scholarly journals Antarctic climate change and the environment: an update

Polar Record ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Turner ◽  
Nicholas E. Barrand ◽  
Thomas J. Bracegirdle ◽  
Peter Convey ◽  
Dominic A. Hodgson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Assessment Report ◽  
The Past ◽  
Key Points ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Antarctic Research ◽  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Relevant Material

ABSTRACTWe present an update of the ‘key points’ from the Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment (ACCE) report that was published by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) in 2009. We summarise subsequent advances in knowledge concerning how the climates of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean have changed in the past, how they might change in the future, and examine the associated impacts on the marine and terrestrial biota. We also incorporate relevant material presented by SCAR to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings, and make use of emerging results that will form part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report.

scholarly journals Fifth IPCC Assessment Report Now Out

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Physical Science ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Climate System ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Response Options ◽  
Assessment Report ◽  
The Past ◽  
Working Groups ◽  
Synthesis Report

Abstract The Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is now available. It provides policymakers with an assessment of information on climate change, its impacts and possible response options (adaptation and mitigation). Summaries for policymakers of three reports of IPCC working groups and of the Synthesis Report have now been approved by IPCC plenaries. This present paper reports on the most essential findings in AR5. It briefly informs on the contents of reports of all IPCC working groups. It discusses the physical science findings, therein observed changes (ubiquitous warming, shrinking cryosphere, sea level rise, changes in precipitation and extremes, and biogeochemical cycles). It deals with the drivers of climate change, progress in climate system understanding (evaluation of climate models, quantification of climate system responses), and projections for the future. It reviews impacts, adaptation and vulnerability, including observed changes, key risks, key reasons for concern, sectors and systems, and managing risks and building resilience. Finally, mitigation of climate change is discussed, including greenhouse gas emissions in the past, present and future, and mitigation in sectors. It is hoped that the present article will encourage the readership of this journal to dive into the AR5 report that provides a wealth of useful information.

Italian engagement in Antarctica

Polar Record ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 27 (161) ◽  
pp. 121-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Manzoni ◽  
M. Zucchelli
Keyword(s):  
Technical Research ◽  
Transport Aircraft ◽  
Antarctic Research ◽  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
Scientific Station ◽  
Logistic Support ◽  
The Antarctic

AbstractFollowing Italy's accession to the Antarctic Treaty in 1981, the Italian Parliament made provision for a six-year programme of Antarctic research, to be administered by the Ministry for University and Scientific and Technical Research. The programme, Progetto Antartide, centres on a permanent scientific station at Gerlache Inlet, installed in 1986–87 for a staff of up to 60. Chartered ships, helicopters, snow vehicles and heavy transport aircraft provide logistic support for a substantial scientific and field programme, ranging widely from the base, the scope and extent of which is likely to increase.

Introduction

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Orr
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Political Leader ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Assessment Report ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Media ◽  
Political Trauma ◽  
E Mail

In our final hour (2003), cambridge university astronomer Martin Rees concluded that the odds of global civilization surviving to the year 2100 are no better than one in two. His assessment of threats to humankind ranging from climate change to a collision of Earth with an asteroid received good reviews in the science press, but not a peep from any political leader and scant notice from the media. Compare that nonresponse to a hypothetical story reporting, say, that the president had had an affair. The blow-dried electronic pundits, along with politicians of all kinds, would have spared no effort to expose and analyze the situation down to parts per million. But Rees’s was only one of many credible and well-documented warnings from scientists going back decades, including the Fourth Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007). All were greeted with varying levels of denial, indifference, and misinterpretation, or were simply ignored altogether. It is said to be a crime to cause panic in a crowded theater by yelling “fire” without cause, but is it less criminal not to warn people when the theater is indeed burning? My starting point is the oddly tepid response by U.S. leaders at virtually all levels to global warming, more accurately described as “global destabilization.” I will be as optimistic as a careful reading of the evidence permits and assume that leaders will rouse themselves to act in time to stabilize and then reduce concentrations of greenhouse gases below the level at which we lose control of the climate altogether by the effects of what scientists call “positive carbon cycle feedbacks.” Even so, with a warming approaching or above 2°C we will not escape severe social, economic, and political trauma. In an e-mail to the author on November 19, 2007, ecologist and founder of the Woods Hole Research Center George Woodwell puts it this way: . . . There is an unfortunate fiction abroad that if we can hold the temperature rise to 2 or 3 degrees C we can accommodate the changes. The proposition is the worst of wishful thinking.

