clean production.

Sustainable consumption is not about consuming less, it is about consuming differently, consuming efficiently, and having an improved quality of life. It also means sharing between the richer and the poorer.

Source: United Nations Environment Programme

UNESCO explains that sustainable consumption is about considering issues that go beyond the individual when we shop. These include not only the ecological impacts of what we buy, but also the equity, human rights and political dimensions of sustainability in the production and consumption process. These aspects of sustainable consumption provide guidelines on how to reduce the social and ecological impacts of what we consume.

These web-based resources provide more background information:

  • ‘I will if you will: towards sustainable consumption’. This report outlines how a significant shift towards more sustainable lifestyles is possible and positive all round. It is the concluding work of the Sustainable Consumption Roundtable, jointly hosted by the National Consumer Council and the Sustainable Development Commission for 18 months from September 2004 to March 2006 and is funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department of Trade and Industry in the UK.

  • UNESCO – ‘Activity 6: What is sustainable consumption?’

  • United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) – sustainable consumption website. This website provides information on key activities that UNEP is involved in. These include promoting cleaner production, waste management and environmental management tools. Information is also provided on specific UNEP programmes and activities related to sustainable consumption. Policies for sustainable consumption by the UK government's Sustainable Development Commission, 2003.

  • The New Economics Foundation's report, ‘The great transition’, argues that a new kind of economy needs to be created if we are to tackle climate change and avoid the mounting social problems associated with the rise of economic inequality. The report provides the first comprehensive blueprint for building an economy based on stability, sustainability and equality.

  • ‘Is overconsumption or overpopulation the problem?’

Activity 1

  • Name three criticisms made against the UK government's approach to sustainability and combating the damaging effects of climate change.

  • Consider why people feel threatened and defensive if they are asked to change their consumption patterns or lifestyle.

  • Why is the role that consumption plays in causing environmental change such a contentious issue in the UK and elsewhere?

Acknowledgements

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Text

Authored by Mo Telford

Unit image

Getty photodisc

Links

All links accessed 30 November 2009.