| Posted March 19, 2007.
Climate Change | Energy | Environment
Climate Change: Science and Policy Implications
leggett, Jane A.
Congressional Research Service Report, January 25, 2007, online edition, 51p
This report discusses the "continuing scientific process
that has resulted in a better understanding of climate change
and confirms the broad conclusions made in previous decades by
the preponderance of scientists: that human activities emit greenhouse
gases that influence the climate, with potentially serious effects.
Details have been revised or refined, but the basic conclusion
of the risks persists. The principal questions remaining for the
majority of scientists concern not whether greenhouse gases will
result in climate change, but the magnitude, speed, geographic
details, and likelihood of surprises, and the appropriate timing
and options involved in addressing the human components of climate
change." Jane A. Leggett is a Specialist in Energy and
Environmental Policy Resources, Science, and Industry Division.
Fulltext D1/02-07
Confronting Climate Change: Avoiding the Unmanageable and Managing the Unavoidable
United Nations Foundation, February 2007, online edition
The United Nations Foundation (UN Foundation) and Sigma Xi, the
Scientific Research Society, released today “Confronting Climate
Change: Avoiding the Unmanageable and Managing the Unavoidable,
” the final report of the Scientific Expert Group on Climate Change
and Sustainable Development. The report, prepared as input for
the upcoming meeting of the UN’s Commission on Sustainable Development
(CSD), outlines a roadmap for preventing unmanageable climate
changes and adapting to the degree of change that can no longer
be avoided. Two years in the making, the report was written by
a panel of eminent scientists from around the world. The panel
was co-chaired by Dr. Peter Raven, Director of the Missouri Botanical
Garden, and Dr. Rosina Bierbaum, Dean of the University of Michigan’s
School of Natural Resources and the Environment. Fulltext
D2/02-07
How Malleable are the Greenhouse Gas Emission Intensities of the G7 Nations?
Bataille, Chris; Rivers, Nic; Mau, Paulus; Joseph, Chris; Tu, Jian-Jun
Energy Journal, March 2007, v28, #1, pp145-169
"Why do countries’ greenhouse gas (GHG) intensities differ? How much of a country’s GHG intensity is set by inflexible national circumstances, and how much may be altered by policy? These questions are common in climate change policy discourse and may influence emission reduction allocations. Despite the policy relevance of the discussion, little quantitative analysis has been done. In this paper we address these questions in the context of the G7 by applying a pair of simple quantitative methodologies: decomposition analysis and allocation of fossil fuel production emissions to end-users instead of producers. According to our analysis and available data, climate and geographic size – both inflexible national characteristics – can have a significant effect on a country’s GHG intensity. A country’s methods for producing electricity and net trade in fossil fuels are also significant, while industrial structure has little effect at the available level of data disaggregation." Fulltext D3/02-07
Ending Oil Dependency
Sandalow, David
The Brooking Institution, January 22, 2007, online edition
Concerns about the United States dependence on oil are nothing
new, and various policy solutions have been around for decades.
A number of scholars and experts have been attempting to address
the subject, and one recent paper from The Brookings Institution
offers a number of thoughtful ideas on this important concern.
Released in January 2007, this 25-page paper written by David
B. Sandalow offers a number of ambitious proposals aimed at reducing
oil dependency in the US. Some of his proposals will sound familiar,
as he includes references to the inherent possibilities in widespread
adoption of biofuels, the adoption of smart growth policies, and
the potential benefits of plug-in hybrid engines. Sandalow also
offers some more specific details on how the auto fleet might
be transformed over time, and also how the fuel supply might be
transformed as well. David Sandalow is Energy and Environment
Scholar at The Brookings Institution. He is writing a book on
oil dependence. Fulltext D4/02-07
The Energy Project: Independence by 2020
Bisk, Tsvi
The Futurist, Jan/Feb 2007 v41, #1, pp25-32
"In the opinion of many foreign-policy experts, the greatest threats to world
security and peace are Iran's nuclear program, international Jihadist terror,
and radicalization among the Muslim populations in Europe and North America.