scholarly journals Education and outreach by the Antarctic Treaty Parties, Observers and Experts under the framework of the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings

Polar Record ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 241-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
José C. Xavier ◽  
Dragomir Mateev ◽  
Linda Capper ◽  
Annick Wilmotte ◽  
David W. H. Walton
Keyword(s):  
International Union ◽  
International Polar Year ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Educational Value ◽  
International Polar ◽  
Antarctic Research ◽  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
Education And Outreach ◽  
The Antarctic

AbstractThe development of formal discourse about education and outreach within the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings (ATCM), and the influence of major international activities in this field, are described. This study reflects on the ATCM Parties’ approach to implementing the ambition of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty Article 6.1.a, to promote the educational value of Antarctica and its environment, and examines the role of workshops and expert groups within the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programmes. These early initiatives, which emerged in the 1990s, were a prelude to the development and implementation of a large number of International Polar Year (IPY) education and outreach programmes. The establishment of an Antarctic Treaty System Intersessional Contact Group, and an online forum on education and outreach during the 2015 ATCM in Bulgaria, is a legacy of IPY and is the next step in fostering collaboration to engage people around the world in the importance and relevance of Antarctica to our daily lives.

Climate Change and People Change: Dancing the Dialectic

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-81
Author(s):  
Paul O'Keefe
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Greenhouse Gases ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Livelihood Strategies ◽  
Extreme Conditions ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Assessment Report ◽  
Dialectical Approach ◽  
The Subject

The fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2014) says that accelerated climate change is occurring because of enhanced release of greenhouse gases. It is projected that temperatures will increase in East Africa but there is no agreement on how precipitation will change. There is acceptance that the climate system will throw up more frequent extreme conditions, including drought. We can begin to understand how this will materialize in people's livelihood strategies and adaptive choices. This paper identifies theoretical problems in the dominant discourses surrounding human-environment relations and climate change, and argues for a dialectical approach to the subject. It concludes with a brief vignette focused on a dialectical study of climate change.

scholarly journals Determining the Most Sensitive Socioeconomic Parameters for Quantitative Risk Assessment

Climate ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. 107
Author(s):  
Marin Akter ◽  
Rubaiya Kabir ◽  
Dewan Sadia Karim ◽  
Anisul Haque ◽  
Munsur Rahman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Vulnerability Assessment ◽  
Quantitative Risk Assessment ◽  
Programming System ◽  
Socioeconomic Indicators ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Assessment Report ◽  
Non Linear Programming ◽  
Kolmogorov Smirnov

Risk assessment of climatic events and climate change is a globally challenging issue. For risk as well as vulnerability assessment, there can be a large number of socioeconomic indicators, from which it is difficult to identify the most sensitive ones. Many researchers have studied risk and vulnerability assessment through specific set of indicators. The set of selected indicators varies from expert to expert, which inherently results in a biased output. To avoid biased results in this study, the most sensitive indicators are selected through sensitivity analysis performed by applying a non-linear programming system, which is solved by Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions. Here, risk is assessed as a function of exposure, hazard, and vulnerability, which is defined in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), where, exposure and vulnerability are described via socioeconomic indicators. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistical test is applied to select the set of indicators that are the most sensitive for the system to assess risk. The method is applied to the Bangladesh coast to determine the most sensitive socioeconomic indicators in addition to assessing different climatic and climate change hazard risks. The methodology developed in this study can be a useful tool for risk-based planning.

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