What is the common thread among these various threats? All are financed by
Persian Gulf petrodollars...For the sake of our shared environment and international stability, the time has
come for the West to formulate a coherent energy policy dedicated to downgrading
oil as the dominant international commodity." Tsvi Bisk is an independent Israeli futurist, social researcher, and strategy
planning consultant. Fulltext D5/02-07
Improving Energy Policy
Detchon, Reid; Edmonds, Jae; Clarke, Leon
Issues in Science & Technology , Winter 2007, v23, #2, pp15-17
"This article explores principles for wise energy technology policy and accurately describes the hurdles that technologies must cross in moving from laboratories to production lines. Research must be guided with public policy to move innovative technologies to commercialization. Unfortunately, the level of R&D in the private and public sector has declined." Reid Detchon, Executive Director, Energy Future Coalition, Washington, DC; Jae
Edmonds, Laboratory Fellow and Chief Scientist and Leon Clarke, Senior Research
Economist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Joint Global Change Research
Institute at the University of Maryland College Park College Park, Maryland. Fulltext D6/02-07
New Nuclear Power Plants Are Not a Solution for America's Energy Needs
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), February 2006, Online edition, 4p
"New nuclear power plants are unlikely to provide a significant fraction of future U.S. needs for low-carbon energy. NRDC favors more practical, economical and environmentally sustainable approaches to reducing both U.S. and global carbon emissions, focusing on the widest possible implementation of end-use energy-efficiency improvements, and on policies to accelerate commercialization of clean, flexible, renewable energy technologies." Fulltext D7/02-07
Officials Mark start of U.S. Effort for International
Polar Year
Cheryl Pellerin
USINFO Staff Writer. 26 February 2007, online edition
Over 200 scientific expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic regions
of the globe will be launched in March as part of the International
Polar Year. The National Academy of Sciences reports that more
than 60 countries will take part in them, collaborating on an
extensive range of fact-finding activities. The results may provide
answers to significant questions concerning climate change and
the environment and will also provide a basis for future research.
From March 1, 2007, to March 9, 2009, scientists from around the
planet will conduct a range of physical, biological and social
sciences research studies in the Arctic and Antarctic that address
questions in these areas and include a large education component.
“The U.S. government has invested considerable effort and resources
in projects related to the polar regions – more than $350 million
per year – and we’re excited about the International Polar Year,”
said Paula Dobriansky, under secretary of state for democracy
and global affairs, during the February 26 opening ceremony at
the National Academy of Sciences in Washington. The State Department
directs international relations in polar affairs, leads federal
policy involving the Arctic and Antarctic and heads U.S. delegations
to the Arctic Council, and other polar organizations and forums.
The Arctic Council is a high-level forum for cooperation among
Arctic states. “Our attention to the polar regions,” Dobriansky
added, “is a very important aspect of our U.S. foreign policy.”
Cheryl Pellerin is a USINFO Staff Writer. Fulltext
D8/02-07
U.S. South Pole Station
National Science Foundation, 2007, online edition
Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station sits at the Earth's
axis, atop a constantly shifting continental ice sheet several
miles thick. Perhaps the world's most remote research facility,
the station lies at the heart of a continent cut off from the
rest of the globe by a circulating Southern Ocean current. Antarctica
is the coldest, highest, driest and windiest of the continents
– and the least hospitable to human life. But paradoxically, those
same conditions combine to make the South Pole a unique scientific
laboratory for the study of questions as diverse as "What is the
origin of the Universe and how did it develop?" or "What is the
status of global climate change?" Fulltext
D9/02-07
Dry: Three Stories of Adaptation to Life without Water
Daniel Schaffer, Ehsan Masood, Yvonne Ndege, Pallava Bagla, Katie
Mantell. Environment, January-February 2007, v49, #1, pp8-18
"Up to a billion people live in the drylands of the developing
world. They are invariably among the world's poorest, and many
belong to some of the world's oldest cultures, struggling to come
to terms with modernity... Perceptions of the world's drylands
are undergoing dramatic change. Once thought to be barren and
lifeless, these environments are in fact teeming with life. Once
perceived as places inhabited by resilient but unschooled people,
they are rich in indigenous knowledge from which we can all learn."
This article takes a closer look at three communities and reveals
that, contrary to the technology-driven policies of the past,
which sought to transform the desert into a temperate, water-full
environment that nature did not intend it to be, solutions for
improving the quality of life in drylands lie largely with the
people who live there. Daniel Schaffer is the public
information officer for TWAS-the Academy of Sciences for the Developing
World-and the Abdus Salani International Centre for Theoretical
Physics (ICTP) in Trieste. Italy. Ehsan Masood is a writer
based in London who focuses on science and technology in developing
countries. Yvonne Ndege, author of the essay. "Weiland Conservation
the Maasai Way," is a journalist with BBC television.Pallava Bagia
is the award-winning chief South Asia correspondent with Science
and is based in New Delhi. Katie Mantel is a writer and editor
based in London specializing in science and healthcare. Fulltext
D10/02-07
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